Posting Syllabi for Public Viewing

As you likely have heard, Indiana state law and IU policy ACA-85 require all IUB instructors to post their syllabi at least one week before classes start, and that the university needs to develop a mechanism for those syllabi to be publicly viewable. See the Start of Semester Guide from VPFAA for details on this policy. The goal of these rules is providing more transparency to students about the courses they are selecting, since course catalog descriptions can be general and not let potential students know details that are important to selecting courses that meet their needs and expectations.

You should have received guidance from your school’s leadership on this issue, and this post is not meant to counter or supersede that messaging, but to add some additional details we hope will be useful as you rethink how you present course material to students through Canvas

The key thing to remember is that all materials in your Canvas Syllabus page will automatically added to the public syllabus repository. This may change how you organize course materials on your Canvas site, so be careful if you regularly copy course sites from one semester to the next.

See the IU Knowledge Base article on this topic for full details, but here are a few key tips for you:

• The system IU has in place will publish content from your Canvas Syllabus page to the repository. Anything you put there will be made publicly available. If you want other information available only to your enrolled students (e.g., assignment details), put that content in another area in Canvas, like Modules. Do not link from the Syllabus to those other files, though, since that can make them available to others not enrolled in your course. You might also want to turn off the Course Summary, which provides links to course assignments and schedule. 
• You need to publish your Canvas course in order for the syllabus to be publicly viewable, so have at least that Syllabus section of your course ready a week prior to classes (August 18). Remember that you can control the publication status of other parts of the course, if you are not ready for them to be visible to your enrolled students.
• Do include information that is essential for potential students to know more about the course (again, check with your school for any local guidance on what should be included):
  • Course title, number, and section
  • Course description (from the course catalog); Add specific topics as needed, especially for courses that are topical by nature (“Special Topics in…” courses)
  • Meeting dates (e.g., Monday/Wednesday 9:30-10:45 a.m.)
  • Course delivery method (e.g. in-person, online, hybrid, etc.)
  • Course learning outcomes
  • How students will be graded (grading weights/scales, number/type of exams/papers, etc.)
  • Due dates for major assignments and exams (it can be noted that these can change with adequate notification)
  • Required materials
  • Other details that can impact course selection (e.g., service-learning requirements)
• Do NOT include information that should only be available to enrolled students:
  • Zoom or Teams links
  • Your personal contact information or contact information for your AIs/TAs/UTAs
  • Assignment details you don’t want to be made public
  • Course materials that should, for copyright reasons, only be available to enrolled students

Finally, you might want to use Student View to check your syllabus before publishing it, so you know how this will be seen.

Please see the Knowledge Base article for more details and technical help, and contact the CITL if you need assistance organizing your Canvas course.