Table of Contents
Overview
How Templates, Forms, and Syllabi Interact
Template & Form Setup
Question Settings
Related Articles
Overview
Although Syllabus templates and forms serve a different purpose, they’re created using the same drag-and-drop form builder.
How Templates, Forms, and Syllabi Interact
See our “How They Interact” article.
Template & Form Setup
Overview | Naming Cards | Question Bank
Overview
Templates and forms are made up of cards, and each card can contain multiple rows and fields.
You can create new cards by clicking the “Add Card Above” option or on the “Add Card” (to add a card below) on any existing card.
Naming Cards
Click into the text next to the book icon (shown above as “New Card Title”) in order to change the name of the card.
You can name the card according to the type of information/fields it will contain.
Question Bank
Overview | Adding Fields | Field Name, Question Description & Question Extended Description
Overview
You use the Question Bank in the left-hand sidebar to add fields.
The question bank includes four types of available fields: custom, prebuilt, course, and section fields.
Learn more about available field options.
Adding Fields
Click into any field-type to view available field options.
Drag desired fields from the Question Bank and drop them onto a card.
Field Name, Question Description & Question Extended Description
Any field (Custom, Prebuilt, Course, or Section) provides options to customize the Field Name, Question Description, and Question Extended Description.
Simply click into the field, delete what’s there, and type.
Question Settings
Overview | Question Type | “Is Required” Box | Placeholder | Min/Max Number of Characters
Not Allowed Characters | Set Reference Value | Add Default Values | Editable
Visible | Configurable | Actions
Overview
Click into any field to edit its “Question Settings”.
Available settings vary depending on the Question Type and the field itself.
Question Type
Custom Fields also allow users to customize the Question Type, while this is already defined for Prebuilt, Course, and Section Fields.
This setting provides a list of question types that will determine what type of information can be entered as a value and how it will be displayed.
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“Is Required” Box
If checked, this toggle will require that a user enter a value in this field. This will be clearly indicated on the final syllabus. An end user cannot submit a syllabus proposal until all fields with the “Is required” toggle checked contain a value.
If not checked, the field is optional, meaning that users can choose to enter a value or to leave the field blank.
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Placeholder
Adding a Placeholder value means that a temporary value will display in this field when a user reaches this field in a syllabus proposal.
The value will be removed when a user begins entering their own value.
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Min/Max Number of Characters
These fields place a minimum and maximum number of characters limitation on a field.
The value entered in fields using either/both of these settings must meet the minimum character limit and/or not exceed the maximum character limit.
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Not Allowed Characters
Adding a character to this setting means that a value entered in this field cannot contain that character.
For example, if a class meeting time field should not contain the character “!”, entering ! in this setting would prevent a value including ! from being submitted in that class meeting time field.
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Set Reference Value
See our “Set Reference Value” article for details.
Add Default Values
Default Values allow a user to add a value that will populate by default unless an instructor overwrites that value.
Placeholder values will not appear on a Syllabus, even if not overwritten. Default Values, on the other hand, are intended to appear on a Syllabus unless overwritten or edited.
Default Values are used in Syllabus most often in concert with the “Configurable” setting. By entering a Default Value and making a field not Configurable by other roles, an admin can apply a value to a field that will not change on the Form or Syllabus. This allows an admin to add, for example, a key policy field to a Template, add a Default value, mark that field not Configurable, and be sure that the field and the Default Value will appear in exactly the same way on all Forms and Syllabi created from this Template.
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Editable
Overview | How to Set It | Use Case
Overview
The “Editable” configuration option determines which roles are able to edit a field on the final Syllabus document.
The “Editabie” configuration does not control which users can edit a field’s configuration in a Form or Template – that is controlled by “Configurability.”
“Editable” is more relevant to Forms.
How to Set It
Ensure the “Editable” box is checked and “Editable for all roles” appears in the dropdown if you want all users to be able to edit this field.
If you want to limit who can edit this field, use the “(Editable for all roles)” dropdown menu to multi-select the roles that you’d like to have permission to edit the field (in the below example, only Super Admins can edit the field).
Uncheck the “Editable” box so no users can edit the field.
Use Case
A common use case for the “Editable” option in Syllabus is as follows: A user does not want to limit “Configurability” on a Form field at all, but does want to prevent faculty from editing a field on a Syllabus proposal (perhaps because the default value needs to appear on the Syllabus as it appears on the Template). Turning off “Editable” prevents that field from being edited in the Syllabus proposal.
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Visible
Overview | How to Set It | Use Case
Overview
The “Visible” setting determines if a field is visible to all roles, some roles, or no roles.
A template’s “Visible” configuration option does not carry over to its form(s). In other words: A field with “Visible” off in a template won’t be set to off on a form unless a user updates the configuration on the form as well.
An admin may require a field for their own use that does not appear on a final syllabus, so they may make a field only visible to specific roles.
How to Set It
Ensure the “Visible” box is checked and “Visible for all roles” appears in the dropdown if you want any user submitting a Syllabus will be able to view the field.
If you want to limit who can see this field when submitting a syllabus, check the “Visible” box and then use the dropdown to multiselect the applicable roles.
Uncheck the “Visible” box to prevent all users from being able to view the field on the Syllabus document.
Use Case
A common use case for the “Visible” option in Syllabus is as follows: a user wants a field on a Syllabus to not appear to faculty or students but to appear to admins. This may be an internal-use-only field that helps with sorting or a field an admin needs to complete for accreditation purposes. Turning “Visible” off allows admin users to use that field on the Syllabus record without making that field public for faculty or students.
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Configurable
Overview | How to Set It | Example Use Case
Overview
The “Configurable” setting is crucial to ensuring accurate data across Syllabus. This setting controls which users can access the left-hand navigation set of Question Settings. If a field does not have the “Configurable” box checked at all, that field is no longer configurable in any way to any user.
Users with the “Coursedog” role can check this box to allow other users to configure the field in case that box is unselected accidentally.
Alternatively, the box can be selected but with certain roles allowed to configure the field.
The Configurable setting on the Template persists to the Form. This means that the Configurable setting allows an admin to “lock” a field and ensure that it persists untouched onto Forms and onto final Syllabi.
How to Set It
Overview
Keep the box checked to allow the field to be configured by all users.
Keep the box checked and multi-select applicable roles to determine which roles have configuration access granted for this field (as shown in the above screenshot).
Uncheck the box to lock this field and prevent any uses from configuring it further (shown below).
Sync
You will see either “In Sync” or “Sync with Template” next to the “Configurable” setting in forms.
If you see “In Sync”, that means the configurable setting for this field on the form matches the template.
If you see “Sync with template”, that means the configurable setting for this field might not match the template. If clicked, the configurability settings for that question on the template will be applied to that question on the form.
Example Use Case
An admin adds a Custom Field named “ADA Policy” onto the Template.
The admin adds a Default Value (that academic year’s up-to-date ADA Policy) to the field, unchecks the “Editable” setting, and unchecks the “Configurable” setting.
This question will appear on any Form created in this Syllabus Group, the Default Value will persist, and no user will be able to change the Question Settings. When a Syllabus is created from a Form in this Syllabus Group, the Default Value will appear on the Syllabus and will not be editable by the creator of the Syllabus. Thus, an admin can ensure that any data that must appear on all Syllabi can be protected from the Template to the Form to final Syllabi.
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Actions
Field Actions allow users to create dependencies within the template based on the configurations and values of other fields.
For example, a user could hide a specific question based on a user’s response to a previous question.
A user could also change the value of a question based on a user’s response to an earlier question.
Learn more about using Actions.
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