[ARCHIVED] How to create a syllabus from scratch in a friendly student language?

[cheytaii]

I do not want to import. I would like to type on Course Summary. Edit button does not give me option to type on Course Summary. I need step-by-step help.

[pmartinez]

Hello  @cheytaii  and welcome to the Canvas Community! Thanks for reaching out and your question. Have you checked out: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12831-415255577 This guide does go over a few points that may be relevant to your question. Hope this is helpful. Thanks!

[James · Accepted solution]

 @cheytaii 

 @pmartinez  has provided the link to the official Canvas documentation (thank you, Priscilla).

I just want to highlight a particular part of the lesson from the Canvas Instructor Guide that she linked to because sometimes they're long enough that answer is easy to miss (kind of like the item at the hardware store last week that I had to get help finding -- just to find out it was 3 feet to my right). 

The following note is from the highlights at the top (with the blue background). The emphasis is mine.

The Course Summary is automatically generated based on assignments and events within a course. You can choose to disable the Course Summary. Items within the Course Summary can only be changed by editing or deleting the assignments or events. All assignments (unpublished and published) are listed in the syllabus for instructors.

Understanding Canvas' documentation can sometimes be a challenge. It's factually correct, but not always written the way people read things. When we have a question, we often take what's written in the documentation and mold it to match our question and sometimes that isn't what Canvas is saying. Here's the interpretation:

You cannot directly edit the Course Summary. Items within the Course Summary are automatically updated when you edit the assignments within the course and events on the calendar. If you want to add something to the course summary, it has to be done by adding an event or an assignment.

The edit button on the page allows you to edit the portion before the Course Summary. This is where you can put information that is not automatically generated from an assignment or calendar event.