Crafting Effective Syllabi with Simple Syllabus at UTSA

A well-constructed syllabus serves as a cornerstone for a successful learning experience. At the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), instructors are empowered to create comprehensive and accessible syllabi through Simple Syllabus, a centralized platform integrated within Canvas. This article explores the features and benefits of Simple Syllabus, along with guidelines and examples for crafting effective syllabi that promote student success.

Introduction to Simple Syllabus

Simple Syllabus is designed to streamline the syllabus creation process for instructors. It is a template-driven platform embedded in Canvas that enables instructors to quickly personalize and publish interactive class syllabi. By leveraging institutional data, including university policies and course details, Simple Syllabus auto-populates content, significantly reducing the workload for faculty and ensuring consistency across courses.

Accessing and Utilizing Simple Syllabus

Simple Syllabus is readily accessible to instructors through Canvas. Located in the course menu, a simple click on "Simple Syllabus" grants access to the interactive syllabus creation interface. A Word document with the Simple Syllabus template is provided to assist you in preparing your syllabus. Academic Innovation continuously works to improve the Simple Syllabus experience. Academic Innovation announced several enhancements to Simple Syllabus for the Summer 2024 semester. Instructors new to Simple Syllabus or seeking a refresher can attend hybrid workshops, available both in person at the Academic Innovation Center (MS 240) and online via Zoom.

Key Features and Benefits

Centralized Platform: Simple Syllabus provides a single, centralized location for creating, managing, and distributing syllabi.
Template-Driven: The platform offers pre-designed templates that incorporate essential elements, ensuring consistency and completeness.
Auto-Population of Content: Institutional data, such as university policies and course details, is automatically populated, saving instructors time and effort.
Personalization: Instructors can easily personalize their syllabi by adding specific course information, learning objectives, and assessment details.
Interactive Syllabi: Simple Syllabus allows for the creation of interactive syllabi with embedded links, videos, and other multimedia elements.
Accessibility Features: The platform includes built-in accessibility features to assist faculty in creating compliant content.

Accessibility Considerations

Enhancing the accessibility of syllabi is a crucial aspect of inclusive course design. Simple Syllabus offers dedicated features to support faculty in creating accessible content. The built-in accessibility checker assists faculty in identifying and addressing potential barriers, ensuring content is compliant from the start. Instructors can also follow a Basic Accessibility Syllabus and Schedule Checklist to ensure their courses are accessible.

Syllabus Content and Structure

While the academic content of a course syllabus remains within the province of each individual instructor to determine, subject to the department’s curricular needs, certain elements are essential for a comprehensive and effective syllabus. These include:

Read also: UTSA Student Population

Course Information: Course title, number, section, meeting times, and location.
Instructor Information: Instructor name, office location, office hours, email address, and phone number.
Course Description: A brief overview of the course content and objectives.
Learning Outcomes: Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for student learning.
Required Materials: List of textbooks, software, and other resources required for the course. Publisher privacy statements added to Textbooks and Inclusive Access: UTSA and HB 1027. Language would be added to all UTSA syllabi. UTSA has no inclusive access programs.
Assessment Methods: Description of how student learning will be assessed, including exams, quizzes, papers, projects, and participation.
Grading Policy: Explanation of how grades will be calculated and assigned.
Course Schedule: A detailed schedule of topics, readings, and assignments.
University Policies: Inclusion of relevant university policies, such as academic integrity, student conduct, and disability services.
Attendance Policy: Explain absence policy in the syllabus. This course uses instructor-initiated drops for students who exceed the absence and/or missed assignment limit. Therefore, up to the last day for students to withdraw from an individual course, [date], you will be dropped for exceeding [insert number of absences/assignments etc.]. Students will receive at least one courtesy warning when approaching the absence/missed assignment limit. A subsequent absence or missed assignment will result in being dropped from the course. This drop does not affect enrollment in other courses.

Optional Syllabus Statements

UTSA provides a variety of sample statements to enhance course syllabi. These optional statements cover a range of topics to help ensure clarity and improve the overall learning experience for students. Some examples include:

Accessibility Statement: "I am dedicated to fostering a learning environment where all students can engage and succeed. If you encounter barriers to your learning, please reach out so we can explore potential design adjustments that may improve access to course materials and activities. In some cases, an approved accommodation through Student Disability Services may be necessary, and I can help connect you with their office if needed."
Recording Policy: "As the instructor of this course, I may record meetings and lessons. You are expected to follow appropriate University policies and maintain the security of passwords used to access recorded lectures. Recordings may not be published, reproduced, or shared with those not in the class. If the instructor or a UT San Antonio office plans any other uses for the recordings, consent of the students identifiable in the recordings is required before such use unless an exception is allowed by law."
Supplemental Instruction (SI): "In this course you have access to Supplemental Instruction (SI), weekly study sessions for students enrolled in core and gateway courses at UT San Antonio. In these sessions, guided by trained students who have successfully completed the coursework, students work together to improve learning strategies by reviewing course material and preparing for tests. Students who attend SI sessions regularly tend to average one-half to one full letter grade higher than their classmates who do not attend SI."

Generative AI in the Classroom

As generative AI tools continue to evolve, it is crucial for faculty to carefully consider how these technologies can be integrated into their courses in a meaningful and responsible way. Crafting a clear and comprehensive generative AI statement for the syllabus provides an opportunity to establish expectations with students regarding the appropriate use of these tools and foster a learning environment that promotes academic integrity, critical thinking, and ethical engagement with AI.

