When we think of our syllabus, we think of the document that we hand out to our students on the first day of class - that explains our course, our classroom and institutional rules, and the work the students will be required to do to pass the class.

Canvas has a Syllabus tool that allows us to rethink what a syllabus looks like in an online course. Instead of a document, the Canvas Syllabus is a web-based version of your syllabus. There are three main components to the Canvas Syllabus:

an editable space at the top of the Syllabus that allows you to enter in information specific to your course;
a course summary which lists all of your assignments and calendar items in chronological order;
a calendar.

In many college courses, our syllabi are very, very long. If you were to copy and paste your entire syllabus into the editable section of the Syllabus tool, your page would be very long, indeed! This causes two issues. First, your page will not be following one of the rules of web design, which is to limit the amount of information on any single page (to segment!). The second is that the course summary, which many students find critical to staying on track in a course, is "hidden" below the editable content. Students accessing the course summary will have to routinely scroll, and scroll and scroll to see the course summary.

There are many ways to format your syllabus using the Canvas syllabus tool.

Here's a quick video to introduce you to the Canvas Syllabus tool:

526 - Courses: Creation & Management from Instructure Community on Vimeo.