This idea comes from Matt Reed at Inside Higher Ed, who in turn got it from Emily M. Farris at Texas Christian University: have students annotate, in ABC fashion, your course syllabus at the end of the semester.
I’m going to go a few steps further for the upcoming semester:
First, instead of my usual quiz on the syllabus at the beginning of the semester, I’ll have students annotate it on Perusall in response to my questions. The assignment should function as a close reading exercise, but it will be machine graded by Perusall.
Second, I’ll create a quiz on the Canvas LMS that will force students to explore the contents of the course’s Canvas shell. It has become apparent that most students only pay attention to the LMS’s “To Do” list of impending assignment deadlines that pops up on their phones. They ignore everything else I put into my course shells, including the “How to Get an A” advice. As with the Perusall assignment on the syllabus, the quiz will be machine graded by Canvas.
Third, I’ll create another Perusall assignment on the syllabus for the end of the semester, to get feedback on what worked and what didn’t, and to remind students of course learning outcomes.