A Tool for Syllabus Creation?
A while ago I mentioned on this blog, and on another site, that the one computer program/application that I want that does not exist is a syllabus creator. I want something that is more than a word processor. A program that will ask me the range of dates for class, the number of times the class meets, and spit out a schedule, which I can fill in, and have it format neatly. On top of that I want the program to spit out data to iCal and in a web readable form. I enjoy making a syllabus, but I find it frustrating to get the “data” into all the forms I want.
Enter Sean. Sean noticed my comments about syllabus creation software and is working on making such a program. We talked on the phone about what I would want in such a program, and he has since started interviewing other faculty. He has most recently set up a survey which you can take if you have the time. This will help Sean create a program that meets your needs. So, if you want this type of program, go take this survey and make sure Sean gets all the info he needs.
June 5th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Hmm….I love the idea of something that spits out the dates for copy and paste, so I rushed over to take the survey without really realizing it was interested in much more. I don’t especially want an online syllabus tool, but I’d be interested in hearing a few different visions of how it might operate.
It really ought to be possible to finangle iCal/Entourage into spitting out a list of dates. I asked some experts once but it didn’t seem to be so simple.
June 6th, 2007 at 12:22 am
From my conversation with him, it seems that he is looking into a range of options, online would just be one of them, hence the in depth nature of the survey. I agree I thought this would be really simple, but its not, for now I just use an outline template.
July 27th, 2009 at 3:08 am
Gee… did this ever happen? It would save profs TONS of times – makes you eliminate date and day errors, easy to select M,W,F or only T, Th, etc…. I HATE writing out syllabi. Thanks for your work on it, would love to know if it ever happened.
August 27th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Found this conversation while looking for software to make syllabus updating easier. It is so easy to miss items that need to change every semester, mainly dates, but sometimes classroom numbers, section numbers and such. I’d love to be able to have Word or another program highlight those items that need to be updated every term.