Components of Syllabus

Description *Compulsory

Please include the following, using clear and simple language for students:

A brief introduction to the course (e.g. theme, scope, and purpose)
Any prerequisite or recommended courses for students to have completed before registering for this course
How this course relates to the ICU Diploma Policy

https://www.icu.ac.jp/en/academics/undergraduate/index.html

Where this course is situated on the curriculum-tree

https://sites.google.com/icu.ac.jp/major-information/curriculum-tree (on-campus access only)

[Good Example]

1) This course seeks to promote the sort of environmental literacy necessary for cultivation of responsible global citizens. It seeks to help students understand the basic relationship between humans and the natural environment and introduces pressing issues, ranging from environmental pollution, global warming, conservation of biological diversity, and extending to the relationship between the environment and societal changes. It encourages students to envision what they can do to promote environmental health and sustainability, providing students with essential knowledge and fundamental tools in order to analyze environmental issues in a realistic and interdisciplinary way.
⇒ This course conforms to ICU Diploma Policy

2) Students who will take the microbial genetics experiment course in winter term and plan to study senior thesis in〇〇 Lab need to take this course

3) All students who plan to study senior thesis in Bio Major 〇〇 Lab（Field：Plant Physiology, Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry）need to take this course.

Learning Goals *Compulsory

List as specifically as possible what particular skills or knowledge you expect students to acquire by the end of the course. In general, developing 3 - 5 learning goals will be appropriate for most courses. Think about the kinds of evidences you will need to assess the students' achievement of these learning goals. The learning goals should drive your assessments and grading policies. That is, your assessment and grading scheme should measure the achievement of the learning goals.

For more information, please see the following links (The links are also available at CTL website > Syllabus Guideline > Useful Resources):

・Bloom's Taxonomy (Vanderbilt University)
・Example of how to write learning outcomes (Arizona State University)

[Good Example]

1) To understand the character and basic system of the natural environment (material cycles and energy flow) and patterns of human and animal/plant live on earth.

2) To understand the influence of human life, including production and economic activities, on the natural environment, and appreciate the positive and negative consequences of such activities.

3) To seek a vision to achieve a sustainable relationship between humans and the nature environment so that human and other living organisms may live with each other without causing damage to the natural environment.

4) To understand the fact that all human activities, including work and play, have a close relationship with the natural and human environment, and encourage students to consider how to take proper action to improve the environment.

5) To analyze the actual relationship between corporate activities and environmental impacts, so as to acquire the best knowledge to attain the ideal harmony between competition (corporate profitability) and conviviaty (living together).

6) To understand the actual difference of economic and ecological situation between developed and compromise to drastically modify global environmental problems.

Content *Compulsory

Please outline the course schedule and content in detail, including the topic(s), theme(s), and keywords of each lesson.
Listing the assignments, reports, and exams in line with the course schedule will make it easier for students to design their study plans. Please include information on the feedback method as well.
A description of the lesson format will also be helpful for students' academic planning (e.g., lecture, discussion.debate, group work, presentation, or experiment/fieldwork).
If your course involves team teaching, please specify the teacher's name in each lesson in the schedule.

[Good Example]

Schedule	Contents/Assignment/Others	How to feedback	(Teacher's name)
May 10th	○○Chapter 14（p400-455)		(●●●●）
May 17th	Assignment（Essay, A4, 2pages）	Return your essay within 1 week	(△△）
May 24th	○○Chapter 14	Group Discussion	(××××）

Language of instruction *Compulsory

For students' academic planning, it is very important for them to know the language(s) of instruction in the course. Please indicate the language(s) of instruction for different components of the course, following the example below.

[Good Example]

Lecture：English
Readings/Materials/References：Both English and Japanese
Tests/Quizzes /Assignments：English
Discussions/Presentation/Other learning activities：Mainly English. Japanese is also allowed
Communication with the instructor：English

[Bad Example]

Both English and Japanese
⇒Note that simply stating "both English and Japanese" is not helpful, as students need to know the primary language of the lectures, which textbooks to buy, and which language to use in writing assignments/reports.

