The College collects course syllabi in a Google shared drive, where each department and program have a syllabus collection folder. The Office of Advising and the Dean of Curriculum have access the folders as well. This centralized syllabus collection allows the Office of Advising to easily consult syllabi for general advising purposes and in academic dishonesty cases. It also allows the Provost office to document (along with other materials) how the College meets Middle States expectations regarding the “Design and Delivery of the Student Learning Experience” (Middle States Standard III). This syllabi collection process was discussed at Department Head/Program Chair meetings in May 2020 and August 2021.
Who collects and saves the syllabi? At the beginning of each term, the Head/Chair, or a member of the department/program to whom the Head/Chair delegates this responsibility, collects all course syllabi for the semester from their colleagues and saves them in the department’s/program’s syllabus collection folder.
Where is the folder? In your Google Drive, using the “search” icon, search for, e.g., “Syllabi Collection – [Department/Program name].” Within the departmental/program folder, there are subfolders for each term. Or go to “Shared with Me” in your Google Drive; there is a section for “Folders”; in this section, you will see your department’s/program’s syllabus folder.
When should the syllabi be collected? Syllabi should be collected and saved in the departmental/program syllabus collection folder by Friday of the second week of classes in the Fall and Spring terms, or by the first Wednesday of the Interim and Summer terms. The Dean of the Curriculum will send a reminder email each term to Department Heads/Program Chairs (Fall and Spring) and to course instructors (Interim and Summer).
In what format should syllabi be collected? For the sake of consistency and user-friendliness, syllabi should be saved as PDF files, titled, e.g., “ZOO 221 02.pdf” for “Zoology 221 section 2”, that is, with course rubric, number, and (if applicable) section.
How are syllabi collected for multi-section courses, cross-listed courses, and other “special cases”?
a) In multi-section courses, a syllabus is to be submitted for each section if the sections have different syllabi. If all sections use the same syllabus, then one syllabus for the course is enough.
b) Syllabi for cross-listed courses must be collected separately in the folder of each of the involved programs because cross-listing means that the course is offered by more than one program.
c) Syllabi for courses that are not associated with a department or program (e.g., AMS, EDUC, INDS) are collected by the Dean of the Curriculum.
d) Syllabus collection folders for departments that offer more than one program contain a subfolder for each program.
e) Coordinated majors (Government & Law and Foreign Language, Math and Economics, Religion and Politics) do not have specific syllabus collection folders because these majors exclusively draw from course offerings of the coordinating departments.
Who has access to the folder? Folder access in each department/program is limited to one or two members (including, e.g., the departmental/program administrative assistant). Initial access is given to the Head/Chair based on the “Academic Department Heads and Program Chairs” list published on the Provost’s website. Sarah Yencha (Office of Advising) can give access to a second person in the department/program if so requested by the Head/Chair.
If Heads/Chairs wish that all department/program members have access to the department’s/program’s course syllabi, we recommend making a copy of the syllabus collection folder. The Head/Chair can then share the newly created folder as they see fit.
Who manages the Google Shared syllabus collection folders? The Office of Advising will maintain the structure and management of the Google shared folder for syllabi collection.
Contacts: If you have questions, please contact Office and Project Manager Sarah Yencha (yenchas@lafayette.edu) in the Office of Advising or Associate Provost Markus Dubischar (dubischm@lafayette.edu).