Syllabus Guidelines and Teaching Methodologies

A course syllabus is essentially a “contract” between the instructor and the student. It should contain course learning outcomes with clearly stated goals and objectives, an outline of course requirements for the students, and a course schedule. The description of the course in the university course catalog should serve as your source for course content and building your approach to teaching. 

Syllabus Posting 

Faculty are required to provide students with a syllabus on or before the first class meeting. It is your choice how you would like to provide it to them – whether you upload it onto Canvas, email it to your students, and/or hand out paper copies of it in class – but it does need to be provided. In addition, you are required to upload your syllabus to the CLS website each semester by following the procedure below or sending the syllabus to the Administrative Support Specialist.  

  1. Go to https://cls.gmu.edu
  2. Choose "People" from the home page (at the top), scroll to your name, and click to open your bio page.
  3. Log in by clicking on the “Login” link on the bottom right side of the page where it says “Is this you?” and entering your Mason ID and password.
  4. Scroll down the page to "Classes" and click on the arrow to the right to open the section dropdown.
  5. Next to the “Syllabus for course section” field, add your syllabus by clicking "Choose File.”
  6. Don't forget to "Save Changes".  This is found on the right side under "Publishing Controls." 

Syllabus Inclusions 

There are several elements that must be included in your syllabus. Whether you are a new or returning faculty member, it is important to check your syllabus to make sure it has all the required and suggested elements. High level guidance can be found at Current Syllabus Guidance - Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning, and the full checklist of required elements can be found at Designing Your Syllabus - Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning. Inclusions specific to CHSS can be found at CHSS | Syllabus Guidelines | Curriculum.   

Workload Expectations 

Per University Policy 3011, a credit hour constitutes approximately one hour of classroom or direct instruction time and at least two hours of out-of-class work. For a standard 15-week semester, this means that a three-credit course should reflect around 9 hours per week (including the time that students are in class or receiving direct faculty instruction in face-to-face, online synchronous, and hybrid courses). Out-of-class work may include individual and group activities, pre-recorded lectures, assignments, reading, and other forms of engagement. The actual time students spend on out-of-class activities will depend on their individual ability and level of effort. 

Approaches to Teaching 

To design the most effective learning experience for students, you are encouraged to examine sample syllabi and/or talk to faculty who have taught your course before, investigate how the course fits into the major curriculum, and find out the class size and classroom location (available through Patriot Web). You can reach out to the appropriate program director or the Administrative Support Specialist for help finding previous syllabi or getting in touch with other CLS faculty. For MS (500-level) classes, the program director will contact you with further information about expectations for the course.

Different techniques you can use as a model for your course can be found at Student Engagement & Classroom Management - Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning. 

Articulating Criteria 

Your expectations for each graded component of the course, including attendance and participation, should be included in the course syllabus or assignment descriptions. Written or posted assignment descriptions that provide explanations for each assignment, project, or paper can articulate its connection to student learning goals and objectives and clarify evaluation criteria are best practices and help students understand your expectations for their learning. Faculty who use checklists or rubrics can help students better understand what the expectations are for a project and may also improve their grading effectiveness.

Think carefully about the time you have available to dedicate to classroom instruction and tailor assignments and activities accordingly.