The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but when a paving brick can be used for more than one purpose we have to consider the intentions of each diverse intention of any brick. John Oliver has noted a disturbing truth that applies to what we hide in some of our educational communication with students:
“The cable companies have figured out the great truth of America,” he noted. “If you want to do something evil, put it inside something boring. Apple could put the entire text of ‘Mein Kampf’ inside the iTunes user agreement and you’d just go ‘Agree.’” (cited in Almond)
Higher ed is eager to adopt a business metaphor to sell our product to the consumers – and we liken the syllabus to a contract – but we inflate the document with an embarrassment of riches. The students want and need the road map of how a class will be conducted, but instead get:
- maps to emergency areas
- emergency procedures
- contact information for access services and explanation of rights as students
- how and where to buy and sell books
- book rental contract information
I agree students need and deserve all of this information – from their first class on campus – but if the material is provided in every syllabus in every class, every semester – they become numb and tune out at best. At worst it’s lost in the information overload. It’s like in those law and order type shows, where a party is legally obliged to share a document with the other party – so they hide the one sheet of information requested into a semi-truck full of scrap paper. It is the legal requirement of compliance with the effect of non-cooperation.
When I started college syllabi were rarely over 2 pages. Now they are typically 28. It should not surprise anyone that they click through and don’t read the syllabus as if it were a EULA as Oliver described above.
