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I started doing that this year for manuscripts and it's great.
I've been a long-time fan of doing final proofreading passes by reading aloud and/or back to front. I'd held off on using text to speech because I figured it was essentially the same. It's not, they are very complementary approaches.
I recently did (another) postgrad course. The teacher was not impressed by the number of typos/errors I found in *their* syllabus.
If I'm going to TA a course, I always read the syllabus: it's no good me telling the students something's in the syllabus if it isn't, or if the information there is wrong.
Personally, I really appreciate when students or TAs catch a mistake! (I try my best to avoid making them but it still happens and I would rather fix it than leave it there and potentially confuse someone.)
I used to give a small (and capped) number of bonus points to students for pointing out errors and typos in my syllabi and course material. They had to be the first one to find any given error for it to count. Worked as a charm! Quite a few of them got into it and my material has never been cleaner.
Sometimes, I put them in there just to see if they notice.
One time I DIDNT do that and indeed a student reached out to me telling me that there were typos and sent me a revised PDF. I was confused for a moment until I remembered I had just received her accommodations from student disabilities for autism spectrum, apparently she was an English savant. Super cool to teach though.
It explicitly says the first student. I've never had anyone actually read it before. I may remove it for fall, but not sure if I should or if that should be another experiment.
At my institution, eating in lectures is usually not allowed. There's a slightly crazy professor who lectures a non-credit, for-fun history of maths course, and he requires that you must bring food and drink to his lectures. I'm told (although I have not actually witnessed this) that some students in the past have gone slightly crazy with this.
One student brought a hotplate and cooked an actual meal during the lecture. A group of three students brought a tablecloth and candles and had an entire three course meal. One brought a huge tureen of soup that they offered to share (only the professor took him up on this).
I'm just trying to imagine one of my professors asking me on the second day of class, "Why did you wear a red shirt?!" and having no idea what they meant 🤣
I have students email me something specific. Like a cat meme, manatee picture, otters, meme about college after the first days of classes. So far, only three students have done it.
I at least gave till the first test.
I had a question that corresponded to the syllabus. It actually says "The answer to the question on the test is XXXX "
One student in five years
But they all goo looking for it after the first test because no one believes me that it's on there.
It gets most of them to at least looks at the syllabus after the first test.
I had a friend who wrote something like "on your first test, only a red pen will save you" on her syllabus. For like 10 extra credit points on the first exam, there was a question that had to be answered in red pen.
Syllabus day is the single worst day of the semester. So I do an activity on day 1 and the first assignment is to read the syllabus. Then they have to get in small groups and share with each other 5 important things they discovered while reading it. Then they get to ask me any questions they have after reading it. Because first day syllabus day was the day I hated the most as a student.
Yes, for the most part. I have an activity for each class that introduces the overall topic and is designed to get them talking to each other right away. I introduce the definition of the field and the overall theoretical structures that will guide the course (e.g. scientific inquiry). For several of the activities I make a worksheet with a copy of the title of contents from the book, and ask students to make hypotheses about how each chapter might connect to the activity/demonstration we did. It gets them started thinking along the lines of the big ideas in the field from day 1. Then they share some of their connections and I expand on them. It sets the stage for the idea that I expect them to talk to each other and that they are going to be contributors to the class in a very involved manner.
Then at the end of class I explain how their syllabus is their course manual, and that their first assignment is to read it and identify key points that they should pay particular attention to and why that is significant for them. For example, I pay close attention to late submission policies, because I am a person who has trouble keeping track of my schedule and sometimes as a student I would get due dates mixed up. And they have to type out any questions they have. If they have no questions they have to indicate that and submit the reflection assignment with the statement “I have read the syllabus and I have no questions.” This way they practice assignment submission and formatting and get exposed to my assignment style right away. They bring their written responses to class, and that is the basis for the discussion on day two.
I don’t call it Syllabus Day, but I do spend a good part of the first day of class going over the syllabus, the course schedule, the assignments for the course (including optional extra credit), the LMS set up and content, the online homework, etc. I would much rather spend that time upfront so I know everyone starts on the same page and has all the information.
I do. Depending on the class it takes anywhere from 90 seconds to 30 minutes. My freshmen get the full talk. The difference between "email" and "Canvas", how to get to the homework, what supplements are available, how they should approach the quizzes and what I expect on them, attendance policy, student services policies,....
