The Missouri Students Association is continuing its work on the syllabus archive project that will improve the process of selecting courses for MU students.
The syllabus archive will consist of past syllabi and will be posted online for students to review when selecting courses. Through the program students can make a researched decision regarding which classes they want to take and how significant the workload they take on will be.
“The archive will provide a wealth of information to all students,” MSA Senate Speaker Jake Sloan said in an email. “This wealth of knowledge will give students a view into a class prior to registering for classes.”
Academic Affairs Committee Chairman Everett Bruer and Former MSA Senate Speaker Evan Wood began the project last year.
Bruer and Wood originated the plan for the archive in the fall of 2010. A group was formed to begin building the archive, but the group disbanded after the various members had conflicting duties that prevented their availability to work on the project, Wood said.
The archive was delayed when other projects such as the diversity-intensive course requirement took precedence over it. MSA was also busy last winter getting things back on track after the “Snowmageddon” delays, Bruer said.
The plan is to archive past syllabi so that when students are registering for classes they can see how the class is structured. Professors will also have the option to post present syllabi. MSA President Eric Woods said students can determine how large their workload will be while they register for courses.
As of right now, it is possible for students to find some professors’ syllabi online. With the syllabus archive, all information will be consolidated to better accommodate students. Bruer said it will be linked to the MSA website so students will have easy access to the archive.
With the information students can obtain from the archive, they will know what their semester will require of them. This can decrease the number of classes dropped, which can be hard to make up for later, Woods said.
Sloan said the archive will ultimately give students at least two major advantages.
“First, it will allow students to choose a professor that best suits their individual learning style,” he said. “The second advantage would be that a student can get a glimpse into a class prior to registering and if the students choose not to take that course then the student wouldn’t have to go through the drawn-out process of dropping a course.”
Another benefit of the archive will be students picking their courses based on their learning styles, Woods said.
The project is in the raw idea stage, but the students working on it are about ready to begin presenting ideas to faculty. Students have sent positive feedback so far, Bruer said.
Ideally, the archive will eventually include profiles of professors. This could possibly incorporate a survey or rating system, Wood said. Surveys of some professors are already available on myZou, but the syllabus archive will offer one location that provides all of the information to make a well-rounded decision in choosing courses.
Woods said it is possible the project will be finished and functional by the end of the semester. No official time frame is available.
Bruer said that he is pursuing the project aggressively this semester and that it is his main goal. The project requires a lot of work and Bruer said he would prefer it be high quality rather than available soon.