Grading Policy *Compulsory

Many students are concerned about the grading policy of their courses. Therefore, please provide clear and specific details on not only the types of assessment (e.g. exam, report, or quiz), but also the criteria used to evaluate each component as well as the weighting of grades.
Note that ICU encourages multiple grading components in each course and not a single final examination or essay.

First, list all the course requirements, weights and due dates. As you decide the weighting for the different requirements, keep in mind that it will have a significant impact on students' effort distribution of time.
For example,

Digital movie clip production (using PPT) - 20% (Due: May 6 Saturday midnight)
Data analysis (using Google Form and Excel) - 20% (Due: May 27 Saturday midnight)
Report (using Word) - 20% (Due: June 10 Saturday midnight)
Peer Tutoring Materials - 10% (April 24 and May 22)
Online Quiz - 20% (June 12)
Attendance/ Participation - 10%

Then, please provide concrete, measurable grading criteria where possible, as this will make it easier to respond to any students who make inquiries about their grades.

Grading Components: Midterm exam, final exam, presentation, essay, class participation.
Weighting : Percentage of overall grade for each component.
Grading Criteria: Specific evaluation criteria for each grading component.

Details of the ICU units, examinations, and grading policy are available from the ICU Official website or ehandbook (on-campus access only).

[Good Example]

1) Final Exam(**%）, Midterm exam(**%), Presentation(**%), Short Essay(**%), etc.

2) Grading Criteria（examples of “Essay”）

・It will be graded on the qualities of clarity and concreteness for a given theme.
・It will be graded on the quality and the logical organization of the writing for a given theme.
　
[Bad Example]

1) Final exam, Mid-term exam, Presentation

Expected Study Outside Class *Compulsory

Please describe materials or study methods that support learning outside the classroom and its required time.
Term of classes for one semester consists of approximately 10 weeks. One class hour consists of 70 minutes. 1 week of examination period is not included in the term of classes.
Generally, class hours of 70 minutes x 10 weeks amount to 1 credit unit.
It is assumed that students will spend two class hours studying outside the classroom (preparation, review, and homework) for each class hour in class.
For laboratory and exercise-based courses that do not require outside preparation, 2 class hours (140 minutes) or 3 class hours (210 minutes) per week are worth 1 credit unit.

[Good Example]

You are expected to spend about 280 minutes per week for required and optional readings, assignments, presentation preparations, and other learning activities.

References

Please indicate the required or main text(s) for the course and list any supplementary or additional references separately (e.g. other textbooks or journal articles).

See Setting Course Reserves (ICU Library's website)

When you use copyrighted material in your class, please make sure to comply with the copyright law.

See Use of copyrighted works for educational purposes (CTL Website)

[Good Example]

Required Text： ○○○○, available at ICU 's Sanseido bookstore
Additional References：To be distributed in class

Notes *Compulsory

List course policies and other important notes for students. For example, the following policies/notes can be spelled out as a behavioral guide for the class.

Attendance policy
Late submission policy
Communication policy
Mobile devices policy
Academic integrity- see: ICU Policy on Academic Integrity
Inclusion policy

[Good Example]

You are expected to actively participate in class. A rollcall is taken at each class. If you are discovered answering a rollcall for someone else, both you and the absent student will be marked as being absent from the class. If you are more than 30 minutes late for class, you will only receive half of the attendance points for that class.
If you are absent from class due to unavoidable circumstances such as illness, you will not lose attendance pionts as long as you have informed the TA in advance.
If you wish to use your PC or tablet in class (for note-taking purposes only), you must register as a PC/tablet user in advance and sit in the first three rows in the front of the room. Note-taking with a cell phone is prohibited.

URL

List such URLs as class website, blog site, Facebook group page, etc.

Contact Details (Phone, E-mail, Office Hours) *Compulsory

Please provide the instructor's/instrictprs' contact details (i.e. email address, and extension number), as well as office hours.

※These contact details will only be made accessible within the University network, for ICU staff, faculty and students.