What I learned from creating a Syllabus and peer review

In the second assignment, we tried to design a syllabus for a course that we would like to teach. My plan was that building a syllabus for an introductory course of horticulture, HORT 101. With the help of materials and instructions offered in AEE 530, the basic outlines of the assignment were listed. After the detailed information added on, it looked like an organized course plan with all the information that students need to know.

The first draft of the assignment was reviewed by class and it turned out that something important missing in it. The syllabus was created as an assignment instead of student-orientated course instruction.  The reviewers' suggestion helped me to understand that the syllabus should effectively deliver the information of a course as well as being interesting to students. The tone of a syllabus could influence the willingness of students learning. So I adjusted some directive sentences into a more suggestive mode and explained the benefits in detail.

Another advice for modifying the draft is to clarify the learning goals with positive and active verbs. In the first version, the course objectives were described by unclear and difficult assessing words, like "knowing". This would make students misunderstanding the acquirements and hard to make an assessment of how students perform. Therefore, the revised draft used more specific verbs in the word list to make the teaching objectives clear and solid.

Two of my reviewers complained about the structure of my syllabus that some related information was distributed into separated sections. So in the revised draft, I gathered similar information and listed in one block. The structure of the whole syllabus was modified to make sure every information easy to access for students.

Besides the suggestions from the viewers, I learned a lot from reviewing others' syllabus drafts is that using an appropriate strategy to lead students learning instead of driving them. In some of the syllabus I reviewed, I could get the message that "you will enjoy learning this course" between lines. This helps me to memorize that the syllabus is not only a course plan but also a method of communication between students and teachers.