New Perspectives in Science Education

There is a lot of literature about syllabi importance but does not exist studies than measure the impact of the syllabi, some studies asses the degree to which a syllabus achieves a learning-centered orientation other studies analyze its design. A syllabus can be useful in engaging students, yet discussions of their effective use rarely appear. The function of syllabi has seven purposes: It sets the tone for a course, motivates students to set lofty but achievable goals, serves as a planning tool for faculty, structure students’ work over the course of the semester, helps faculty plan and meet course goals in a timely manner, serves as a contract between faculty and students about what students can expect from faculty and vice versa, and is a portfolio artifact for tenure, promotion or jobs applications. Nowadays, the information technology allows collect data from the educative process, this work analyzes the correlations between syllabi schedule and grades obtained by students in an Ecuadorian technical university. We analyze data of four semesters over an information system for register and follow syllabus progress. Our results show that good scheduling of the activities, at least one per class, has a direct correlation with grades, in conclusion, while more activities were scheduled, the students grades increase.

Keywords: Academic Achievement, Syllabus, Learning Analytics.