In a development that couldn’t possibly be related to new requirements that faculty at the three Iowa Regents universities publish our syllabi publicly: Iowa State’s online, public, easy-to-search...
Now, you might ask yourself: Wait, isn’t it a good thing for public universities to publish syllabi? Doesn’t it benefit students to know exactly what a course is about before signing up? Wouldn’t that provide public accountability?
Setting aside intellectual property rights: First of all, anyone who’s ever taught in higher ed knows that only a tiny fraction of students will ever voluntarily read a syllabus. (I admit that I did. But there’s a reason I wound up in higher ed.)
Secondly, there are *two* required syllabus templates for faculty at Iowa State to complete. One is an abbreviated template for the Board of Regents; the other is a longer-form template for the university. Both require comprehensive lists of topics and *all* required materials, text/audio/video.
Setting aside intellectual property rights: First of all, anyone who’s ever taught in higher ed knows that only a tiny fraction of students will ever voluntarily read a syllabus. (I admit that I did. But there’s a reason I wound up in higher ed.)
Secondly, there are *two* required syllabus templates for faculty at Iowa State to complete. One is an abbreviated template for the Board of Regents; the other is a longer-form template for the university. Both require comprehensive lists of topics and *all* required materials, text/audio/video.
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