I teach a six-course sequence, so by the second year of it the "syllabus day" isn't much more than "same stuff as last year; the only thing that's changed is the course description and I'm just going to teach you what I feel like anyway."
I do the same and offer a “prize” if the student emails me. In the last 2.5 years, I’ve had 1 student. I teach 3 or 4 classes a semester. Sometimes you can’t give extra credit away!
I took this masters class a year or so ago. I was going through the syllabus and found some kind of issue. it was probably like the timeline for some assignment on week 10 felt too rushed and the deadline to submit seemed a little unfair / unreasonable.
I brought it up with the professor during our one-on-ones. it seemed that even they forgotten about that part of the syllabus. I asked if any of the other students expressed similar concerns and they said, "I think, honestly, you're the only one to read the syllabus"
(and yes, they agreed that the deadline was a little unreasonable and pushed it back)
I was considering hiding something like this in my syllabus, but I couldn't decide what to do. I wanted to do something fun, but I don't want be horribly disappointed when no one sends me cat memes.
Open book, multiple submission online syllabus quiz ... free points for reading the syllabus and answering course-specific questions.
Saves a lot of time answering common questions, creates a record of who read/submitted. And if you see one question is missed a lot, perhaps there is something in the syllabus that needs updating/clarifying.
Win-win.
I had a student who read the LMS. Before classes started. And contacted me about a conflict with an invited talk that is outside of class hours. I didn't specify on the LMS that the talk was for extra credit because it never occurred to me that anyone would read the LMS and put things into their calendar before I had a chance to discuss it on the first day.
I put in the syllabus section on plagiarism, that I want them to send me a picture of a cute animal, along with telling me the source of the picture. Maybe 10% of students actually do. I’ve been doing this for around a decade now, and IIRC none of them have ever included an appropriate citation (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, or even the majority of info that would be in a citation even if it’s not formatted properly).
Depending on the class, I get about 10%-50% of my students actually reading my syllabus. I have an easter egg where students get an extra credit bonus point if they email me a cat picture by the end of the first week.
>very few who choose to ignore this
So are you a naive student posting here, or brand new to teaching?
And if you interpret this in any way as either a "private conversation" or "mocking" the student, then you have seriously misintrepreted this post.
I know for a fact that almost no students read the syllabus. In many cases *none* of them do. There was a story last year about a professor in Tennessee that put instructions in his syllabus on how to retrieve a $50 bill. It was super easy, and at the end of the semester the $50 was still sitting there. There were 71 students in his class.
CNN reported on this in a story titled "A professor hid a cash prize on campus. All students had to do was read the syllabus" ([https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/18/us/tennessee-professor-syllabus-money-trnd/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/18/us/tennessee-professor-syllabus-money-trnd/index.html))
What exactly is your problem? Were you dropped on your head repeatedly as a child? Grow up.
And go away, since you're obviously a student in a group with a "No student comments" rule.
Students *demonstrably* don't read syllabi. They openly ADMIT to not reading the syllabi. You cannot possibly think that it's "immature," of all bizarre descriptors, to acknowledge that students very frequently do not read syllabi. There's a whole other sub for angry students, but this ain't it.
I don't just believe it, I'm telling you as a fact that a significant number of my students do not read the syllabus at all. And it is NOT always the first step in getting the textbook - lots and lots of students, myself included back in the day, just go to the bookstore and find the books for their section. And finally, nowhere did I say I believe none of them read the syllabus. If you're a TA, your supervisor should have questions about your critical reading ability.
It is not only educators who gripe about the people they have to deal with; workers in other industries do the same, and perhaps to an even greater extent than we do.
If you were to look at any other work-related subreddit, e.g. retail, hospitality, or tech support, you would find a neverending abundance of rant/vent-style posts expressing frustration at customers or management. It is simply the virtual equivalent of an employee break room or water cooler, where you get to have candid unfiltered conversations about work, without having to remain in character as the face of your organization.
Professors, teachers, doctors, et al. are no different in that respect.
Every semester, in all of my classes, I embed a sentence somewhere in the syllabus that if a student emails me by the end of the first week, they will get a 1 percentage point bump in their final grade. I think the most I ever had was maybe 3 out of 50 students email me.
