Syllabus as EULA
Sarah Whitcomb Laiola · Syllabus · 2020
This flash essay argues that the syllabus operates as the End User License Agreement -- or EULA -- of our classrooms. The EULA is a ubiquitous technical document that both stems from and promotes power structures that we generally recognize as problematic. Thinking the syllabus as an analogous document allows us to highlight the ways a syllabus can quickly become, and often operates as, a similarly problematic document. From this position, we can use the research supporting EULA reform as a lens through which to similarly reform the syllabus.