Think about your first day of high school versus your first day of college. All the new people and experiences, all the different rules and expectations; now let's think about the similarities between the two. The first time you took a class in college or high school, there must have been some guidelines. Whether those guidelines are in the form of a PowerPoint, syllabus, or even verbally, these guidelines and expectations were and are crucial to your overall understanding and success in the course. For example, how can you know what your instructor expects of you if you are not fully aware of his or her guidelines? The best way to excel in a class is to first understand how your instructor will handle the class. Most of my instructors in the past have handed out a program. This syllabus is one of the most important documents of the course. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The syllabus is the basis of the entire course; It holds everything together and builds on the foundations of the course. The course in mind is University 101; the program barely falls into a category that could be considered a program. With a total of five pages, the program easily squeezes everything you should know about the course into two and a half pages. The other two and a half pages are reserved for the program, which after observing it, lifts my spirits and reassures me that the journey will be successful. The program is dry and gives the impression of an easy route given its shorter nature. However, a shorter program can be a false sense of security, meaning a student can expect much less than they can receive. The University 101 curriculum is as general as possible. It would be slightly difficult to get any kind of instructor reading just by reading this program. It gives the impression that a robot wrote it. Although it is very informative with an almost non-existent tone that says work hard, but enjoy your college experience. You can tell a lot about the instructor on how they put together their program. The instructor for my University 101 class is a TA, so I never expected a long program. But with a four-page syllabus you might start to wonder how difficult the actual course is. I mean, the last two pages are meant to underline the program. So this leaves you with two pages that contain the information that should inform you about the entire course. The actual class isn't any harder than the hardest class in high school, which isn't saying much. But in these two paltry pages it really highlights how exciting the course can be. By using numerous amounts of lively punctuation, this shows that she will enjoy teaching the course. The instructor of my University 101 course seems very organized and correct in the way he conducts his business. While writing the program he made it easy as pie to navigate and understand, he runs a tight ship. How an instructor constructs their program can add or take away from the instructor. I have a lot of respect for her for keeping it short and sweet. Start by acknowledging the small size of the course and providing a brief description of the course topics. “This little course is about YOU and KU: understanding not only what a KU education is, but how to earn it and find it on the path to timely graduation” (Citation, UNIV Program 101, Lina Goldenberg). It is made clear that the course introduces students to the university, university resources, and university expectations through the introduction of the program. The syllabus then outlines the learning outcomes of the course, which are: academic planning and.