Syllabus Factors: Perceptions of Instructor and Course Impacted by Graphics and Skills Descriptions

The college course syllabus provides students with not only practical information and expectations but also first impressions. We hypothesized that syllabus graphics, length, and the inclusion of a skills-based syllabus section would influence students’ perceptions of both the instructor and the course. Utilizing an experimental design, 343 students from introduction to psychology courses were randomly assigned to read one of eight hypothetical psychology statistics syllabi from a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design. Syllabi varied by length (shorter or longer), graphics (present or absent), and a skills-based syllabus section (present or absent). Given four perception outcome measures (a within-subjects element), two hypotheses were partially supported: Graphics influenced perceptions (instructor care and course value), and the course value for students’ futures was also impacted by a description of skills gained in the course. Instructor care, competence, and skill-focused instructor perceptions were not predicted by a description of skills, and no outcomes were predicted by syllabus length. Our work demonstrates the importance of syllabus characteristics for students’ first impressions, suggesting that teachers be both mindful of and strategic about how their syllabi can influence their students’ perceptions.