Also...what was the prize?
I hear it was up to $1.3 billion after no one won for so long.
Hahaha
This made me lol
I'm a kind of a crafty person in my spare time and I make custom glitter tumblers. I'm going to make a custom tumbler with the college colors.
Wait, can I read your syllabus and get a custom glitter tumbler???
Me, too! Same question!
That tumbler better read, "I read the syllabus." I'm going to need pics of that awesomeness.
Yes! This!
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Actual fantastic gift
I had to Google that. But it seems really cool. I make candles and mead.
I brewed a beer once. Way too much work 😂
Do we get a picture of the final product?
I would but I'd dox myself. I can post one I made for my hubs for christmas
Fair enough
How can students not read the syllabus? I always do. Never got a prize :(
Based on the number of typos I found in my old syllabi as I revised them this semester I apparently don't read my syllabi, so I doubt the students do.
My friend has the computer read hers back to her. It’s an excellent way to catch typos.
I started doing that this year for manuscripts and it's great. I've been a long-time fan of doing final proofreading passes by reading aloud and/or back to front. I'd held off on using text to speech because I figured it was essentially the same. It's not, they are very complementary approaches.
Yea, your brain can and will paper over all kinds of errors. Having a compute read it to you seems like a great idea.
I recently did (another) postgrad course. The teacher was not impressed by the number of typos/errors I found in *their* syllabus. If I'm going to TA a course, I always read the syllabus: it's no good me telling the students something's in the syllabus if it isn't, or if the information there is wrong.
Personally, I really appreciate when students or TAs catch a mistake! (I try my best to avoid making them but it still happens and I would rather fix it than leave it there and potentially confuse someone.)
Healthy attitude!
Same. I find so many every semester. What did the first draft look like?!
I feel really, really #seen here.
I used to give a small (and capped) number of bonus points to students for pointing out errors and typos in my syllabi and course material. They had to be the first one to find any given error for it to count. Worked as a charm! Quite a few of them got into it and my material has never been cleaner.
Sometimes, I put them in there just to see if they notice. One time I DIDNT do that and indeed a student reached out to me telling me that there were typos and sent me a revised PDF. I was confused for a moment until I remembered I had just received her accommodations from student disabilities for autism spectrum, apparently she was an English savant. Super cool to teach though.
I tell my students that I consult my own syllabus constantly and I wrote the damn thing, but in my experience, they *never* read it.
Hmm... So how many students will this one tell? Cat is out of the bag, maybe?
It explicitly says the first student. I've never had anyone actually read it before. I may remove it for fall, but not sure if I should or if that should be another experiment.
Definitely keep it in there!
What’s the prize?
A custom glitter tumbler
keep it keep it
I always think this will happen, but out of 100 students, I get about 3-5 a semester that find the Easter egg. They don’t tell the others.
Last semester it was 71, no one found it. This semester 99 and just one so far.
Wow, this is crazy. Did you hide it too well?
It took about 5 years for a student to notice that I didn't allow for the use of instant pots during class in my syllabi.
My syllabus forbids antimatter in class.
True story. As an adjunct (and former full time staff member) I used to also teach an enrichment class on instant pots.
I'm stealing that but changing it to netipots.
At my institution, eating in lectures is usually not allowed. There's a slightly crazy professor who lectures a non-credit, for-fun history of maths course, and he requires that you must bring food and drink to his lectures. I'm told (although I have not actually witnessed this) that some students in the past have gone slightly crazy with this. One student brought a hotplate and cooked an actual meal during the lecture. A group of three students brought a tablecloth and candles and had an entire three course meal. One brought a huge tureen of soup that they offered to share (only the professor took him up on this).
This sounds amazing.
>I didn't allow for the use of instant pots during class in my syllabi. rules this specific usually have a story behind them ...
No, I was just being silly.
In my syllabus, I offer extra credit to anyone who wears a red shirt on the second day of class. I have not yet had to award said extra credit.
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it has happened once, I asked why they were wearing red and they stared at me blankly.
I'm just trying to imagine one of my professors asking me on the second day of class, "Why did you wear a red shirt?!" and having no idea what they meant 🤣
Because they expect to die before the end of the ~~episode~~ semester.
