Syllabus archive to launch by end of fall semester
Students will be able to view and download course syllabi before signing up for classes.
Published Oct. 22, 2010
An online syllabus archive is scheduled to be available for student use by the end of the fall semester.
The archive will be a repository of all syllabi on a central portal and will develop further into a database of professor profiles available for student use during the course registration process, former Missouri Students Association senator Abhi Sivasailam said.
The website to be launched this semester is a pilot guide that students will be able to use while registering for classes, he said.
The archive will give students an idea of how a certain course is structured by allowing students to view, download and compare past course syllabi, MSA presidential candidate Josh Travis said.
“We are in the earliest phases of development,” MSA Senate Speaker Evan Wood said. “There is a possibility that the archive will be up by November. We want the archive to be available during registration, but it probably won’t be done right when registration starts.”
The archive will be an open website that won't require student login information. The archive was created with the goal to provide students with the most education on course options, Wood said.
Students who have different learning styles also motivated the creation of the archive, Savasailam said. Students who learn a certain way will be able to match their style by comparing course syllabi within the archive.
The archive will ultimately become a clearinghouse of syllabi, Wood said. Students will eventually be able to view, download and compare syllabi from previous academic years and the current academic year.
The pilot archive set to launch this semester is a dry run to see if it will work, Savasailam said. Once student feedback is received and the program is expanded, the syllabus library will have other features as well, such as an MU version of "Rate My Professor."
“There will be a database for professor profiles,” Wood said. “Currently on myZou, students are able to obtain limited amounts of information about professors.”
The feature will be an in-house, student-run course and professor rating system, Travis said.
Professor reviews on the Rate My Professors website can be biased based on personal experience, Wood said. The archive will create a feature close to that of Rate My Professors, but with more integrity.
Ultimately, the archive will become a registration portal that will house everything from syllabi to the professor and course rating feature to myZou, Savasailam said.
The archive website is still under development. A development space has been confirmed, and a URL is in the process of being secured, Wood said.
“The pilot is planned to run for at least this semester,” Travis said. “Whether the site will be updated for next semester or next year will depend on how fast it takes off.”