Smells like a Brand New Semester!

Fall: mellow days, pumpkin spice, and a brand new semester. There’s really no other profession that promises renewal and excitement with such regularity—while still keeping so many things the same.

I love the process of recrafting each new learning term, starting with the syllabus. Over the years, I’ve worked to make mine more visually appealing, and for a while now, I’ve been creating one-page graphic syllabi. But this year? The creative bug bit harder.

My undergrad HR graphic syllabus got a full pirate-themed makeover.

And I even made an intro video for the training and development class!

Naturally, the long-form versions couldn’t just be plain Word documents anymore. So back I went to Canva, where I designed colorful, fun syllabi that (hopefully) spark curiosity.

Here is the link to the Grad Training and Development Syllabus

And here is the link to the Undergrad  HRM Syllabus 

But of course I did not stop there.

An interesting-looking syllabus deserves fun content! So I gave the topics a little more personality. Why not make the students think AND smile!

The Human Resource Management topic list transformed from this 

• Introduction
• EEO and Human Resource Management
• Job Analysis
• Recruitment
• Selection
• Training
• Performance Appraisal
• Compensation
• Benefits
• Employee Safety
• Employee Rights
• Unions
• High Performance Work Systems

to 

• HRM 101: Because Managing People Is Harder Than Herding Cats
• The Rules That Keep the Workplace from Turning into a Lawsuit
• What the Heck Do You Actually Do Here?
• Swipe Right on Talent
• The Resume Hunger Games: May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor
• Teaching Adults Stuff They’ll Forget by Friday
• The Annual "Awkward Conversation"
• Because "The Joy of Work" Doesn't Pay the Rent
• Perks, Pizza, and Health Insurance
• From "Oops" to "OSHA" in Three Easy Steps
• Boundaries, Breaks, and Basic Decency
• We're All in This Together (Whether You Like It or Not)
• More Work, Better Results, Probably Same Pay

while the Training and development topic list transformed from 

• Introduction
• Strategic Training
• Needs Assessment
• Learning and Transfer of Training
• Program Design
• Training Evaluation
• Training Methods
• Training Metrics
• AI in Training and Development
• Career Management and Development

to

• The Human Upgrade
• Because Winging it isn’t Strategic
• Find the Training Gap (Before it finds you)
• Cooking up Training : Mix Learning, Add Motivation, Serve Performance
• Because Boring is Not an Option
• Report Card Day: Grading Your Training's Performance
• Training Methods Buffet: All You Can Learn!
• The Hunger Games: May the Metrics Be Ever in Your Favor
• Bot to Be Wild: the AI Revolution in Training & Development
• Employee Development: Making Career Dreams Come True

These changes seem surface-level cosmetic. And it took a while to actually enact them! 

But the process made me think more deeply about the content—and how to better engage my students. It reminded me that creativity isn’t just decoration, but a tool for connection.

So here’s to a new semester: full of fresh starts, bold ideas, and maybe even a few pirates.