Instructional Design & Technology

last updated Aug 9, 2021 @ 9:44 am

The easiest and most useful way to share your class syllabus with your students is to use the Canvas Syllabus tool, providing both a link to the document (for downloading and printing) and an “automatic preview” so the students can see the text on the fly. How-to video follows these written instructions.

1. First, finalize and save your syllabus as a Word document or PDF
2. Log into https://canvas.rutgers.edu
3. From your course site, click Syllabus in the left-hand menu
4. You’ll see a space for text at the top of the Syllabus page, with a Course Summary below
5. Click Edit button at the top right
6. Click into the editor box to insert a link to the document—as you upload it
   1. from the Insert menu above the editor box, select Document, then Upload Document (if you previously uploaded the syllabus to Canvas Files, choose Course Documents rather than Upload)
   2. now drag your syllabus document into the Upload File box (or click to browse for it, locate it on your computer, and click the Open button) and click the Submit button
   3. in a moment, the link to your document appears
7. Now ensure the students can see the syllabus in preview (and thus don’t have to download the document every time)
   1. click in the new link and choose Link Options from the pop-up
   2. from the Link Options panel that appears, under Display Options, select Preview Inline
   3. now tick Expand preview by default
   4. click the blue Done button at the bottom of the panel
8. As you return to the Syllabus editor, click the blue Update Syllabus button at the bottom right to save your work
9. Wait a moment to view your new syllabus (if it doesn’t magically appear, click Home on the left-hand menu, then Syllabus again)
10. You should see the link to the syllabus file (with a small download icon next to it) and the preview of the document