A Legal Analysis and Contrarian View of the Syllabus-as-Contract Perspective
Abstract
Despite the claim made in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) literature for over two decades that a syllabus is a contract, the courts have uniformly ruled that it is not. While there is no harm in thinking one's syllabus is a contract, there may be legal risk in proclaiming it so. The author provides an analysis of the syllabus-as-contract dilemma as well as a review of the legal precedents. Best practices from contract drafting are applied to syllabus creation to enhance teaching and learning and minimize the legal risks of student grievances.
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