The Stanford Syllabus site is an excellent but underused resource for both professors and students. Developed by Academic Computing with the support of many Stanford administrative departments, this online repository of course syllabi has generated a fair amount of publicity. Unfortunately, not all professors post their syllabi on the site.

The syllabus site helps professors and instructors organize their classes more effectively. Having syllabi online could greatly reduce the amount of chaos that goes on during the first week of class. Students are less likely to come into class, pick up a copy of the syllabus and leave immediately. This is especially important for professors who need accurate estimates of enrolment numbers — estimates that affect decisions like whether to hire an extra teaching assistant or schedule extra office hours.

Reducing the amount of chaos during the shopping period also benefits students. Being able to view course syllabi online allows students to make well-informed choices at the start of the quarter. This reduces overall anxiety, especially for freshmen still unfamiliar with Stanford academics. This new online resource is also important for students who have to choose between two or more classes scheduled at the same time, especially if both classes are small-group seminars with limited enrolment.

Professors should note that they are by no means obliged to post course materials in their entirety. Syllabi posted on the site do not have to be perfectly complete. But even the most minimal amount of information posted on the site will help the shopping process run more smoothly.

At the very least, syllabi should provide students with a good sense of the workload required for the class. As such, they should give an idea of the amount of reading per week, the number of problem sets, papers, quizzes, midterms, exams and projects. Professors should also consider including their grading policies in their syllabi.

Posting a syllabus ahead of time is a good way of getting some boring administrative details out of the way. Syllabi can also be used to specify mundane details, such as the frequency of meeting times and whether there is an optional section or additional field trips.

With this online system, professors can easily modify the syllabus at any point, as more details get confirmed.

Moreover, they can remove any information they don’t want students to access. Post an old syllabus. Post a draft syllabus. Anything is better than nothing. Even after the quarter is over, it’s not too late for professors to post their syllabi online for future reference.

Professors would benefit from having students who are more focused and more likely to have read the syllabus ahead of time. Students would be better prepared to ask questions about the course content, instead of asking annoying questions about what books to buy or how many papers they have to write.

Currently, the Stanford Syllabus site may duplicate some of the functions available on Coursework. It would be a good idea to have this site integrated with Coursework or Axess, although this is contingent on the sustained popularity of the site.

Until then, it is important for professors to post their syllabi in both places. Some courses are not open to self-registration on Coursework, which prevents students from viewing the syllabus unless they are already enrolled. Also, students are generally unable to access syllabi from previous years on Coursework.

It is also important that no class be exempt from posting their syllabi online — neither large introductory classes like IHUM, Math 51, Econ 1A or the Biology core, nor obscure classes offered by boutique departments.

We recognize the hidden potential in this Web site and hope that it will develop into a valuable repository of information for future students. This quarter, students should ask their professors to post their syllabi online and we would be especially grateful if professors would be willing to spend the weekend scouring their hard drives for old syllabi.

This editorial originally ran on Jan. 11, 2007. Useful for signing up for Spring quarter classes (Axess opens for enrollment on Mar. 10), the Syllabus site can be found at syllabus.stanford.edu.