How the syllabus looks affects our students’ perceptions of the class and of us as instructors. Visual elements also help students learn to organize their knowledge in meaningful ways: “visuals communicate the structure and interrelationship among the topics to be covered and the abilities students will acquire. […] They can also be designed to communicate an instructor’s approachability, sense of humor, and caring for the students.” (Nilson, 2007, p.13) With more and more syllabuses being available online, considerations such as the cost of color-printing no longer represent a barrier to including a variety of graphic elements. Something as simple as separating the calendar of readings into visually distinct and meaningful thematic groups can help students organize their learning over the course of the semester.
There are several research studies that support the use of visual elements in a syllabus:
Everyone with vision is a visual learner (Goswami, 2008)
We talk about learning styles or learning preferences, but Goswami writes that “all learners with vision are visual learners” to some extent
People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone; or the Multimedia Principle (Mayer, 2009)
The theoretical rationale behind the Multimedia Principle is that “When words and pictures are both presented, students have an opportunity to construct verbal and pictorial mental models and to build connections between them” Meyer p. 27
Our memory for pictures is better than our memory for words; or the Picture Superiority Effect (McBride & Dosher, 2002)
The picture superiority effect refers to the phenomenon in which pictures and images are more likely to be remembered than words.
A more visual syllabus design can enhance how students perceive their instructor (Nusbaum, et al, 2021)
Finally, a recent study suggests that students have a more favorable perception of instructors who have visual elements in their syllabi.
According to the Visual Teaching Alliance:
Including icons and other simple images as wayfinders in your syllabus represent a relatively easy way to take advantage of the swift visual processing speeds of our students and add graphic elements to your syllabus. Icons allow students to quickly find and understand a section of your syllabus. Rather than searching for and interpreting text, a student can scan for the image of a calendar and immediately locate the syllabus section on due dates.
Small visual elements can also represent a tidy alternative to multiple font sizes and colors by highlighting important components of your syllabus. And of course, according to the multimedia principle, icons can provide a visual memory trigger allowing students to quickly build connections between images and text.
Images can be an easy way to communicate your personality, teaching style, and educational philosophy. An image of yourself can help online students recognize you on campus while a picture of your textbook can ensure that students order the correct edition.
Some common approaches to using personalization and clarification images:
A well-designed and clearly rendered chart designed with Microsoft SmartArt or Google diagrams can communicate complicated processes or relationships quickly and easily for your students. Diagrams can also help you reduce space when your syllabus starts getting a little too long! Just don’t go overboard - SmartArt and Google diagrams options can just as easily create visually cluttered and confusing images. Be sure to pick simple and straightforward charts and make sure text is visible and color contrasts are high.
Diagrams in your syllabus can show:
Linda B. Nilson's book The Graphic Syllabus and the Outcomes Map: Communicating Your Course takes a slightly different approach to the graphic syllabus by using flowcharts and concept maps to help students see the “big picture” of how a course is organized.
By visually representing a course's structure and/or student learning outcomes, a syllabus can clearly articulate for students the connections between course content, activities, and assignments while taking advantage of the picture superiority effect (increasing the likelihood that students will remember what is visually represented).
Below are just a few of the tools you can use to create a graphic syllabus.
Canva - https://www.canva.com/
Canva is a graphic design platform, used to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents, and other visual content.
Diagrams.net - https://www.diagrams.net/
Formerly draw.io. Build flowcharts, process diagrams, org charts, mindmaps, and much more. Templates include Venn diagrams, timelines, concept maps, cycles, and infographics.
Flaticon - https://www.flaticon.com/
Select from over 5.8M free icons and stickers for your projects. Resources made by and for designers.
Noun Project - https://thenounproject.com
The Noun Project is a website that aggregates and catalogs symbols that are created and uploaded by graphic designers around the world.
Piktochart - https://piktochart.com/
Piktochart is a web-based infographic application that allows users without intensive experience as graphic designers to easily create infographics and visuals using themed templates.
Extreme Makeover, Syllabus Edition - Tona Hagen
"For a while I have been dreaming of taking the syllabus for the course I offer every semester (US History II) and doing… something with it. I just wasn’t sure what that something was. I only knew that this was not sufficient. I’ve been tweaking the content of the syllabus for a couple of years now, but was looking for a way to arrange or present it that was less linear, less text-y, more visually engaging, more like a magazine or a website."
What a Cool Syllabus...But Is It Accessible? - Faculty Focus
Adding images, colors, and display fonts to your syllabus makes it visually appealing and engaging, but also increases the risk that students with visual impairments may not be able to access the information they need to succeed in your class. In this short article, Accounting professor Teresa Thompson describes how she creates a graphic syllabus that is both fun and accessible.
Using Graphic Syllabi - Texas Center for Teaching and Learning (2 min)
Senior Lecturer in Biology, Jennifer Moon, demonstrates the revision of her "pretty boring" syllabus into a visually appealing FAQ-style document.
What's the Big Idea? - Teach, Talk, Listen, Learn podcast (27 min)
In this episode, Cheelan Bo-Linn (CITL) and Yilan Xu (ACES) join host Bob Dignan to unpack the graphic syllabus. A misnomer of sorts, the graphic syllabus doesn’t focus on classroom policies and procedures, due dates, and a wordy course description, which can create a disconnect with students. Instead, it visually lays out the main learning objective the instructor wants students to get out of the course – or what Bo-Linn calls “the Big Idea” – and how they will go about learning it. It also helps set the tone for the class.
Creating a Graphic Syllabus - Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning [PDF]
This resource guide provides practical suggestions you may want to consider while planning your graphic syllabus.
References
Guertin, Laura. “Graphic syllabus and outcomes map – new additions to your fall syllabus?” GeoEd Trek [blog], 6 August, 2014.
Hagen, Tona. Syllabus Design. Tona Hagen [blog], n.d.
Harrington, Christine, and Melissa Thomas. Designing a Motivational Syllabus : Creating a Learning Path for Student Engagement. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing, 2018.
Mayer, Richard E. "Multimedia learning." In Psychology of learning and motivation, vol. 41, pp. 85-139. Academic Press, 2002.
McBride, Dawn M., and Barbara Anne Dosher. "A comparison of conscious and automatic memory processes for picture and word stimuli: A process dissociation analysis." Consciousness and cognition 11, no. 3 (2002): 423-460.
Nilson, Linda Burzotta. The Graphic Syllabus and the Outcomes Map Communicating Your Course. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007.
Nusbaum, Amy T., Samantha Swindell, and Anna Plemons. "Kindness at first sight: The role of syllabi in impression formation." Teaching of Psychology 48, no. 2 (2021): 130-143.
Elements of this guide are adapted from the Syllabus Design Guide by Jessica Riviere, Danielle Picard, and Richard Coble, Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching and is available under a CC BY-NC license.
A Liquid Syllabus is an accessible, public website that incorporates a brief, friendly welcome video and course information written in welcoming, student-centered language (Pacansky-Brock et al, 2020; Pacansky-Brock, 2017, 2014). Explore the self-paced public course "Create a Liquid Syllabus" and create a syllabus that contributes to equitable learning for all students.