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Writing a syllabus


A well-written syllabus is the beginning of a successful learning experience for your students. They will be well-prepared for meeting your learning objectives if they understand why the course is important to them, what they will be able to do when they have completed the course, why you use particular teaching methods and assign specific readings and activities, and why you have chosen a particular grading style.


Instructions for accessing the syllabus template on ANGEL

  1. Click on syllabus tab
  2. Under the title, click on the drop-down box and choose default template
  3. Click on save selection
  4. Click on edit syllabus

Sample insert for your fall 2009 syllabus


“In compliance with Pennsylvania Department of Health and Centers for Disease Control recommendations, students should NOT attend class or any public gatherings while ill with influenza. Students with flu symptoms will be asked to leave campus if possible and to return home during recovery. The illness and self-isolation period will usually be about a week. It is very important that individuals avoid spreading the flu to others.”


Special fall 2009 flu protocols

  • Reinforce the self-isolation guidelines in your course syllabus while recognizing yourself that the current economic environment may drive some students to believe that they should attend class no matter what, rather than risk lower grades or even fewer semester credits. (In practice, if current trends hold, most student absences will be a week or less.) Please help students to understand that in balancing public health and class attendance, public health considerations must carry the greatest weight.
  • Establish and announce in your syllabus a reasonable timeline and means through which students can inform you that they are experiencing flu symptoms and will, therefore, be absent (students should NOT visit you personally to do this - the goal is to limit the spread of this very contagious virus).
  • Follow Academic and Administrative Policy E-11 (that implements University Senate Policy 42-27): Students should be provided with a reasonable opportunity to make up missed work. Ordinarily, it is inappropriate to substitute for the missed assignment the weighting of a semester's work that does not include the missed assignment. Completion of all assignments assures the greatest chance for students to develop heightened understanding and content mastery that is unavailable through the weighting process. The opportunity to complete all assignments supports the university's desire to enable students to make responsible situational decisions without endangering their academic work.
  • Do NOT expect to receive a health care provider’s certification that a student has had the flu. The university does not have sufficient staff to provide this service. Furthermore, as an important element of self-isolation, we do not want to add to the congregation of potentially contagious individuals, who otherwise do not need medical attention, in the student health center.

Seasonal and H1N1 influenza information

  • Most students should be able to complete a successful semester despite a flu-induced absence. Faculty will provide students who are absent because of illness with a reasonable opportunity to make up missed work. Ordinarily, it is inappropriate to substitute for the missed assignment the weighting of a semester’s work that does not include the missed assignment or exam.
  • Completion of all assignments and exams assures the greatest chance for students to develop heightened understanding and content mastery that is unavailable through the weighting process. The opportunity to complete all assignments and exams supports the university’s desire to enable students to make responsible situational decisions, including the decision to avoid spreading a contagious virus to other students, staff, and faculty, without endangering their academic work.
  • Students with the flu do not need to provide a physician’s certification of illness. However, ill students should inform their teachers (but not through personal contact in which there is a risk of exposing others to the virus) as soon as possible that they are absent because of the flu. Likewise students should contact their instructors as quickly as possible to arrange to make up missed assignments or exams.
  • If you have questions about academic policy-related issues, please call the Associate Dean/Chief Academic Officer of your college. For health-related questions you can email Dr. Margaret Spear, director, University Health Services, at uhsinfo@sa.psu.edu


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