Simple Syllabus Resources

Complete the syllabi for each course you are teaching. The following are required component areas to be edited by the faculty member:

• Instructor Information 
• Communication Policy
• Learning Outcomes
• Grading Policy and Course Evaluation 
• Course Topics and Assignments 
• Attendance Policy 
• Policy on Late and Make Up Work

You may add additional component areas based on the course you are teaching and the specific needs for the course, material, and/or students. The following are optional component areas that may be edited by the faculty member:

• Welcome Message
• Course Specific Instruction
• Required Instructional Materials
• Recommended Instructional Materials
• Minimum Technology Requirements
• Table of Assignments
• Instructor Feedback to Students
• Course AI Policy
• Course Academic Honesty Policy
• Policy on Extra Credit 

Approve all syllabi for courses and sections within your department (not a new process – replaces the emailing of syllabi versions). You will need to ensure that the content meets or exceeds the expectations of your department and college. You will review the items submitted by the faculty within Simple Syllabus; syllabi are no longer emailed to you or the college.

All items required and/or edited by faculty will require approval.

Required Component Areas:

• Instructor Information
• Communication Policy
• Learning Outcomes
• Grading Policy and Course Evaluation
• Course Topics and Assignments
• Attendance Policy
• Policy on Late and Make Up Work

Optional Component Areas:

• Welcome Message
• Course Specific Instruction
• Required Instructional Materials
• Recommended Instructional Materials
• Minimum Technology Requirements
• Table of Assignments
• Instructor Feedback to Students
• Course AI Policy
  Course Academic Honesty Policy
• Policy on Extra Credit

* You may need to review any additional component areas that faculty add to the syllabi (will be the last items). 

Yes, Simple Syllabus is the tool that has the official UHCL syllabi for all courses. In the event of a student grievance, the approved syllabus in the Simple Syllabus tool on Canvas will be the only syllabus used. Therefore, faculty are required to use Simple Syllabus. 

Simple Syllabus is directly connected to each course via the Canvas shell. Once a shell is produced for the course, you can start working on the syllabus. You can also use the SSO (go.uhcl.edu) to find Simple Syllabus.  

Before August 4th (while summer 2025 classes are in session), the Simple Syllabus tool is hidden from the Canvas navigation. Please use these instructions if you cannot find Simple Syllabus.

Faculty are not required to work on syllabi before they are on contract for the fall semester. However, the Simple Syllabus tool is available in Canvas and through SSO.  

Department chairs approve syllabi to ensure compliance with university requirements. According to the section on responsibilities of department chairs and under course coordination and scheduling, "Review, approve, and monitor textbook selections, course syllabi, office hours, and other course-related items to ensure compliance with university requirements." Chairs who are teaching in the semester will also have to approve the syllabus/syllabi for their courses.

Department chairs approve syllabi as mentioned under the "who approves" FAQ. Submitting a completed syllabus triggers an approval process. Any edits to previously approved component sections require re-approval. Approvers are notified of the component that was edited in the re-approval message, therefore, it is known where to review for approval.

Simple Syllabus does not pull the content from Canvas over (like Modules, etc.). The "Table of Assignments" section automatically displays assignments pulled from the course's Canvas Assignments. It provides students with an overview of graded work and due dates for the course. 

The "Table of Assignments" section automatically displays assignments pulled from the course's Canvas Assignments. If unedited, this table will actively update as changes are made in Canvas without any intervention from the faculty or approvers. Faculty can edit this table, however, it will no longer be connected to Canvas Assignments and then changes will not be automated. Faculty can "revert" this component, any edits that need to be recreated will be needed, and an approval process will be initiated. 

Components are the building blocks for the syllabus tool that create sections within the syllabus. Components can be pre-populated with information from the information system, Canvas, or a template. Components can be required or optional. Faculty can create new sections in their syllabus to fit their course and content. 

You might want to clear cookies for the site as a first step. Also, you can always use the SSO (go.uhcl.edu) to work on your syllabi outside of Canvas. If that does change what you see, it is possible that an adjustment to the display scaling in your browser to 100% could work. If that does not make a difference (or it is already 100%), check for Accessibility or High Contrast Settings look for high contrast themes, magnification tools, and/or accessibility settings (like large fonts or screen readers) then disable them temporarily to see if the layout changes. After any of these steps, you might need to clear the site data. 

Simple Syllabus is directly connected to each course via the Canvas shell. Once a shell is produced for the course, you can start working on the syllabus. You can also use the SSO (go.uhcl.edu) to find Simple Syllabus.  

Simple Syllabus provides a set UHCL template and components cannot be moved within the template. When you add components, each one is added at the bottom in the order added. You cannot move any component, even your added components, therefore, the order added components are placed does matter. 

No, see above FAQ on requirement to use Simple Syllabus. 

An instructor only completes one syllabus, even if there are multiple sections, within the Canvas shell. Students in all courses/sections will see one syllabus. Faculty edit the syllabus directly within the cross-listed Canvas shell for approval. However, an instructor will need to complete the separate syllabus/syllabi for the other course(s), and they do so within their Simple Syllabus dashboard (logging in from go.uhcl.edu). Simple Syllabus receives every individual section, and a syllabus is created for it and will be in the “to do” list until submitted. Faculty can replace the not yet complete syllabus as a full replace using the "Replace with a different syllabus?" option that is above the syllabus header and select the completed syllabus. Additionally, if content is different faculty can copy the approved content for these courses from the main course built in Canvas and update as needed. For the imported table of assignments component, a notation using the “add new item” in the assignment table component creates content as required for submission. 

OIT recommends users first use the university's online course schedule search system to determine (1) whether the course exists in the schedule, and if so (2) whether their name is shown as the instructor. If both conditions are true, they should contact OIT's Support Center to have a ticket created so that the IDT team can investigate why the Canvas course tile isn’t showing for them. Other most likely reasons for this are (1) there may be too many courses for all to display on their Dashboard (for which IDT will provide instructions to the user to clean up the Dashboard to display their latest courses) or (2) the automated processes that add instructors to their Canvas shells are scheduled to pick up and add their enrollment on the next data run. 

The required instructional material data is populated from the Follett database. If the materials section is missing or inaccurate, check with the Follett interface to ensure that the expected material(s) is listed there. There is a possibility that the data needs to be refreshed, and it may occur overnight. For Fall 2025 this field is editable and can be updated to reflect the approved materials.

Simple Syllabus auto-saves your work. If you leave Simple Syllabus open or leave the workspace your work will be saved for you. If you are working on a component area that requires a manual “save” you will see a save button.