syllabus-brainstorming

Syllabus Brainstorming

The Problem

The syllabus (Wikipedia - Wiktionary is a very common document used in possibly millions of courses in higher education in the United States and other countries. However, there are no standardized data models or formats for the syllabus, which makes syllabus construction, editing, discovery, sharing, and syndication extremely difficult.

Real-World examples

• Jeremy Boggs History 120 Fall 2007 Syllabus using the SP Courseware WordPress plugin
  • Sections: Students, Projects, Schedule, Requirements, Policies, Assignments.
  • Microformats used: Schedule uses hCalendar, blog posts use Atom.
• Manuel Pérez-Quiñones, CS 5984 User Interface Software Syllabus, Fall 2002
  • Sections: Course information, Instructor, Graduate Teaching Assistant, Attendance, Textbooks, Assignments, Projects, Exams, Absence Policies, Grading, Honor Code, Special Needs.
  • Microformats used: none. (this is from Fall 2002.)

Tools and other resources

• Syllabus Finder search engine at CHNM (use of Google API + custom programming)
• SP Courseware WordPress plugin syllabus tool with microformat support
• Computer Science Syllabus Repository at Virginia Tech (~8,000 syllabi indexed)

Related microformats

This is a non-exhaustive list of microformats possibly related to the syllabus effort

• citation
• course-catalog
• hCalendar
• hCard
• hReview
• hResume
• XOXO

Other schema

• XCRI

Related wiki pages

• syllabus-brainstorming
• syllabus-examples
• syllabus-formats

Contributors

• Jeff McNeill
• Manas Tungare