When I began teaching in 1975 I would write my syllabus by hand and my secretary would type it on mimeograph paper for duplication and distribution to students. The mimeograph morphed to Xerox, and in the 1980s I began to type my own syllabus using my PC. When the internet became available I stopped reproducing the syllabus and had the students download it for themselves. I kept the syllabus black and white since many students did not have a color printer.
At this point, color printing is available to all of my students, either at home or in our computer labs. This allows me to include graphics (eg, Labor day, Halloween) on my syllabus in order to make it more engaging.
Wordle.net is a web site that enables users to very easily create their own Word clouds. I have taken my course syllabus, modified it some, and used wordle.net to create the word cloud (shown here) that I have included on my syllabus. Wordle gives the user the opportunity to customize the cloud by selecting the font, the colors, the layout (horizontal, vertical, mixed), and the maximum number of words in the cloud. The word cloud improves the appearance of my syllabus and it gives a sign to the students that I am current in that I use the recently developed word cloud representation.
Another use: When a colleague retired recently, we took his resume, imported it into Wordle and gave him an 18” by 24” framed picture of his resume’s word cloud–a very unique, highly appreciated gift.