The following are potential Syllabus Explorer use cases for different groups:
Undergraduates
- Find courses on topics of interest during shopping time
- Access to a course syllabus for self-directed learning
- Find a faculty member to potentially be a research assistant for
- Find additional readings for a senior thesis
- Find references for articles from a course taken in the past (for instance that a student remembers reading, but can’t recall/retrieve) to use for a current project
- Reduce gaps among students that do or do not have prior knowledge (through student networks) of Harvard courses
- For students who decide to take a future course mid-semester, they will not have to wait a semester/year to see the syllabus
- For students who study abroad and want to make a reading list based on courses offered at Harvard during their semester away
Graduate Students (in addition to the above use cases)
- Use information from syllabi for thesis/dissertation writing
- Identify faculty for meetings on topics of interest
- Consult syllabi for guidance on pedagogy (i.e. how content is sequenced, different types of assignments, etc.)
- (After graduation) Find syllabi similar to a course that they will be teaching at a new institution
Faculty
- Identify ‘closest neighbors', i.e. courses on similar or related topics and associated faculty members
- For new faculty members, gain familiarity with courses offered by Harvard colleagues
- Find text to import from existing syllabi, such as required books, class attendance policy, library use policy, academic honesty policy, etc.
- Consult syllabi of prior version(s) of a course if assigned to take over the course from a prior instructor
- Review syllabi of existing courses to avoid replication if offering a new course
Administrators
- For new course offerings, better align with existing courses offered to the same students base or across programs
- Use as a resource for exploring student interests during academic advising sessions
- Identify opportunities in the curriculum to generate new courses
- Assist in surfacing the different types of technology and resources used in classes
- Provide past syllabi to alumni who need it when applying for various professional certifications