Study #4: Measuring Students’ Perceptions
In this study, we were curious to learn whether students would perceive differences between syllabi designed in our CDI and those that were not. What we discovered was that it's not enough for an institution to require syllabi. Institutions need to require the right type of syllabi. Learning-focused ones—the type we encourage instructors to design in our CDI—can positively affect student motivation before they even enter the classroom, making meaningful engagement in the course much more likely.
The present study examined students’ perceptions of a learning-focused and content-focused syllabus to better understand how the syllabus influences perceptions of the document, course, and instructor. Both quantitative and qualitative data collected support the hypothesis that the syllabus does matter: for the most part, students who read a learning-focused syllabus have more positive perceptions of the document, instructor, and course than students who read a content-focused syllabus.