Syllabus Builder Documentation

Steps

Each field displayed has several options available:

• Selecting Required will mark the field with a red asterisk on the instructor's view of the syllabus when in editing mode. The instructor will we required to populate the field prior to saving the syllabus.
• Selecting Locked will shade the field gray on the instructor's view of the syllabus when in editing mode. The instructor will not be allowed to modify the contents of a locked field.
• Selecting a field's Edit action () will open the editing panel for the field where all configuration options for the field can be modified including Field name, Type, Field Description, and any other fields available depending on the specific field type.
• Selecting a field's Delete action () will open a confirmation dialog. Select Yes, remove the field to complete the deletion of the field.
• The position of a field relative to the other fields in the template can be altered by using the Move () icon to drag the field to a new position.
• Any changes made to a field on this view will require that Save changes be selected at the bottom of the page to save the template as a whole.

Steps

Selecting "New custom field" from the Add Field drop-down will open the Add Field panel. which will contain the following fields:

• Field name: The name of the field as it appears in the template, Note, depending on the field Type, the Field name may or may not be displayed on the syllabus for instructors and learners.
• Type: Defines the type of field. Options include the following.
• "Activities": Fields of this type will offer the ability to select one or more course activities to be displayed within the syllabus.
• "Calendar Event": Fields of this type will offer the ability to select one or more calendar events to be displayed within the syllabus. Note, this only presents manually created course-level events.
• "Header": This type acts as a label rather than a data entry field, and is useful to separate major sections of the syllabus. This type will not have the Required and Locked options available after being added to the syllabus template. The <.strong>Field name is not the text that will be displayed on the syllabus. This field has an additional Header Text field where the text to be displayed on the syllabus should be entered.
• "Mapped": This type pulls and displays information directly from the course settings. When this type is selected, a Course Field drop-down will appear with the following choices, each of which is defined in the course settings:
• "Course ID"
• "Full name"
• "Short name"
• "ID number"
• "Summary"
• "Start date"
  
  
• "Text": This field type is a one-line plain text entry field. When selected a Default Entry field will become available where the site administrator can enter text to be displayed by default.
• "Long Text": This field type provides a full HTML text editor as the field for text, image, or media entry. When selected a Default Entry field will become available where the site administrator can enter text, images, or media to be displayed by default.
  
  

Once a new field has been created, the syllabus template must still be saved and published to be viewable by users. To commit any newly created fields to the server, select Save changes at the bottom of the screen.

Steps

Selecting Save changes after making changes on the Fields tab commits any changes made to the site syllabus template and opens the Publish Changes dialog. This dialog notes that the syllabus template for the site is now in draft status and offers two options:

• If additional changes need to be made before publishing the syllabus template across the site, select Close and continue with the updates.
• If no more changes need to be made, select Publish. This will open a confirmation dialog noting that the changes will apply all new and draft syllabi throughout the site.
• The confirmation dialog will have an option to Notify instructors that the template has changed. Select Continue to publish the changes, or Close to cancel and leave the site template in draft mode.
  
  

If Close was selected on the Publish Changes dialog, a red band notification will be displayed along the top of the page indicating that "Changes have been saved but not published". The Publish button can be used at any time to trigger the publish process as previously described.

Once the site syllabus template is published, if Notify instructors that the template has changed was selected, an email will be generated to each user with the role of Teacher across all courses on the site, notifying them of the updated syllabus template. Be aware that if a user has the Teacher role in multiple classes that contain a Syllabus Builder activity, that user will receive a separate email for each course when being notified of a site syllabus template update.

Steps

• Select Turn editing on.
• Select Add an activity or resource.
• Activate "Syllabus Builder".
• Select Add. This opens the Adding a new Syllabus Builder page.

The General section contains the standard configuration settings for the Syllabus Builder activity.

• The Syllabus Name field should contain the name of the syllabus activity as it will appear on the course page.
• Content entered into the Description field is informational only and is not displayed to users unless Display description on course page is activated.
• The Grade section is configured the same as any other graded activity in the LMS. Note that regardless of the presence of the Completion Question, setting the grade Type to "None" will make this an ungraded activity and the activity will not appear in the gradebook.
• The Common module settings, Restrict access, Activity completion, Tags, and Competencies sections can be configured in the same manner as any other activity in the course.
• If the Include completion option has been activated, the instructor will see the Completion Question section at the end of the page.
• Select Save and return to course or Save and display to save the new Syllabus Builder activity.

Steps

There are three types of fields in which the instructor can enter content for the Syllabus Builder activity:

• Most fields will be text entry fields. These will either appear as a single-line, plain text entry field, or a long-form HTML editor. Note that Personalization filter tags may be used in text fields within the Syllabus Builder activity.
• Activity field types allow the instructor to select one or more activities/resources for display on the syllabus.
• Activities and resources may be selected individually, or activating "Include all" will automatically select all activities and resources in the list.
• Of the activities that are selected, the activities that are actually displayed on the syllabus may be filtered by Graded Activities by activating the checkbox.
• Of the activities that are selected, the activities that are actually displayed on the syllabus may be filtered by Activities with Due Dates by activating the checkbox.
• Selecting the Include Due Date Information checkbox will display due date information for activities where applicable.
  
  
• Calendar field types allow the instructor to select one or more manually created, course-level calendar events for display on the syllabus.
• Select Save and return to course or Save and display to save updates to the Syllabus Builder fields.

Steps

• Enter a question in the Question text field.
• Enter from two to four response options that will be available for selection by learners in the Answer options answer fields.
• Activate the check box next to answer choices that should award credit for the user when selected.
• Select Save and return to course or Save and display to save updates to the Syllabus Builder fields.

Steps

An unpublished Syllabus Builder activity will have a Publish button available.

• If students should be notified of the publication of the syllabus, activate the Notify users of new Syllabus information checkbox.
• Select Publish.

Once published, the content of the Syllabus Builder activity will be visible to students. If a Completion Question was included in the syllabus, students will be able to mark and save their response.

Steps

Selecting the Download as PDF link will open a PDF version of the syllabus in a new browser tab.