A new service is now available in Canvas to assist you in building and sharing your syllabi in your courses! Simple Syllabus takes the guesswork out of formatting, submitting, and adding required syllabus statements. The Office of Information Technology has worked alongside the Office of Faculty Success to implement this time-saving service, and we’d like to tell you about some of the features and advantages of Simple Syllabus.
Taking faculty feedback into consideration, Simple Syllabus is designed to help reduce the burden of required syllabus tasks, like:
- No more need to copy-and-paste updated SMU syllabus statements each term for each syllabus (https://www.smu.edu/OIT/AcademicTech/Instructional-Guidelines/Syllabus/required-syllabus-statements). Instead of faculty having to locate/copy/paste the updates of these statements every term, Simple Syllabus pre-populates the statements automatically with no time or effort required by faculty.
- No need to upload every syllabus each term to the SMU Syllabus Library. Simple Syllabus automatically loads to the new Syllabus Library, and faculty can also, with one click, roll their syllabi over from term to term. This reduces the burden on faculty and, in many units on campus, on staff who have been tasked to support this work.
- No concerns with ensuring disability accessibility standards are met for your syllabi. All syllabi are formatted in Simple Syllabus to meet required disability accessibility standards. It also exports to PDF in appropriate formats and meets mobile usage accessibility standards.
We’re excited to have this new system available to make your life simpler! Additional information on Simple Syllabus is available on our website including links to the knowledge base and instructional videos. If you have any questions or individual support, feel free to contact your local Academic Technology Service Director (ATSD).
