Due to impressive school-wide attendance for the first few days of class, BYU has decided to offer a new course, Student Development 400, where students will study exclusively first-day-of-class materials. The expected learning outcomes (and a rough outline of the course) are described as follows:
Syllabus Mastery (Weeks 1-8)– Students will gain an in-depth understanding of syllabus. In lieu of midterms, four “closed-learning suite” syllabus quizzes will be given.
Biographical Education (Weeks 9-16)– Students will learn extensively about their professor’s personal life. The structure of this portion of class will largely depend on the instructor, but BYU has released some lesson plan ideas, including:
- Show students a slideshow of pictures from your mission to Boise, Idaho.
- Read aloud, in its entirety, the last paper you co-authored.
- Have an open discussion about why it’s your wife’s fault that you’ve have been a little “distant” lately.
While this new course offering may seem a little unusual, many seemed to see it as fitting. “Syllabus week always seems to last forever, so this might as well happen,” one student said, after rolling her eyes.