Reading Level Report

The Syllabus Reading Level report provides reading level statistics from the Gunning Fog Index and the Flesch-Kincade Grade Level Index. These two calculations are used to evaluate the text of a given syllabus and produce a score which can be used to judge the appropriateness of the written content for the intended audience. For both scales, scores are articulated in terms of whole numbers. The Fog index can produce a score of 0-20, reflecting US years of education. For example, a score of 5 represents the need for 5th grade comprehension, whereas a score of 17 would indicate graduate level. The Flesch-Kincade scale produces scores ranging from 0-12, with any score above 12 being reported as 12. For syllabi with a word count less than 500, scores will not be produced, as low word count syllabi tend to produce inaccurate scoring.

This will help you identify and address institutional policies, or even individual syllabi that could stand for improvement. Remember that both comprehension and speed are aided by moderate scores!

The report considers the print-version of each syllabus, meaning that both item content and headers contribute to the total score, but text added to the comments sections is not included in the calculations

Counts are provided for the number of courses qualifying for each reading level, and are displayed separately for both scales. The score per course as well as the total word-count per course can be obtained through the output below.

This report may be generated by anyone with Domain level permissions. 

Primary Group: Academic Administrators/System Administrators

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