Here are some examples of generative AI statements for course syllabi:

Example 1: Encouraging Exploration with Acknowledgment

"I encourage students to explore the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT, for all assignments and assessments. Any such use must be appropriately acknowledged and cited, following the guidelines established by the APA Style Guide, including the specific version of the tool used. Submitted work should include the exact prompt used to generate the content as well as the AI’s full response in an Appendix. Because AI generated content is not necessarily accurate or appropriate, it is each student’s responsibility to assess the validity and applicability of any generative AI output that is submitted. You may not earn full credit if inaccurate, invalid, or inappropriate information is found in your work. Deviations from these guidelines will be considered violations of CMU’s academic integrity policy."

Example 2: Balancing AI Use with Ethical Responsibilities

"You are welcome to use generative AI programs (ChatGPT, DALL-E, etc.) in this course. These programs can be powerful tools for learning and other productive pursuits, including completing some assignments in less time, helping you generate new ideas, or serving as a personalized learning tool. However, your ethical responsibilities as a student remain the same. You must follow UT San Antonio’s Student Code of Conduct. Note that this policy applies to all uncited or improperly cited use of content, whether that work is created by human beings alone or in collaboration with a generative AI. If you use a generative AI tool to develop content for an assignment, you are required to cite the tool’s contribution to your work. In practice, cutting and pasting content from any source without citation is plagiarism. Likewise, paraphrasing content from a generative AI without citation is plagiarism. Finally, it is important that you recognize that generative AI tools frequently provide users with incorrect information, create professional-looking citations that are not real, generate contradictory statements, incorporate copyrighted material without appropriate attribution, and sometimes integrate biased or offensive concepts. Code generation models may produce inaccurate outputs. Image generation models may create misleading or offensive content. While you may use these tools in the work you create for this class, it is important to note that you understand you are ultimately responsible for the content that you submit."

Read also: Comprehensive UTSA Guide

Example 3: Permitted Use with Clear Guidelines

"Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including ChatGPT, is permitted in this course for students who wish to use them. To adhere to our scholarly values, students must cite any AI-generated material that informed their work (this includes in-text citations and/or use of quotations, and in your reference list)."

Example 4: Limited Use for Skill Development

"Learning how to use AI is an emerging skill, and we will work through the implications of these evolving systems together, during class sessions. However, use of generative AI will be limited to exercises during class sessions. I will always indicate when and where use of AI tools during class sessions is appropriate (and not). Examples of use during ungraded classroom exercises might include: brainstorming new ideas, developing example outlines or approaches to your work, and/or generating different ways to talk about a problem. In contrast, you may not use AI tools to generate work for an assignment to be submitted for a grade, as this cannot be considered a substitute for developing the fundamental skills and expertise represented by the learning objectives of this course. Please note that generative AI tools rely on predictive models to generate content that may appear correct, but has been shown to sometimes be incomplete, inaccurate, taken without attribution from other sources, and/or biased. Consequently, an AI tool should not be considered a substitute for traditional approaches to research and you should complete all graded assignments without any assistance from AI tolls. You are ultimately responsible for the content of the information you submit and may not attempt to pass off any work generated by an AI program as your own."

Example 5: Prohibiting AI Use

"To best support your own learning, you should complete all graded assignments in this course yourself, without any use of generative artificial intelligence (AI). Please refrain from using AI tools to generate any content (text, video, audio, images, code, etc.) for an assignment or classroom exercise. Passing off any AI-generated content as your own (e.g., cutting and pasting content into written assignments, or paraphrasing AI content) constitutes a violation of CMU’s academic integrity policy. I have carefully designed all assignments and class activities to support your learning. Doing your own work, without human or artificial intelligence assistance, is best for your achievement of the learning objectives in this course. In instances when collaborative work is assigned, I expect for the submitted work to list all team members who participated. I specifically forbid the use of ChatGPT or any other generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools at all stages of the work process, including brainstorming."

Turnitin and Academic Integrity

Students at UT San Antonio are responsible for ensuring their work is consistent with UT San Antonio’s standards for academic integrity. Students should review Section 203 of the UTSA Student Code of Conduct for appropriate standards of academic integrity. In addition, UT San Antonio has made Turnitin, a learning tool and plagiarism prevention system, available to instructors. For this class, you will submit your assignments to Turnitin through Canvas. When grading your work, I will interpret the Turnitin originality report following Section 203 of the UT San Antonio Student Code of Conduct as appropriate. For more information about Turnitin, review the student resources provided by Turnitin.

UTSA and HB 1027

UTSA has met all action items related to HB 1027, below, with the exception of those in orange font.

Read also: Navigating UTSA Student Services

Section 1. Sec. 51.4521. Public institutions: Dissemination of course schedule and list of required and recommended course materials. (a) In this section: (1) "Course material" means a textbook, supplemental material, or open educational resource. (2) "Institution of higher education," notwithstanding Section 51.451, has the meaning assigned by Section 61.003. Direction from Provost. Direction from Provost. UTSA does not have an inclusive access program.

(d) An institution of higher education shall itemize a fee or charge for course materials assessed by the institution or another entity under an agreement with the institution separately from any other fees or charges assessed for a course or course section in the institution's billing to the student. UTSA has no inclusive access programs. Follett Access would enable transparency within the class schedules. UTSA has no inclusive access programs.

Syllabus Availability and Updates

All course syllabi should be posted online, either in Simple Syllabus through Canvas, or on a departmental web page (graduate level courses only). Course syllabi should be made available to students online no later than the first class meeting of the semester. The syllabus is subject to change at the instructor’s discretion. Any changes/corrections to the course materials, assignment dates, or other updates will be communicated to the students ahead of time.

Design Star Award

The Design Star Award recognizes an institution that has developed and implemented both a professional and appealing design for their syllabi.

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