Table of Contents
Overview
Templates and Forms
Curriculum Integration
Scheduling Integration
Default Values
Field Configurability
Duplication
Catalog Display
Workflows
Syllabus Search
Related Articles
Overview
Coursedog’s Syllabus Management application is built to simplify the syllabus creation process.
We allow faculty to easily create branded syllabi at a course- and section-level by equipping admins with customizable forms at the institution, campus, college, department, or program level.
These forms provide customization and reusability while ensuring accurate course data and policy information.
Syllabus also centralizes syllabus content in one place and integrates with Curriculum Management and Academic Scheduling, making it easy to track, review, save, export, and search your syllabi and to push them directly to your public catalog.
Coursedog Syllabus is designed to ensure that all of the data that ends up on any syllabus is accurate and up-to-date, from the section meeting and location information to the institutional policies that must be consistent across syllabi.
Templates and Forms
Coursedog Syllabus is built on a system of templates and forms (Scheduling, Curriculum, and Events rely on the same foundation, making the learning curve relatively flat).
Think of Syllabus as a pipeline from Template > Form > Final Syllabus.
Schools are able to create one Template or multiple, but often, an institution will have one Template from which all other material is created. This Template is the institution-wide default syllabus format, which includes the layout and basic information that each syllabus at the institution will need to contain.
Schools create more specific records from that University/Institution Template. Each Form represents the syllabus format and data that another unit at the institution (most commonly a department, but this could be a college or campus) will use for its syllabi. For example, a Template might contain five school-wide policies, but the Math Department adds its own Attendance Policy to its template and subsequent forms..
An instructor uses a Form (built from the relevant Template) to complete and submit their syllabus.
Curriculum Integration
Coursedog Syllabus integrates with Coursedog Curriculum Management so that any data from a Course in Curriculum can be pulled directly into a Syllabus. This eliminates the chance of inaccurate or miscopied information and eliminates the need for faculty to spend time entering and double-checking basic information about their course.
Any field on the Curriculum Course Template can be pulled directly into a Syllabus Form or Template, allowing Curriculum data to flow directly into the Syllabus. This includes fields like Description, Learning Outcomes, and Instruction Mode. Learn more about our Course Template.
These Course Fields can be built into the syllabus, made required, and locked into the Template or Form. They will automatically populate with data as an instructor builds their syllabus, ensuring that all course data is up-to-date and accurate.
Scheduling Integration
The Syllabus integration with Coursedog Academic Scheduling works the same way as the integration with Curriculum Management, with some minor exceptions.
Fields on Scheduling’s Section Template can be pulled directly into a Syllabus Form or Template, allowing Section data to flow directly into the Syllabus. This includes fields like Instructor, Credit Hours, and Meeting Patterns & Rooms.
These Section Fields can be built into the syllabus, made required, and locked into the Template or Form. They will automatically populate with data as an instructor builds their syllabus, ensuring that all section data is up-to-date and accurate. Learn more about our Section Template.
Currently, the integration does not support every Scheduling field, but the most commonly used fields for Syllabus Management will be supported, and we are working to expand the integration.
Default Values
Any field on a Syllabus Form or Template can be assigned a default value.
This default value is the value that will populate that field if the user does not delete that value, edit it, or replace it with their own entry.
Default Value allows admins to assign a field a value that should always appear on the syllabus unless an instructor would like to edit that value.
Learn more about default values.
Field Configurability
It is crucial for student success and accreditation that the institution-, department-, college-, or campus-wide policies that appear on syllabi are accurate and up-to-date.
Syllabus ensures that these policies are consistent by using Field Configurability.
Each field on Syllabus Templates and Forms includes a “Configurable” setting. This field controls which roles are permitted to update the configuration of that field. Only users given permission to configure that field can change the field’s visibility, editability, and other settings.
Most importantly, only users given permission to configure that field can control the field’s “Default Value.” This “locks” the Default Value so that it cannot be edited on the Template or Form (except by users given permission to do so), and it also prevents instructors from editing that value on the final Syllabus. This allows an admin to enter a Default Value with the accurate policy, “lock” it, and ensure that it persists from the template all the way to the final syllabus.
Learn more about configurability.
Duplication
Faculty can easily copy forward syllabus data from previous iterations of their courses or from proposals they have recently created or by duplicating an existing syllabus or syllabus proposal.
Duplication allows faculty to avoid the process of entering duplicate information for several sections of the same course and eliminates the risk of entering incorrect information for any of those sections.
This does not include section-level data like location or meeting time, so there is no risk of inaccurate information.
Learn more about populating your syllabus.
Catalog Display
Syllabi data should also be reflected accurately in the public catalog so that active and prospective students and other members of the community have access to accurate information.
Schools can choose whether or not to publish syllabi data to the Catalog, but they have two options for publishing that data:
Section-level syllabi can be published to the Public Catalog via .pdf.
A course-level syllabus can be generated with a default set of fields via the “Syllabus (Outline)” Catalog card.
Workflows
Some institutions require that a curriculum committee or department chair review a syllabus and verify that information is accurate before it can be published.
Like other Coursedog products, Syllabus uses workflows to support this process.
Any syllabus can be put through a workflow to ensure that it undergoes the correct steps in the review process.
In many cases, syllabi do not need any form of review, in which case a workflow can be created that includes no steps between creation and approval.
Any syllabus will retain a record of its workflow so that the review process (or lack thereof) can be used in the accreditation process.
Learn more about workflows in Syllabus Management, workflow basics, workflow creation, and workflow notifications.
Syllabus Search
Overview | Searching for Syllabi | Searching for Proposals
Overview
Syllabus supports robust search and filtering for completed syllabi and for proposals.
Any syllabus or proposal created in Syllabus can be located easily, and all completed syllabi can be exported as PDFs, ensuring that there is a record of previous syllabi and policies and that all syllabi are stored for accreditation or transfer credit purposes.
Learn more about searching for syllabi.
