Concourse Syllabus Training

Concourse syllabus

The Spring 2021 are now locked for editing so that during the copy process, past semester syllabi are not inadvertently edited. Fall 2021 syllabi will be provisioned at the end of the summer 2021 semester.

UPDATE: Fall 2021 syllabus templates will be available to edit in Canvas shells by the end of the business day on August 5th. At the same time, the syllabus for summer 2021 will be locked for editing.

NOTE: If you would like to get started on edits, we recommend using Adobe Acrobat DC to export your previous syllabus to Word. Edit what is there, then when you syllabus is provisioned a quick 20 minute copy/paste session will get you ready to go. The faculty development coordinator will send out word of the updates to the Institutional Policies as soon as all language from the various responsible departments is finalized. The following tools will remind you which sections are your responsibility and which are locked for editing: Concourse Syllabus Required Element Checklist |
Concourse Syllabus Graphic Organizer. (Link will ask you to make a copy of the document that you can then edit and will live in your Google Drive) use this tool to prepare for when the syllabus template is provisioned.

Welcome to the training page for Concourse Syllabus in Canvas LMS at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. The links below will help you navigate this page or you may scroll to read all the contents. The how-to guides include a guide and a video to help you through the process of editing and submitting the syllabus for review. For general information please read the section below the links or check out the Concourse Syllabus FAQ.

Concourse Syllabus FAQ

Concourse Syllabus Checklist

Updates to Institutional Template Spring 2021

Dual Enrollment Guide

All Faculty Quickstart Guide

Copy From Other Syllabus

Build Your Syllabus

Edit Concourse Syllabus

Download the Backup PDF

Review and Audit Functions

Submit for Review

Advanced Editing: Add images, files, change text size

Concourse Overview

Academic Affairs has moved to college-wide use of the Concourse Syllabus System embedded into the Canvas LMS. All spring 2021 syllabi should be provisioned with a template that contains up-to-date institutional policy, find a class information such as Course Description, Competencies, meeting times, and materials, as well as suggestions and guidelines for populating the remaining sections of the syllabus. These templates will be accessible via the related Canvas course for instructor editing. When the Canvas course is published, students will have immediate mobile-friendly access.

If you teach multiple sections, once you complete one syllabus, you can easily copy the editable sections into your other courses. This is the same from semester to semester you will copy the previous semester's information to the new syllabus and make the minor adjustments that may have occurred. You don't have to worry about having the most recent institutional policies because they are pre-loaded semester to semester.

It is a best practice, if you intend to cross-list your courses, or you teach in a learning community that you follow a few tips found in the FAQ document for Concourse.

Please use the Concourse Troubleshooting form to communicate any feedback or issues that may arise with the use of Concourse. For general questions and feedback about Concourse Syllabus please complete the General Feedback form.

General Flow to get syllabus ready

Check the updates to the template.
Choose which sections to copy from last semester.
Copy from last semester.
Copy/Paste/Update information from your syllabus to Concourse
Remove any red text in visible fields
Check it out in View mode (not student view in Canvas that won’t work)
Download a PDF to have a hard copy
Submit for Review (Audit menu)
Publish your Canvas course (maybe - did you unpublish all your old assignments and make sure your course dates are set correctly?)

Don't have a course in Canvas yet but want to get a start on your syllabus? Get the Concourse Syllabus Template Guide!

This Google Slide presentation has images of the syllabus template with notes that are identical to the live version. When you click on the above link you will be taken to a Google page that has a button to "Make a copy." It is set up like this so that this copy of the template is yours! You can edit it and add notes as much as you want. It will automatically be added to your Google Drive so make sure you note which Google account you are logged into.

A start to finish guide to build a compliant syllabus using Concourse in Canvas.

Dual Enrollment guide

A step-by-step guide to build a compliant syllabus in Canvas for DE instructors.

Don't have a course in Canvas yet but want to get a start on your syllabus? Get the DE Concourse Syllabus Template Guide!

This Google Slide presentation has images of the syllabus template with notes that are identical to the live version. When you click on the above link you will be taken to a Google page that has a button to "Make a copy." It is set up like this so that this copy of the template is yours! You can edit it and add notes as much as you want. It will automatically be added to your Google Drive so make sure you note which Google account you are logged into.

Updates to institutional template

Every semester there may be edits to the Institutional Template. The Concourse team attempts to limit changes to those sections that you copy from one semester to another, but there is information from one semester to another that needs updating. Therefore make it a part of your best practice for a semester start to review this change document and expect a video from the CTLA reviewing those changes. You will always find those things here.

