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The UMUC Common Syllabus Tool Project Wins the 2007 UCEA Mid-Atlantic Region Award for Administrative Support

Janet Zimmer

Academic Director - IFSM

School of Undergraduate Studies

Published: November-December 2007

Category: » University-showcase » Awards

The UMUC Common Syllabus Tool project wins the 2007 UCEA Mid-Atlantic Region Award for Administrative Support.

As part of the next generation/versions of WebTycho, the syllabus tool is a technological solution designed to allow for the storage and use of the "common" worldwide syllabi developed by faculty teams. The tool is used for both face-to-face and online classes. As such, by summer 2008, every student taking classes at UMUC will be impacted by the tool because every faculty member will develop their syllabus for a given class/semester via the use of the tool.

The Syllabus Tool project would not have been possible had it not been for the dedicated members of the committee who worked countless hours defining, testing, implementing and supporting the Syllabus Tool initiative.

The committee consist of staff from several different UMUC departments.  

• Sharon Beiderman - Director (Course Development)
• Michael Brown - Director, Learning Applications Development And Support (Information Technology)
• Joe Chiappa - Assistant to the Dean, (School of Undergraduate Studies)
• Cynthia Davis - Associate Dean, Academic Affairs (School of Undergraduate Studies)
• Traicy Garey - Assistant Director (Course Development)
• Barbara Giannini - Assistant Director, Learning Applications Development And Support (Information Technology)
• Yulia Nemchinova - Senior Instructional Support Specialist (Center for Support of Instruction)
• Loyce Pailen - Director (Center for Support of Instruction) and Interim Associate Provost – OISS
• Nikhil Patel - Coordinator, Instructional Technology (School of Undergraduate Studies)
• Deb Schroeder - Senior Instructional Support Specialist (Center for Support of Instruction)
• Janet Zimmer - Academic Director - IFSM (School of Undergraduate Studies)

Purpose of the Common Syllabus and Its Content

The syllabus tool is directly related to the common syllabus project (under which a starting template syllabus is created by faculty teams for each course). The common syllabus, and the syllabus tool which enables dissemination of the syllabus to all faculty, is meant to ensure consistency of course focus and scope worldwide and to provide model materials for faculty who teach the course, particularly those teaching it for the first time.  The common syllabus was developed in response to a number of factors – including not only accreditation review and overseas contracts, but also UMUC's commitment to academic quality and continuity for all its students.

In UMUC's current stage of development, with rapid expansion and shifts in student populations, the common syllabus helps us ensure that:

• a student who starts a course sequence in one format or geographical location will have the foundation to continue in another and some familiarity with our approach;
• all faculty understand the place of the course in our curriculum and its desired learning outcomes; and
• the individual faculty member's teaching is supported and enriched by the thinking of others in the discipline.

The syllabus tool was piloted with a single discipline in the School of Underdergraduate Studies (SUS) during the summer 2006 semester. Feedback from faculty involved in the pilot implementation was used in the refinement of the tool over the course of the next two semesters.  The tool has now been implemented with all courses and faculty in SUS and a majority of the courses and faculty in the Graduate School of Management and Technology (GSMT). GSMT expects to have all of the courses using the tool by Summer 2008. A robust and thorough set of directions have been written for both Directors (who manage the common syllabi for their respective disciplines and disseminate those syllabi to faculty at the beginning of each semester) and the faculty who use the tool to create the syllabus used in their classrooms.

The faculty response to the use of the syllabus tool has been overwhelmingly positive.  Even though the syllabus, "published" by the academic director, is complete in itself, faculty still have complete freedom to modify and personalize all editable parts (everything except course description and course objectives) or use the syllabus as presented.  Students see a syllabus that is standardized in format so that over the course of their academic careers at UMUC they experience consistency in the form of the syllabi used.