Students in the Digital History Ph.D. program at Clemson University prepare comprehensive portfolios in lieu of a traditional comprehensive exam. A component of that portfolio includes annotated syllabi for each of the three fields. The exact topics and breakdown of those 3 syllabi should be discussed with your advisory committee during your Portfolio Plan meeting which typically is filled out the semester before you prepare and defend your portfolio.
Please note that these are Dr. Regan’s guidelines for annotated syllabi. If you are not preparing a portfolio for Dr. Regan you should check with your advisory committee about standards and guidelines for the annotated syllabi.
Components of the Annotated Syllabi
There are a few general things pertaining to the class that your syllabus should contain:
- A course description
- Learning Objectives
- Assignment and grade breakdown
- Any policies or procedures that you’d like to include (late work, absences, technology policies etc)
One of the largest components of the syllabus is the schedule. In an annotated syllabus, your schedule will be far more detailed than the version that you would provide for students. Its purpose is to demonstrate your thinking about the topic for the week and what historical arguments, literature, and approaches you will use to bring the topic to the classroom.
For each week you should include:
- A Rationale: What does this week in the course address? What are the main points students will understand? What case studies or examples might you use? And why is this topic important? How does it contribute to the course’s overall themes and learning goals. (2-4 paragraphs)
- Class Titles: you can choose whether the course runs TR (1hr 15min sessions), MWF (50 min sessions), or once a week (2hr 30min sessions). The format you choose may have some impact on how you organize the class.
- Student objectives for the week: what will students leave this week learning? These should be the things you expect your students to take away from the week’s readings and class discussions. (1 paragraph)
- Readings: a list of readings for the week, divided by primary and secondary if necessary. You should not just pick up a textbook and simply assign chapters from it. You can use chapters from monographs or anthologies as well as primary sources.
- Topics: a bullet point list of the topics covered in the week’s classes.
- Discussion questions: Questions you plan to use to generate discussion based on a given day’s assignment.
- Bibliography: a list of books that you will use to prepare lectures and educate yourself on the topic. These are not books that would necessarily assign to students but are more background reading for yourself.
- Miscellaneous: not required but this section could be where you describe a particular assignment or activity you would do in class.
To see an example of what a full section of an annotated syllabi in this format looks like, see this example from the University of Utah.
Digital History or Digitally Inflected Syllabi
Digital history courses are unique in that students need to be trained in both the historical content and the tool at hand. Sometimes that means one final project that is digitally inflected (a timeline, an Omeka exhibit, a story map) and sometimes that means the course is more lab oriented (historical content on Tuesday, a digital application for studying the topic on Thursday). Being able to discuss how you would incorporate digital history components into an upper division class is essential on the job market. For annotated syllabi with a digital component, be sure to engage with the methods as well as the content and showcase how you would bridge that divide for students. Is there a digital assignment? A digital history project they are examining as part of the week’s reading or class activities? What tools, methods and approaches are you using?
Last updated: June 2023.