Simple Syllabus: Frequently Asked Questions for Faculty (FAQ)

Yes, you can. However, if you copy your syllabus into a new course, those links will still point to the original course where the syllabus was created. This means students in the new course will not be able to access those materials because the links send them to a different course. If you choose to include links, you will need to update them each time you copy the syllabus into a new course. For this reason, we generally recommend not linking directly to course items from your syllabus. 

This area is editable, and you have full control of that content. The four student services currently listed were selected because they are the most frequently used by students.  To provide a more complete list, we created a Student Support Services page that is available in Canvas Commons. This page is updated every six months to ensure the information remains current. It includes services listed alphabetically, descriptive links to each department’s website, a short description of the services offered, and the best ways for students to access them. 

You are welcome to review that page and copy any services you would like to include in your syllabus, or you may simply download the page into your course. If you download the page, you will receive a notification whenever updates are made. You can review the changes and decide whether to apply the update or keep your current version. 

Yes. Once an assignment is published in Canvas, it will automatically appear in the schedule within Simple Syllabus. There is nothing additional you need to do. It may take a moment for the schedule to update after the assignment is published. As a best practice for online courses, we recommend publishing all course content at the start of the quarter whenever possible. If you do not want your students to see the assignment, you can edit the assignment so it is not viewable until a certain date, which will keep the date on this page but prevent them from seeing the assignment. This allows students to view all due dates in advance and plan their asynchronous time more effectively. 

Curriculum is the official system where the college maintains course descriptions and course learning outcomes in one place. That system is not managed by eLearning. Many departments also keep copies of this information internally, and faculty are often provided with it when they are assigned a course. The link to Curriculum is simply provided as a resource in case you need to access the official information directly. If you need help accessing or using Curriculum, please contact [department name]. 

Simple Syllabus will not work in your Canvas Blueprint course. Please go into each of your associated courses and enable simple Syllabus to work on for that course. 

Yes, you can merge courses and still use Simple Syllabus. If you plan to merge courses, build your syllabus in the main course that will remain after the merge (you will designate the main course when you fill out the merge request form). During the merge process, the main course keeps all its content and settings, while the other course shells are merged into it. Students from the merged sections will then access the syllabus and course materials through that main course.