Find your Canvas course

Go to learn.maricopa.edu to access Canvas, you can also find this on the cgc.edu homepage under quick links - Canvas.
Login with your MEID and password. Need to figure out your MEID and password? Use the MEID Finder Tool
You should see your course on the Dashboard. If you do not see it right away, go to Courses, All Courses. If you still do not see your course contact the CTLA or your DE supervisor.

Get into Edit mode in Concourse

To get into editing mode in the Concourse syllabus, you go to syllabus then edit. Once inside you will find comments guiding you on what is needed to edit for each section in the syllabus. Much of the syllabus is prefilled with examples in the comments that can be copied and pasted into the syllabus.

Building The Concourse Syllabus

Use Comments to Copy/Paste Content

The comments within the template are to guide you through building your syllabus and give you suggested language for fields that are open for editing. In addition, you can add comments to your syllabus for future reference.

Add New Item in a Section

Concourse Syllabus has preformatted fields to insert into the syllabus to make your syllabus more accessible without having to know any advanced web design. They are denoted by green boxes on the left in the edit syllabus mode. Scroll through the syllabus in edit mode to see the different fields you can add to the document.

Move Items Within A Section

Sub-sections of the main sections in the Concourse Syllabus can be reordered. The main sections, denoted by teal icons, such as Institutional Policies, are in a fixed order.

Delete Items

Deleting items is risky because there is no "undo" in Concourse Syllabus. Comments are deleted in addition to the section. Only unlocked sections can be deleted. Click the red box with the white x to delete.

Download the Backup PDF of your Syllabus, Share, AND Print the Concourse Syllabus

NOTE: Students will see whatever you see when you are in View mode in the Concourse Syllabus once you have published your course.

Download a Backup of Your Concourse Syllabus

View and Download your Concourse syllabus as a PDF to print.

Get the Hyperlink or Embed Code to Your Concourse Syllabus

To share your syllabus in your personal website or teacher page, you may go to Info in the Concourse menus and find the code to the right. Anyone with the link will be able to view your syllabus.

Submit the Concourse Syllabus for ReView

When you have finished editing your syllabus, you are ready to mark it for review - note that this does not do anything for student viewing - students can view the syllabus as soon as your course is published. Also, you do not have to wait for approval before students view the syllabus. However, do make sure that the red writing at the top is gone before showing to students. Do so by going to Audit, at the top of the syllabus page, choosing "Submitted for review" in the audit status drop down box, entering a message in the box, and finally, clicking update. There is no need to send a notification to anyone.
NOTE: It is important to remember that once you have published your course, the current version of the syllabus in whatever state of editing will display.

Copy From Other Syllabus

Once you have completed your first syllabus, it stays in the Concourse system for you to use in future syllabi. Concourse's copy from feature is a process that should be thought of carefully before completing. The process is similar to importing Canvas courses from one semester to another, or one section to another, except that it erases whatever content that exists in the present syllabus with the old syllabus's language, so when, as an institution, language is updated in the editable sections of the syllabus, it is important to check out the change document to make sure your syllabus contains the most up-to-date information. However, non-editable fields such as the heading and the institutional policies will always reflect the current semester - so no more editing Institutional Information!

Advanced Editing: Add Images, Files, and Change Text Size

Files and Images
Most sections in Concourse have an option for attaching files. To do that you must first upload the file to Concourse, or you may use Google Drive to link to files using link sharing features.

Images can be placed in Concourse through a bit of HTML coding using the source editor (<>) within the Rich Content Editor. The code is
<img src="link to the image" alt="This is a picture" />

Links to images can be found on websites or by uploading an image to Concourse. Right click on the image from the internet and choose copy link address. Then paste that into "link to the image" in the code above.

You may also upload the image to Concourse in files and copy that link. It may not work from semester to semester however if you do not link to an outside source. Once you have the image uploaded you can resize it how you like.

Resize Text
To enlarge text within a section of the Concourse Syllabus, you must use the source code in the content editor denoted by brackets.

With the source code open, find the text you want to enlarge. Just before the first word type in the opening heading tag, ie. <h1> (see the image in the guide to find out which size you wish to use and adjust the tag accordingly).

After the end of the last word that you want enlarged, type the closing heading tag, ie. </h1>
Select OK in the Source Code and you should see the edited text.