Graduate course assignments that are pragmatic, challenging, scaffold prior learning, and support academic career aspirations can be difficult to create and even more problematic to assess for even the most experienced faculty. This paper presents a class assignment that incorporated a real-world journal reviewing assignment into an elective…

Describes a series of popular elective courses at the University of Georgia that avoid the stigma associated with developmental education while providing similar opportunities for skill development. Courses cover such things as learning to learn, strategies for academic success, critical thinking and writing skills, adjusting to college, and needs…

Argues that course syllabi and instructors' presentation of them set a tone for interaction with students. Relates incident in which a student in the author's class disrupted the class by regularly leaving to feed a parking meter. Student's behavior sparked discussions among colleagues regarding ways of presenting syllabi in relation to classroom…

A course entitled "Strategies for Academic Success," conducted in the Division of Developmental Studies at the University of Georgia, is described. The sample syllabus focuses on self-awareness and can be adapted to meet the needs of other institutions. The course is designed to promote awareness and development of psychological, social,…

A model that includes three distinct syllabi for orientation courses for different subgroups of the college or university freshman population is presented. Among the groups with special needs are underprepared students who may be motivated but need skill development, and underachieving students characterized by untapped potential. One means of…