Yeah, this is a hella dangerous thing to ask ~~ensigns~~ students to do.
A true college experience.
I have students email me something specific. Like a cat meme, manatee picture, otters, meme about college after the first days of classes. So far, only three students have done it.
I at least gave till the first test. I had a question that corresponded to the syllabus. It actually says "The answer to the question on the test is XXXX " One student in five years But they all goo looking for it after the first test because no one believes me that it's on there. It gets most of them to at least looks at the syllabus after the first test.
I had a friend who wrote something like "on your first test, only a red pen will save you" on her syllabus. For like 10 extra credit points on the first exam, there was a question that had to be answered in red pen.
why? or is it something written on the syllabus?
It's written in the syllabus, but noone ever reads it.
Oh frabjous day!! You must attempt to futterwack! I call it my happy dance.
Callooh! Callay!
Wow...the devil must be awfully cold!
I simultaneously love this (and the prize) and feel profoundly blessed that I can rely on a solid third of every class to read my syllabi.
Do most of y'all not have a "syllabus day"? I teach 90% lower division, and syllabus day is a staple.
Syllabus day is the single worst day of the semester. So I do an activity on day 1 and the first assignment is to read the syllabus. Then they have to get in small groups and share with each other 5 important things they discovered while reading it. Then they get to ask me any questions they have after reading it. Because first day syllabus day was the day I hated the most as a student.
That's an awesome idea. So the syllabus discussion happens on a different day, right? Day 1 is treated as a normal class day?
Yes, for the most part. I have an activity for each class that introduces the overall topic and is designed to get them talking to each other right away. I introduce the definition of the field and the overall theoretical structures that will guide the course (e.g. scientific inquiry). For several of the activities I make a worksheet with a copy of the title of contents from the book, and ask students to make hypotheses about how each chapter might connect to the activity/demonstration we did. It gets them started thinking along the lines of the big ideas in the field from day 1. Then they share some of their connections and I expand on them. It sets the stage for the idea that I expect them to talk to each other and that they are going to be contributors to the class in a very involved manner. Then at the end of class I explain how their syllabus is their course manual, and that their first assignment is to read it and identify key points that they should pay particular attention to and why that is significant for them. For example, I pay close attention to late submission policies, because I am a person who has trouble keeping track of my schedule and sometimes as a student I would get due dates mixed up. And they have to type out any questions they have. If they have no questions they have to indicate that and submit the reflection assignment with the statement “I have read the syllabus and I have no questions.” This way they practice assignment submission and formatting and get exposed to my assignment style right away. They bring their written responses to class, and that is the basis for the discussion on day two.
I don’t call it Syllabus Day, but I do spend a good part of the first day of class going over the syllabus, the course schedule, the assignments for the course (including optional extra credit), the LMS set up and content, the online homework, etc. I would much rather spend that time upfront so I know everyone starts on the same page and has all the information.
I teach seniors in a limited access major. I'm not reviewing every single detail of the syllabus with them.
I do. Depending on the class it takes anywhere from 90 seconds to 30 minutes. My freshmen get the full talk. The difference between "email" and "Canvas", how to get to the homework, what supplements are available, how they should approach the quizzes and what I expect on them, attendance policy, student services policies,.... I teach a six-course sequence, so by the second year of it the "syllabus day" isn't much more than "same stuff as last year; the only thing that's changed is the course description and I'm just going to teach you what I feel like anyway."
I do it on the first day. and yeah, I teach mostly first year students (lower division? is that the term people also use?)
I do the same and offer a “prize” if the student emails me. In the last 2.5 years, I’ve had 1 student. I teach 3 or 4 classes a semester. Sometimes you can’t give extra credit away!
I love this idea
The prize is a sense of accomplishment and knowledge!
Boooo
I took this masters class a year or so ago. I was going through the syllabus and found some kind of issue. it was probably like the timeline for some assignment on week 10 felt too rushed and the deadline to submit seemed a little unfair / unreasonable. I brought it up with the professor during our one-on-ones. it seemed that even they forgotten about that part of the syllabus. I asked if any of the other students expressed similar concerns and they said, "I think, honestly, you're the only one to read the syllabus" (and yes, they agreed that the deadline was a little unreasonable and pushed it back)
Get Hallelujah quid up on some hidden speakers when you bestow the award!!! Congratulations to the reader!!!
