Adding Your Syllabus

When you use Design Tools you can use content and institutional policies blocks to build your syllabus. This will make setting up your syllabus much easier. 

Instructors can hide the syllabus tool in the left navigation from students. This will disable the page and students will be redirected back to the course home page if you link to the syllabus. See Configuring Course Settings page for details on how to hide navigation links.  If you plan to hide the syllabus link in the left navigation, you must include your syllabus on the course home. See Canvas Course Overview page for details on customizing the course home.    

Video Tutorial

This video shows you how to use Design Tools to create your syllabus. Please note a grading scheme must be applied in the course settings to use the grading scheme block (See Canvas guides below) and institutional policies block is labelled LLC basic policies block. See the guides below for more details. 

Using the Design Tools Syllabus Options

In the course menu click Syllabus. On the syllabus page click Edit. Click the Rocket icon in upper right corner of the screen. 

The Design Tools panel will display over the right sidebar content browser. Review the numbered items below. 

1. Click Create/Edit Syllabus Content section. 
2. Select Choose a Theme and select a theme to apply to the page. 
3. Click Customize Banner Text and enter the desired text for the header. 
4. Click +Add Content Blocks to open the content blocks. The content blocks are preset chunks of content you can customize. 
5. You can select the desired pre-set blocks to add to the content or create your own. To create your own type the title for the block and click plus icon. You can also add the Canvas grading scheme and institutional policies blocks. Note: You will not be able to edit the institutional policies block. The institutional policies block will update each time you edit the syllabus. 
6. If you already have text on the page, you can convert selected text to a block. Select the content and click Selection to Block. Be sure to set text at the beginning of the block as header 3. To remove excess lines at bottom of the page click Remove empty. 
7. Edit each block as desired. Use the Add/Rearrange Syllabus Blocks section in the Design Tools to edit the location of blocks on the page. You can add icons for each block or remove blocks 
8. When you are done don't forget to click Update Syllabus to save your changes. 

If you are using Microsoft Word document for your syllabus, there are a couple of different ways to update the file. Please note if you use the content browser in rich content editor to upload the same document with the same name, a copy of the document will be created. This will create multiple syllabus files in your course file space. This will clutter up your file space and can be confusing to students if you allow them access to the course file space. Therefore, if you are updating and uploading a syllabus document every semester, you may want to consider using one of the following processes to make updates to the syllabus. 

Option 1: Upload Directly to Files Using Replace

When you upload a file via the right sidebar content browser the file resides in Files section of your course. When it comes time to make revisions to the document you can either find the local copy on your computer or download the file from files. DO NOT change the file name. Make your revisions and save the document to your local drive with the exact same file name. Then in Canvas upload file directly to Files section of the course. Be sure to select the same folder where the file is in the Files section of your course. A dialog prompt will appear. Choose the replace option. Everywhere the file is linked it will be updated. Please note if you upload the file via the right sidebar content browser, this dialog prompt WILL NOT appear. A duplicate of the file will be created. The file must be uploaded directly to Files Section in the same location where the file is stored. See the Files tutorial for more information. 

Option 2: Copy and Paste Text in Rich Content Editor

Open your Word document and copy all the text of your document. In Canvas go to the syllabus page of your course. Click Edit to display the rich content editor. In the editor box paste the text. The paragraph structure will remain but you may need to reformat text where necessary. See Design Tools tutorial tab. Step 6 shows you how to convert sections of your syllabus into a content block. This will make editing your syllabus much easier. 

Option 3: Use a Web Service to Store Your Syllabus 

With this option you can use a service such as Dropbox, GoogleDrive or Microsoft OneDrive to link or embed your document. See the following resources for more details. 

• Embedding OneDrive Documents in Canvas Links to an external site. - written by Susan Nugent, Instructional Designer's Group in the Canvas Community
• Using Google Docs for dynamic Canvas content Links to an external site. - written by Stefanie Sanders Instructional Designer's Group in the Canvas Community

Note: These guides are maintained by the Canvas Documentation Team and are available on the Canvas Community site Links to an external site.. Some of the information in these guides may not apply to the Lake Land College instance of Canvas. If you have a question about a feature mentioned in these guides, please review Getting Help page for details on who to contact at Lake Land College.

• How do I use the Syllabus as an instructor? Links to an external site.
• How do I edit the Syllabus description in a course? Links to an external site.
• How do I use grading schemes in a course? Links to an external site.
• How do I view grading schemes in a course? Links to an external site.
• How do I enable a grading scheme for a course? Links to an external site.
• How do I add a grading scheme in a course? Links to an external site.