Concourse syllabusAcademic Affairs has moved to college-wide use of the Concourse Syllabus System embedded into the Canvas LMS. All summer and fall semester course syllabi will be provisioned (May 1, 2020) with a template that contains up-to-date institutional policy, Course Description and Competencies, 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 import the editable sections into your other courses. This is the same from semester to semester. You don't have to worry about formatting or 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. |
Watch this 5-minute overview to understand the basics on how Concourse Syllabus works and what to expect! |
A step-by-step guide to build a compliant syllabus in Canvas for DE instructors.
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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. |
A start to finish guide to build a compliant syllabus using Concourse in Canvas.
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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. |
Getting Started: Login to Canvas and Access Your Course Site
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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View and Download your Concourse syllabus as a PDF to print.
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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.
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When you have finished editing your syllabus, you are ready to mark it for review. 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.
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Once you have completed your first syllabus, it stays in the Concourse system for you to use in future syllabi. Similar to importing Canvas courses from one semester to another or one section to another, this process is called copying (used to be import).
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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. |
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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.
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.
