I'veworked hard on doing more with a web-based syllabus than merely bringing a syllabus from hard copy to web-based copy.  This has been a kind of research for me as I've been learning how to do this while doing it.  My learning has been in two areas: the mechanics of putting information on the web; and how to construct a site so that students will want to use it. My intentions that guide my design work, also a kind of research, center around four concepts.  I'll address these individually.

• AVAILABILITY:  The course occurs during student teaching.  Obviously students are interested in access to the syllabus from different locations - home, school, uvm classrooms.  I also want cooperating teachers to have access to the syllabus to ease the inevitable negotiations that take place over my assignments.  The teachers should have access to my assignments as well.
• INTERACTIVE:   The web-based nature of the syllabus allows me to upload pertinent information generated during class at the conclusion of class.  This capacity has the effect of making adjustments achieved in classroom dialogue immediately available to my students.  They see our work as collaborative when I make adjustments in syllabus information based on their input.  That's what I want.  The class is more seminar than top/down imposition of information and requirements.  We work on these issues together.  When they see my adjust, the work is more credible and interactive.
• VOICE:  I have a place on the site called "interaction" for students to read their comments in class.  I often do some type of free-write at the beginning or conclusion of class that relates to class content and it's place in their teaching lives.  They access the site more frequently when they know their words are there for all to see.  Everyone has a bit of narcissism as part of his or her makeup.  Why not use it to our mutual advantage?
• CONTENT ACQUISITION:  I believe what I am teaching will help schoolchildren become more powerful learners.  The more I can use my own students as conduits for that most important goal, the more effective I am as a college instructor.  The construction of my site is geared towards this end.  If my students do well what I want them to do, their students will learn and achieve better as a result.  That is my goal.  My web-based syllabus for EdEl 188 enables this to occur.

Data:  First semester, 45% of my 32 students used the site 1-3 times.  18% used it 4-6 times, and 14% used it 7 or more times.  Second semester, 100% of my students (N=9) used the site 7 or more times. 

To access my syllabus for EdEl 188, just hit the link.