Syllabus Policy and Resources
Syllabus Policy and Resources
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome back — We hope you have had a wonderful summer and are feeling refreshed and ready to kick off the fall semester!
Many of you were involved in updating KU’s Syllabus Policy, and we greatly appreciate your help and feedback throughout the process. In alignment with federal compliance regulations from the U.S. Department of Education, KU’s Syllabus Policy requires that KU courses must have a syllabus on file with the University, and each syllabus must include specific course, student resource, and policy information. During the HLC Site Visit, site visitors will ask administrative officials to pull approximately 100 syllabi from AY2024-2025 to assess the degree to which KU adheres to these standards and assumed practices.
KU has adopted Simple Syllabus, a syllabus management platform, to assist with the collection and retention of course syllabi and to provide instructors a way to quickly and easily create, personalize, and publish interactive class syllabi in compliance with the policy. Faculty can access Simple Syllabus within Canvas or directly through the Simple Syllabus Portal.
Must I use Simple Syllabus to create my syllabus?
The use of the Simple Syllabus tool to create your syllabus is strongly recommended and will ensure that all required elements of the Syllabus Policy are included in your syllabus. However, the use of Simple Syllabus to create your syllabus is not required. What is required is that all instructors upload their syllabus document into Simple Syllabus—the University’s central repository for all course syllabi.
Who can access my syllabus in Simple Syllabus?
Simple Syllabus is not accessible to the public. Syllabi uploaded to Simple Syllabus can only be accessed by students who have access to your Canvas course, and by authorized university personnel, such as department chairs, departmental and school/college administrative staff, and central administration.
Does my course require a syllabus?
With a few exceptions, all courses must have a syllabus in the repository. The Syllabus Policy does allow for exclusions for masters’ thesis, dissertation hours, practicum, and research hours. The academic departments will be responsible for verifying that the syllabi are compliant and that all courses that need a syllabus have one on file.
KU Educational Technology is currently working on a guide for departments on how to run reports of submission to the Simple Syllabus system, but we rely on the subject matter experts to sign off on the compliance and what courses must have a syllabus.
Who will evaluate my syllabus to determine if it is compliant with Syllabus Policy?
Instructors that use the Simple Syllabus tool will be prompted to include all information and links required by the KU Syllabus Policy. Thus, these syllabi are expected to be fully compliant with the policy with no additional effort or assessment.
For syllabi created outside of Simple Syllabus and uploaded into the repository, departments and schools will develop their own methods of assessing the degree to which these syllabi are compliant with the KU Syllabus Policy. A syllabus audit tool was developed in Summer of 2023, and can be used by departments to assess such syllabi.
Can I include a diversity and inclusion statement on my syllabus?
The KU Syllabus Policy requires that all syllabi reference or link to the KU Statement on Diversity and Inclusion, which was unanimously approved by the University Senate Executive Committee in 2010. KU’s General Counsel reviewed both policies with respect to HB2105 and found they are not in conflict. Additionally, HB2105 does not restrict what faculty say about their classroom environment. Should you also wish to incorporate an additional inclusive environment statement on the syllabi for your individual course(s) you may do so. For additional questions about HB2105 please visit the Office of the Provost website for other FAQs.
Resources
The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) maintains an extensive collection of resources to assist instructors as they develop or redevelop their course syllabi. These are available at Preparing a Syllabus. This website includes a section on University Policies and Student Resources, and provides sample language for Diversity, Inclusivity, and Class Climate statements. This site also provides sample language and required policy links for instructors that wish to develop their own syllabi (outside of Simple Syllabus) and FAQs on KU’s Syllabus Policy.
Upcoming Trainings
Although uploading a syllabus document is the only required step in Simple Syllabus, there are several advantages to using the full syllabus development tool. To help you get started and take full advantage of Simple Syllabus, KU IT Educational Technology has been offering Simple Syllabus workshops for faculty to learn more about leveraging the numerous benefits of the platform. The workshops provide hands-on training and guidance on how to effectively use the platform to access, create, edit, and submit your syllabi. There are currently two more workshops scheduled this month and registration is now open:
To learn more about Simple Syllabus, please review the comprehensive information and FAQs available within KU’s Canvas resources. The IT Educational Technology team is also available for consultation at itedtech@ku.edu or 785-864-2600.
Thank you for your patience as we implement these resources assist in satisfying federal and accreditation requirements.
Best,
Jen Roberts
Gina Wyant
Ric Steele
Alyssa Maglone