“Syllabus Day” Reinvented: Reimagining the First Day of Class for Accounting Courses

Abstract

The traditional first day of class includes the instructor reading from the syllabus, sharing personal details, and performing ice-breakers. This approach to “syllabus day” often gives students a negative first impression of the course, which may limit full understanding of course policies, hinder student motivation, and decrease instructor evaluations. This paper proposes a novel approach to “syllabus day” that includes completing an information search quiz, building a course grade "estimator" in Excel, and drafting a professional memo. These engaging activities are designed to increase students’ understanding of course policies by examining the syllabus for an accounting course and to develop workplace readiness skills vital to an accounting career. Student feedback indicates that our approach to the first class meeting gives students a better understanding of information included in the syllabus compared to other classes, is more interesting than typical initial class meetings, and is recommended for use in other courses.