The Graphic Syllabus and the Outcomes Map: Communicating Your Course

by Linda B. Nilson

Overview

This book shows college instructors how to communicate their course organization to students in a graphic syllabus—a one-page diagram, flowchart, or concept map of the topical organization—and an outcomes map—a one-page flowchart of the sequence of student learning objectives and outcomes from the foundational through the mediating to the ultimate. It also documents the positive impact that graphics have on student learning and cautions readers about common errors in designing graphic syllabi.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470180853
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/12/2007
Series:	JB - Anker , #117
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Linda B. Nilson is founding director of the Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation at Clemson University.

Table of Contents

About the Author ix

Preface x

Acknowledgments xiii

1 The Limits of a Text Syllabus 1

2 How and Why Graphics Enhance Learning 14

3 Designing a Graphic Syllabus 26

4 Charting an Outcomes Map 61

5 How Graphics Benefit Course Organization 87

Appendix A. More Model Graphic Syllabi for Inspiration 101

Appendix B. Computer Software for Graphic Syllabi and Outcomes Maps 159

Bibliography 163

Index 173

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“[Nilson’s] book… contains all sorts of amazing examples which aren’t designed to replace traditional syllabi text but to supplement it. If you are a visual learner and good with graphics, there’s a real opportunity to get creative here.

“If there was one of these graphic representations in the syllabus, on the course website or in a PowerPoint, it would be so easy to haul it out at every major juncture in the course to give some context to where we’re going and how it relates to where we’ve been. It could be used in a very literal sense to help students see the ‘big picture’ rather than experiencing the course as a collection of seemingly separate topics.

“In fact, this exercise need not be about just one course. Say there are two courses in a sequence or that one course is a pre-requisite to another. Rather than just saying that the courses are related, those relationships could be shown. It’s a way of getting students to understand that courses make artificial boundaries between content areas that are inextricably linked. It might also be a way of increasing the number of connections faculty could build between what students learned in one course and what they are studying in the next one. The possibilities are quite intriguing.”

—Maryellen Weimer, Teaching Professor Blog