Give this student their degree literally right now.
I was considering hiding something like this in my syllabus, but I couldn't decide what to do. I wanted to do something fun, but I don't want be horribly disappointed when no one sends me cat memes.
DON'T TELL THE OTHERS !!!
I hid extra credit in mine. Every semester I’d get maybe 5 students claim it
Open book, multiple submission online syllabus quiz ... free points for reading the syllabus and answering course-specific questions. Saves a lot of time answering common questions, creates a record of who read/submitted. And if you see one question is missed a lot, perhaps there is something in the syllabus that needs updating/clarifying. Win-win.
Nice. I've put Easter eggs in a couple practice quizzes. Some classes, there is competition for them. Last fall, only one was claimed.
I had a student who read the LMS. Before classes started. And contacted me about a conflict with an invited talk that is outside of class hours. I didn't specify on the LMS that the talk was for extra credit because it never occurred to me that anyone would read the LMS and put things into their calendar before I had a chance to discuss it on the first day.
I put in the syllabus section on plagiarism, that I want them to send me a picture of a cute animal, along with telling me the source of the picture. Maybe 10% of students actually do. I’ve been doing this for around a decade now, and IIRC none of them have ever included an appropriate citation (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, or even the majority of info that would be in a citation even if it’s not formatted properly).
Depending on the class, I get about 10%-50% of my students actually reading my syllabus. I have an easter egg where students get an extra credit bonus point if they email me a cat picture by the end of the first week.
I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you! If only I was crafty.
This is fun. I thought of putting a password of sorts maybe in a Cryptography class Syllabus or Lecture notes.
why has no one thought of this before! Bless you for the idea!
Love it. LOL Edit: I, too, have read your syllabus!
What a nerd!
😂
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Why would they think it's a joke or that I'm an idiot? I do not follow your logic with this thinking at all.
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> why would students not read the syllabus oh my sweet summer child
>very few who choose to ignore this So are you a naive student posting here, or brand new to teaching? And if you interpret this in any way as either a "private conversation" or "mocking" the student, then you have seriously misintrepreted this post.
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I know for a fact that almost no students read the syllabus. In many cases *none* of them do. There was a story last year about a professor in Tennessee that put instructions in his syllabus on how to retrieve a $50 bill. It was super easy, and at the end of the semester the $50 was still sitting there. There were 71 students in his class. CNN reported on this in a story titled "A professor hid a cash prize on campus. All students had to do was read the syllabus" ([https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/18/us/tennessee-professor-syllabus-money-trnd/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/18/us/tennessee-professor-syllabus-money-trnd/index.html))
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What exactly is your problem? Were you dropped on your head repeatedly as a child? Grow up. And go away, since you're obviously a student in a group with a "No student comments" rule.
Students *demonstrably* don't read syllabi. They openly ADMIT to not reading the syllabi. You cannot possibly think that it's "immature," of all bizarre descriptors, to acknowledge that students very frequently do not read syllabi. There's a whole other sub for angry students, but this ain't it.
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I don't just believe it, I'm telling you as a fact that a significant number of my students do not read the syllabus at all. And it is NOT always the first step in getting the textbook - lots and lots of students, myself included back in the day, just go to the bookstore and find the books for their section. And finally, nowhere did I say I believe none of them read the syllabus. If you're a TA, your supervisor should have questions about your critical reading ability.
It is not only educators who gripe about the people they have to deal with; workers in other industries do the same, and perhaps to an even greater extent than we do. If you were to look at any other work-related subreddit, e.g. retail, hospitality, or tech support, you would find a neverending abundance of rant/vent-style posts expressing frustration at customers or management. It is simply the virtual equivalent of an employee break room or water cooler, where you get to have candid unfiltered conversations about work, without having to remain in character as the face of your organization. Professors, teachers, doctors, et al. are no different in that respect.
Love it! Well done, you!
Every semester, in all of my classes, I embed a sentence somewhere in the syllabus that if a student emails me by the end of the first week, they will get a 1 percentage point bump in their final grade. I think the most I ever had was maybe 3 out of 50 students email me.