Montclair State University - Carnegie Committee

Electronic Syllabi

Jack Baldwin LeClair MA, EdS, JD

E-syllabi are multi-dimensional gateways which flow into course subject matter and outward to resources locally and globally. Traditional syllabi provide a flat or uni-dimensional view of course material. E-syllabi have a number of advantages over flat file syllabi because they provide layers of information and portals to other dimensions of knowledge.

E-syllabi are dynamic rather than static. That is they can be changed by faculty to reflect a subtle change in the direction of learning. They can be changed daily or occasionally. They can be updated to display evolution of collective understanding of a class or a learning community.

They are heuristic rather than didactic. Material on syllabi can provide a variety of pathways to caches of knowledge which can be adapted by students to meet their specific interests. They can be benchmarks of class achievement and evidence of collective learning.

E-syllabi can contain plain information, links, or multi-media. The greater the variety of media incorporated, the greater sophistication required on the part of teacher and learner.

E-syllabi can create collaborative learning. In advanced applications, e-syllabi can evolve by cooperative modification of faculty and students. Used in this manner, e-syllabi represent, perhaps, the leading edge of collaborative learning and a record of the effect of different learning opportunities upon student understanding and research direction.

Creating e-syllabi is easier than one might think. Standard wordprocessing programs such as Microsoft Word have imbedded web editors. Word is a simple and effective tool with which to create syllabi. As a beginner's tool, Word is effective. One deficit of Word is that it creates syllabi not easily modified in other web editors. Once created in Word, syllabi do not migrate easily to other environments.

Of course, there are more sophisticated web editors such as Dreamweaver, HoTMetaL Pro, and Macromedia Director.

Here are a few applications of e-syllabi across the disciplines:

Public Policy and Administration

Business

Political Science

Legal Studies at Montclair State University

Psychology

General Syllabi in PDF format

Journalism

Electronics and Mathematics

American Literature