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Syllabi

Syllabi posting is governed by Florida Statute 1004.085, Florida Board of Governors’ Regulation 8.003, and UCF Policy 4-403.3. To facilitate syllabi posting UCF has adopted Simple Syllabus, a third-party syllabus tool that integrates into Webcourses@UCF (Canvas).

Upcoming Deadlines

  • Summer 2024 GEP Core (Black Diamond) Courses: March 29, 2024
  • Summer 2024 Sessions A/C/D Courses: May 13, 2024
  • Summer 2024 Session B Courses: June 24, 2024
  • Fall 2024 GEP Core (Black Diamond) Courses: July 5, 2024
  • Fall 2024 Sessions 1 and F Courses: August 19, 2024
  • Fall 2024 Session G Courses: October 14, 2024

Simple Syllabus How to Guides

Helpful Links

Frequently Asked Questions

Simple Syllabus is a centralized, template-driven platform that enables instructors to quickly personalize and publish interactive class syllabi directly within Webcourses@UCF (Canvas). All syllabi are automatically stored in a campus-wide repository.

UCF has implemented Simple Syllabus to facilitate access for students to university syllabi and to promote access to General Education core (black diamond) courses in compliance with Florida Statute 1004.085 and Florida Board of Governors Regulation 8.003. In addition, implementation of this centralized repository supports UCF Student Government Association’s request for a centralized syllabi repository.

Simple Syllabus is a template-based product that automatically imports course information from UCF’s course catalog and class schedule. Templates can be created at the university, college, department, and course level to ensure consistency and compliance with policies. By default, the university template includes all required university policies. If you would like to create a college, department, or course level template, contact us to schedule a one-on-one meeting.

Simple Syllabus can accessed either through your course shell on Webcourses@UCF (Canvas) or via the Simple Syllabus website.

To view your syllabus on Webcourses@UCF (Canvas) you will need to unhide the link by opening your course page and selecting “Settings” from the lefthand bar. Under the “Navigation” tab is a list of available tools. Drag “Simple Syllabus” from the list of disabled pages to the top or click the three dots and select “Enable.”

No. The Simple Syllabus link within Webcourses@UCF can only be associated with an academic course section.

Faculty can complete their syllabus in Canvas using the Simple Syllabus tool.

To complete your syllabus, have the following required syllabus content ready:

  • Instructor Information (office hours and contact information)
  • Student Learning Outcomes
  • Required and Recommended Course Materials
  • Course Assessment and Grading Procedure
  • Grading Scale
  • Policies for Course Grade
  • Class Schedule

Note: All fields marked as required are mandatory when developing your syllabus. The syllabus will not submit until content is in these fields.

The following information is auto-filled from the UCF Course Schedule, Catalog, or Canvas. These fields are not editable:

  • Header (includes course prefix, number, section, course title, college, department)
  • Course Information (meeting days/time, location)
  • Course Description from Catalog
  • Assignment Schedule (this information pulls from the Assignment section of Canvas)

The following policies are set at the university level and cannot be edited.

  • Course Accessibility
  • Academic Integrity
  • Title IX
  • Deployed Active-Duty Military Students
  • Campus Safety
  • Financial Aid Accountability

If a faculty member completes and publishes a syllabus using Simple Syllabus that information will be available to import into a future semester or another course in the same semester.

You can build their syllabus for a particular course once and then, once published, copy/import that syllabus into your other sections from the same or previous semester by using the “Select a syllabus to copy from” option. This will copy over the editable components. You will be able to update these components should you need.

This means that you will not need to copy/paste or type your Student Learning Outcomes, Grading Scale, Grading Policies, Class Schedule, etc. each semester if you have previously taught that course. You may need to update sections such as Class Schedule to reflect the semester dates.

Yes. You can edit the syllabus at any time; it will update to the course and Simple Syllabus only after you have clicked “Submit” at the bottom of the page.

Visibility – This setting can be locked as “on” or visible at the template coming from the university-, college-, or department-level. This toggle determines if the component is visible to students. Think of this as being used or not used.

Public – This setting determines who can see the component.

  • When enabled, everyone who can access the syllabus can see the component.
  • When disabled, only students and teachers enrolled in the course section can see the component.

You can manually update the Course Materials section to reflect the use of materials, if any, in your course. If you do not require students to use materials, you can type “No Materials Required” in the Title field of this component. You will need to click “Save” at the bottom of the materials information to save this information to your syllabus.

You can enter open educational resources (OER) and/or library-sourced materials by using the search box at the top of the field or manually entering the information in the provided fields.

The Course Materials component contains “Notes” and “Online Access” fields that can be used to provide students with additional information on their required and recommended course materials.

The “Notes” field can be used to provide students with information on how they can access their materials. Suggested language for open educational resources and library-sourced materials are provided below.

  • Library-sourced Materials: The digital version of the course textbook is available courtesy of the UCF Libraries. Accessing the textbook requires that you authenticate (log in) with your NID.
  • Open Educational Resources (OER): The digital version of the course textbook is available for free as an open educational resource (OER) via the link below.

You can use the “Online Access” field to provide your students with a hyperlink to their required and/or recommended course materials.

No. Simple Syllabus cannot be made the homepage of your Webcourses@UCF course.

Contact Us

For other questions about syllabi posting and using Simple Syllabus contact us at syllabi@ucf.edu.