Key steps and questions when designing your course syllabus

One of the most important documents you have is your course syllabus. Whether you inherited one or wrote one from scratch, it is an essential tool for you and your students. As such, care and intention must be paid to its development and design. 

Although I have written several articles on the syllabus, in this article, I wanted to take a broader focus and talk about the key steps and questions to consider regardless of whether you inherited or are writing the syllabus. 

The overall goal of a syllabus is to lay out the roadmap for the course, both for you and the student. Designing one is not an easy process. In addition to ensuring it contains all the components required by accreditation and your institution, it also needs to be a cohesive document that flows well and is readable and comprehensible to students. Too often, syllabi seem to have become more of a mini handbook, including many components not specific to the course, such as program and university policies. The concept that a syllabus is meant to focus predominantly on the course appears to have been lost.   

First, determine what this course must achieve overall in terms of what students need to learn by the end of it. What knowledge, skills, and behaviors are critical and essential for each student to obtain by the end of the course? If this sounds familiar, it is good because this is how you develop your course learning outcomes. To answer this question, you need to refer to essential program documents like your program's graduate outcomes and mission statement, accreditation standards, NCCPA blueprints, and your knowledge about PA practice and medicine.  

Second, once you have clearly defined what the students must achieve by the end of the course, you now focus on how best to create that by mapping out the course so that it leads the student from the first day of class until the last along a pathway that builds and supports learning, flows well and makes sense. This involves identifying topics, content, and skills, if applicable, and sequentially arranging them into sections or modules that effectively guide the students' learning. This can be thought of as a course arc or timeline that is drawn out, starting at the beginning when students don't know, and ending where they do.   

The third is to intentionally consider and build connections and transitions, highlighting and helping students see how this course material is related to something they learned in the previous semester or how it will help them in the following semester. Also, consider helping them to see the relationship between what they have previously learned and what they are learning now. This can also apply to how one module is related to another. In order to do this, all of this needs to be considered as the course and syllabus are being developed or revised. Knowledge about what students have previously learned and are learning in other courses they are taking during the same semester helps in knowing how to create these connections and transitions. In my experience, students commonly feel frustrated when they can't or don't see the connections, so helping them see them can really benefit.  

Fourth. Take the time to find course materials that provide the best source of information. Frequently, I have seen faculty struggle to make the required textbook fit what they were teaching, even when it doesn't do it well. There is no perfect textbook. Some books cover some topics very well, and others don't. This idea is to use multiple sources, including textbooks, journal articles, or other resources that provide the material consistent with what the students must learn. With digital access today, using multiple textbook sources is much easier than just one. For years, I taught ethics and never found one book that effectively covered all the topics. Instead, I searched for articles, videos, book chapters, and even movies to build my teaching lesson and instructional objectives, using those sources that were consistent and aligned.  

Fifth is techniques and tools. All of our courses, from ethics to medicine to history and physical examination skills, require application. Our students must apply what they are learning, commonly through lectures, to successfully meet what will be expected of them when they get to the clinical year and in practice. Therefore, intention and attention to specific teaching approaches or methods and educational tools are paramount when considering the first four steps. The goal is to include those techniques that allow the student to practice and apply learning to real-life situations. This could be choosing to include case-based or problem-based learning as a component, or having a few classes that are in the flipped classroom format. Integrating applications can also occur through specific assignments, such as a literature search and critique, role play, or debate. Decisions about techniques and tools should happen during the revision or creation of a course and its syllabus.  

A few tips 

1. Use "you" instead of "the student" where it makes sense, such as in the course description or when defining the course components and what the students will be doing and learning. This simple change moves the syllabus into a more learner-centered position and makes it more readable because it feels a little less formal.  

2. Be sure to describe and define all the course components in detail. This is also a learning-centered approach. The student should fully grasp everything about the course, what it entails, and what they will learn and do, including assignments or other tasks. It should fully define how and when they will be assessed. Ideally, no sections should say "TBA" or simply state "Term Paper details to follow." The syllabus should be complete when it goes to the students.  

3. Make certain you have alignment between the course learning outcomes, the instructional objectives, and your assessment methods. If you need more information on this, please see https://www.dremilywhitehorse.com/blog/do-you-have-outcomes-objectives-assessment-alignment-in-your-syllabus 

4. Do the student reading test. Once the syllabus is done, sit down and read every page as if you were a student on the first day of class for this course. Do you know what this course is about, why it is important, and how it will help you develop your knowledge and skills as a PA? Do you understand all the components of the course and what each one involves? Do you know when and how you will be tested? Are you clear about what is expected of you in this course? Also, consider how it reads, whether it flows, or if it is clunky and choppy. Is course information intermixed with program or university policies? Does the sequence of the content make sense, or is it confusing?  

A well-written, student-friendly, learning-centered syllabus can be a great asset and a course guiding tool for learning and consistency. It may even encourage students to actually read it.  

References

Gould, H. (2025). A 3-question checklist for better course design. Effective Course Design. Pages 19-22. Harvard Business Publishing Education. 

Srinivasan, S. (2025). 5 steps to designing a syllabus that promotes recall and application. Effective Course Design. Pages 9-17. Harvard Business Publishing Education. 

Additional Resources

Getting Students to Read Your Syllabus (https://www.dremilywhitehorse.com/blog/getting-students-to-read-your-syllabus)

Is your syllabus student-centered (https://www.dremilywhitehorse.com/blog/is-your-syllabus-learner-centered)