How do I use the Syllabus as an instructor?

[#1]

The Syllabus in Canvas makes it easy to communicate to your students exactly what will be required of them throughout the course in chronological order. You can also set the syllabus as your course home page.

You can choose to make your syllabus public so that people who aren't enrolled in your course can view more information about the course. A public syllabus can be viewed as part of a private course when you send a link to a student, or if the course is listed in the public course index.

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 All assignments (unpublished and published) are listed in the syllabus for instructors.

Open Syllabus

In Course Navigation, click the Syllabus link.

View Syllabus

The syllabus includes the syllabus description [1], the Course Summary [2], and the sidebar [3].

View Syllabus Description

The syllabus description is where you can post your course description, a brief introduction, class guidelines, weekly reminders, and other important information. You can copy content from Word documents directly into the Rich Content Editor or create original content inside of the Rich Content Editor.

You can also link to your Syllabus by uploading it into Course Files as a PDF and linking it in the content selector. Canvas will automatically create a preview of your document so your students don't have to download it before reading it.

To edit the Syllabus, click the Edit button.

View Course Summary

The Course Summary is automatically generated for the course and contains a list of assignments and events. Assignments are indicated by the Assignments icon [1], and events are indicated by the Calendar icon [2]. Non-graded items with a to-do date show the to-do date [3]. All assignments (unpublished and published) are listed in the syllabus for instructors, but students only see published assignments.

Changes to these dated events can be made in both the Assignments and Calendar features and will be automatically updated in the Syllabus.

Click the title to view the details of the assignment or event. Any assignments or events that are past the due date are highlighted in gray. Undated items are listed in alphabetical order [4].

The Course Summary is enabled by default. Learn how to disable the Course Summary.

View Time Zones

If you have set a specific time zone in your User Settings, all course dates and times will display in your local time, but if you hover over the time, you can also see the course date and time.

View Sidebar

The sidebar section displays information about course events and grading. The assignment group information can be edited in the Assignments feature while the Calendar information can be edited in both the Assignments and Calendar features. Any changes made will be reflected in the Course Summary section of the Syllabus.

The sidebar includes a mini calendar [1]. Any date that includes an event or assignment due date are shown with a gray background. To view an associated assignment or event in Course Summary, click the calendar date.

If your course includes weighted assignment groups, the sidebar also shows the percentages of each group [2].

[boevek]

Thank you for sending in your assignment.  

[CanvasDocTeam]

Hi @boevek,

It looks like your comment may have been intended as a response to a student submitting work in your course. However, these comments (here in the Canvas Community) are not connected to your course. You can respond to student submissions in a couple areas, including the Gradebook and SpeedGrader. For steps on how to add submission comments, check out the following guides: How do I leave comments for students in the Gradebook? and How do I leave feedback comments for student submissions in SpeedGrader? 

Naomi

[rtoler]

Question: Is there a way I can control the order of the items that are listed in the Syllabus section of a Canvas course? I notice the assignments in the syllabus for a given day are not in the same sequence as the items are listed in the Assignments section.

In other words, can I change the order of assignments listed that are due on the same date? 

richard.toler@mesacc.edu

[CanvasDocTeam]

Hi @rtoler,

The Course Summary section on the Syllabus page is automatically organized by date. If you have multiple assignments due on the same date, they organize by the time they're due. Currently it's not possible to reorganize items in Course Summary that are due on the same day and time. If you'd like to suggest Canvas add that functionality, you can start a new Feature Idea Conversation. 

Naomi

[mwhartman]

I have created weekly "checklists" on the syllabus page for my students to easily know what needs to be completed each week. These show up on the web version, but are lost in the mobile canvas app. Is there a way around this? 

[CanvasDocTeam]

Hi @mwhartman,

I took a quick look at your courses and it looks like most have a link to a PDF of the syllabus (which includes a breakdown of the course by week) in the syllabus description and weekly checklists in Course Summary. So to clarify, are students not able to view the Course Summary section on mobile and/or the PDF link in the description? 

Naomi

[mwhartman]

Hi Naomi,

Thanks for looking into this. The problem is with the Course Summary section, not the PDF link. The Weekly Checklists that I have created appear only on a web browser, but do not appear in the Course Summary section of the mobile app. I have included photos below from the web browser and the mobile app to better demonstrate what I'm talking about. 

Thanks,

Michael 

[CanvasDocTeam]

Hi @mwhartman,

I took a look at the course you provided screenshots for and it looks like quite a few changes were made since your last post. Everything I can see in the Course Summary in web, I can view in the mobile version. Are things still displaying differently on your end? If so, I'd recommend reaching out to Canvas Support. They can look into this further and troubleshoot possible solutions in greater detail. 

Naomi

WebMobile

[mwhartman]

Hi Naomi,

Thanks again. I didn't change anything since my last post. What I showed you was a screenshot of my web browser and a screenshot of the Mobile App, which is where I'm having the problem. You posted a screenshot from a web browser on a computer and a mobile web browser (you did not show anything from the canvas mobile app). Everything seems to be working in all web browsers, as your post shows above. The problem I have is with the Canvas Mobile App. This is where my weekly checklists do not appear. I will reach out to canvas support.

Thanks,

Michael 

[Tralanda_33]

Please keep everything the same.