Concourse Syllabus Training

Concourse Syllabus

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

Review the importance of a syllabus, it's key components, and what it's purpose is in this article, "Syllabus Design" from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University.

When are syllabi available for editing?

Syllabi are provisioned at the end of the prior semester. Once new Concourse Syllabus templates are provisioned, the previous semester syllabus will be locked for editing.

How will students view the syllabus?
Students have immediate access to the Concourse Syllabus when the Canvas course is published regardless of the audit status.

How do I use Concourse Syllabus?
Here’s the general procedure for setting up your Concourse Syllabus each semester

Accessing and Editing the Concourse Syllabus:

Navigate: Go to the Concourse Syllabus through your course's navigation menu on Canvas for each course. Switch to editing mode to start making changes.
Update Sections: Carefully review and update each section as necessary, according to the guidelines noted in the Concourse syllabus comments area.

Ensuring Up-to-Date College Practices and Information:

Regular Updates: Each semester, update your syllabus to reflect the latest college policies and procedures. Remember, copying your syllabus from one semester to another in Concourse will overwrite these updates so a thorough review prior to submitting the syllabus is recommended.
Use the Template: If you accidentally copy over the template, use the provided Google Slide presentation to compare your syllabus against the most recent template language. This ensures your syllabus includes all the latest updates and meets the required standards.

Completing and Reviewing:

Fill Sections: Complete all parts of the syllabus following the current guidelines and requirements.
Final Review: Before finalizing, thoroughly review your syllabus to ensure it accurately represents the information for the current semester and complies with institutional standards.

Submitting for Verification:

Download PDF: After updating and reviewing your syllabus, download a PDF version for your records.
Submit for Review: Use the 'audit' button located at the top of the Concourse Syllabus interface to submit your syllabus for administrative review, according to the steps provided in the guide.

By following these steps, you ensure that your Concourse Syllabus is always up-to-date, compliant with college policies, and ready for administrative review each semester.

Concourse Syllabus FAQ

Dual Enrollment Guide

Concourse Syllabus Training and Template Walkthrough

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

Teaching Multiple Sections
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 Concourse Cross-Listing document.

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.

Dual Enrollment Instructions

View and copy this Google Slide presentation that provides a visual tutorial on locating your Canvas course, editing your Concourse Syllabus (once provisioned), and submitting it to your Dual Enrollment Supervisor. You may want to copy this document for note-taking before your live Concourse syllabus is available. This will allow you to be ready to copy/paste from your notes once the syllabus is ready.

Kimberley Patterson, DVM, the Dual Enrollment Faculty Coordinator has recorded a presentation found here for your viewing and the videos on this page are designed to show you how to edit the syllabus piece-by-piece as well.

Thank you for ensuring compliance with our accrediting body and supporting our students. Your contributions are highly valued.

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

Non-editable fields such as the heading and the institutional policies will always reflect the current semester. It is recommended that you use the Graphic Organizer and Checklist to organize your syllabus between semesters as it contains the most up-to-date recommended language.

Once you have completed one syllabus in the current semester you may use the copy tool to Copy From one syllabus to another. It is very important to press COPY next to the title of the syllabus you want to copy from NOT the actual title. If you did not have to select which sections to copy, then you did it wrong, refresh the page and try again.

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.