What is a syllabus?

From the SJSU School of Information:

"Syllabi are designed to tell the students about the course. In fact, they are the official “contract” between you and the student and are required of every faculty member in the university.

They should clearly state the goals you have for the students’ learning and the criteria upon which the students’ grades will be based. In addition it is important that you state on the syllabus how your class relates to the School’s goals and objectives. The Faculty Senate approved a resolution (http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/docs/S16-9.pdf) requiring that faculty members provide a syllabus to each student in every class at the first meeting of the class."

As a student you also have certain rights and responsibilities which are outlined in the Syllabus Information page for faculty (http://www.sjsu.edu/gup/syllabusinfo/index.html). This includes information regarding grade disputes and polices around timely feedback on class assignments, for how else would you be able to gauge how you are doing if you do not know your grades?

Why you NEED a master syllabus

The beginning of a semester is an excellent time to start planning. As you start your new courses, it is a great idea to combine all of your syllabi into one master syllabus with all the important dates across all courses - exams, midterms, large assignments, important papers, lab times and dates - basically everything outlined in your course syllabus. Semesters go by very quickly, and if you take some time at the very beginning to get organized it can save you some stress once things really pick up! A master syllabus can be super simple. You can enter everything into Google Calendar, a planner, or even an excel spreadsheet. Here are other templates to consider to structure your time.