Leveling Up Your Syllabus

Every semester, you spend time updating it, uploading it, and answering questions about it. Yes, we’re talking about your syllabus. However, rather than simply posting a PDF of your syllabus to the Files area of your Canvas-based course site, consider leveling it up. Whether you take advantage of the robust functionality of Design Tools or try out an app that enables you to incorporate a variety of visually-appealing elements into your syllabus, you can take your syllabus beyond a PDF download.

Leveling Up the Functionality

Design Tools can enable you to dramatically increase the functionality of the syllabus that your students access via your course site’s Syllabus tool. Rather than simply linking to a PDF, you can instead build a robust, easily updatable, and editable version of your syllabus. Want to automatically pull in UF policy or embed the course grading scheme found under Settings? You can do that and much more with Design Tools.

To open Design Tools, click the Edit button. Once you’re in editing mode, click the Launch Design Tools button found in the top right corner of the Syllabus tool.

Once Design Tools has been launched, you will be able to access a variety of panels. The first panel provides you with a variety of ways to create and edit your syllabus content. These include choosing a theme and banner image, adding and rearranging the various sections of your syllabus, and integrating a course grading scheme and a variety of UF policies.

You can also use Design Tools to customize the style of your syllabus, including borders, colors, images, listings, and the like. You can add advanced elements, such as accordions and tabs that can expand and contract various sections, as well as icons and learning objectives that are built upon Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. You can also use Design Tools to check the accessibility of the design of your syllabus, as well.

Leveling Up the Visual

For those of you who are ready to try out a more visually-oriented syllabus design, you have a few easy-to-use and free (yes, free!) options. Tackk allows you to to easily build a visually-appealing syllabus (see this syllabus built with the Blank Canvas option for an example of what is possible). Adobe Spark’s web stories provides you with another way to create a visually-rich syllabus.

Leveling Up the Content

Finally, no matter what look and feel you choose, there’s also the matter of what to include in your syllabus. The Syllabus Design page of the UF Office of Faculty Development & Teaching Excellence has a number of helpful resources. You can review UF’s syllabus policy to ensure that you are incorporating all necessary information, and get tips about what you might consider including. You can also access suggested strategies, a sample syllabus, a syllabus template, and suggestions for how to communicate your expectations for online behavior.