Fri. April 26, 2019 

2:00 - 3:15 PM 228 DeBartolo

Presented by Chris Clark 

clark.96@nd.edu

Kaneb Center for Teaching & Learning

University of Notre Dame

What to bring

● MS Word file or Google Doc of a syllabus to make over

● Optional: Mac laptop if you're uncomfortable with Windows

Learning Goal 

Create a visual syllabus that is efficient, easy to read, effective, and enjoyable.

Design 

● Rule of thirds, empty space, contrast

● Limited emphasis, limited colors

● Layout Table

Images 

● Picture Superiority

● Communicating with Images

● Creative Commons

Text 

● Boldface, italics, all caps, centering

● Serif and Sans Serif

Color 

● Too many colors can be confusing

● Color Scheme

Tools 

● Google Docs or MS Word

● Document Makeover

http://tinyurl.com/jjwo7gz Sample syllabi, videos, and readings

Visual Syllabus Makeover - April 2019 Page 1 of 3

 

 

On the Kaneb Center website — http://tinyurl.com/jjwo7gz 

Library White Space is Not Your Enemy , by Golombisky & Hagen (online access - ND only ) 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, by Weinschenk (online access - ND only) Graphics for Learning, by Clark & Lyons (online access - ND only )

Online Hands-on

● Images - Pixabay | Flaticon

● Fonts & colors - Google Fonts | Adobe Color

● Color vision - VisCheck

● Templates - Google Drive folder

Examples from Notre Dame

● CDT 30423 - 2019 (Clark & Turner)

● ACMS 10145 - 2018 (Woodard)

● ARCH 53231 - 2016 (Zeiger)

● ROFR 30320 - 2015 (Haake)

More

● How to make a visually awesome handout

● Building a visual syllabus

● Three-minute Handout Makeover (video)

● Creative Approaches to the Syllabus (ProfHacker)

Visual Syllabus Makeover - April 2019 Page 2 of 3

Visual Syllabus Makeover - April 2019 Page 3 of 3

Word Tools for Your Syllabus 

● Text - font, size, bold, italic, strikethrough, sub/super

● Borders & shading (for a table or paragraph) - make boxes or add a background color

● Table - an alternative to tabs (borders optional)

● Insert - Image, shape, text box, equation, chart, media

● Page - number, color, border

● Theme - predefined color palette and fonts

● Page - margins, columns, orientation, size

● Objects - align, arrange (front, back)

From the File menu 

● New from Template - predefined page layout, fonts, margins, and styles

● Save as PDF - no worries about fonts, cross-platform issues, inadvertent editing

G.C. Clark — January 2017 — University of Notre Dame

Visual D

esign for Your Syllabus 

Picture superiority Im

ages are m

ore likely to b

e remem

bered

than

word

s.

Efficient im

ages ad

d m

eanin

g rath

er than

decorate.

Rule of th

irds Ph

otos and

other visu

als do n

ot need

to be sym

metrical.

Thin

k of a p

age as h

aving

three colu

mn

s, rather th

an on

e.

Limited em

phasis 

Noth

ing

stand

s out w

hen

too mu

ch is h

igh

ligh

ted in

bold

/color/italics.

Tw

o fonts 

As a g

eneral ru

le, use tw

o fonts —

one serif, on

e sans serif. A

void scrip

t.

Decorative fon

ts (legib

le ones) are ok

ay for large titles.

Mixed case 

Avoid

usin

g all u

pp

ercase letters.

Justification 

Do n

ot center p

aragrap

hs or lists. It’s ok

ay for head

ing

s and

titles.

Italics Italicize rath

er than

un

derlin

ing

— u

nd

erlined

items are seen

as link

s.

Color schem

e S

tick to a p

alette of 3-5

colors. Too man

y can con

fuse read

ers.

Con

trast is your frien

d!

Empty space 

Min

imize d

ensity an

d clu

tter — cu

t out an

ythin

g you

don

’t need

.

G.C

. Clark —

April 2019 — U

niversity of Notre D

ame