How to update your Canvas HTML Syllabus each term

Florida State University has gone through some major changes over the last two years, which has impacted some institutional policies for both the main Tallahassee and Panama City campuses. The good news is that Canvas offers you the ability to quickly update your syllabi using Design Tools!

Keep in mind: If you wish to import the ODL Quality Course Shell into your course site, we recommend that you do so before following the directions in this article.

To skip down to the specific information you are looking for, use the following links:

Import a brand-new, up-to-date syllabus template into your course site
Use this option if you don't have any custom sections in your syllabus or have never used a Design Tools syllabus template before.
Update your existing syllabus template with current policy information
if you have some custom syllabus sections and are using a course copy to bring your syllabus over from a previous course site, then we recommend that you use this option to update only the specific institutional policy blocks impacted by university policy changes. This will retain your customized syllabus blocks while still updating the institutional policy blocks.

Import a brand new syllabus template into your course site

Navigate to your course site's Syllabus page.
Click the Edit button in the upper right.
Click the rocket icon in the upper right corner of the screen. It will expand into a Launch Design Tools icon when you hover your mouse over it.
On the Design Tools menu select the Create/Edit Syllabus Content section, then select Copy Existing Content.
Under the Institution Syllabus Templates drop down menu, select either the Syllabus (Panama City) Fall 2020 or Syllabus (Tallahassee) Fall 2020 as appropriate.
This will insert the syllabus template into the main text field of Canvas' Rich Content Editor. You can then edit the different sections of the syllabus template as appropriate.

Further resources:

Design Tools Overview
Design Tools: Getting Started
Design Tools: Building a Syllabus Page
Design Tools: How to import the ODL Quality Course Shell into your course or development site
Keep in mind: if you import the ODL Quality Course Shell into your course site after setting up your Syllabus page, your Syllabus page will be overwritten. If you need to import the ODL Quality Course Shell after setting up your Syllabus page, we strongly recommend that you copy all your Syllabus page content into a regular Canvas course page as a backup.

Update your existing syllabus template with current policy information after copying it over from a previous course

Please note: If you are copying your course syllabus over from a past course, it is best to delete your proctored exams syllabus block altogether and then re-add it. If your proctored exams section mentions taking exams on campus at the FSU Testing Center, then it is out of date and will not update automatically. It will need to be manually deleted and re-added before the block will automatically update. Please see our support article that addresses updating the Proctored Exams syllabus statement for more information.

Navigate to your course site's Syllabus page.
Click the Edit button in the upper right.
Click the rocket icon in the upper right corner of the screen. It will expand into a Launch Design Tools icon when you hover your mouse over it.
On the Design Tools menu select the Create/Edit Syllabus Content heading, then select Institutional Policies.
Click the following blocks as needed:
- Refresh Canvas Support Policies Block
- + Add Proctored Exams-Panama City Policies Block or + Add Proctored Exams-Tallahassee Policies Block depending on which location your course is technically associated with.
- Refresh University Policies (Main) Policies Block or Refresh University Policies (Panama City) Policies Block as appropriate
  This will add syllabus sections dealing with Honorlock and Canvas user support, as well as update your syllabus template's University Policies Block with the latest information.
On the Design Tools menu, under the Create/Edit Syllabus Content select Add/Rearrange Syllabus Blocks.
Click the red X next to any old proctoring blocks you might have in your syllabus to delete it. The old proctoring blocks are called:
Proctored Exams - Honorlock All Campuses, Proctored Exams-Tallahassee, and Proctored Exams-Panama City.
Click and drag your new Proctored Exams-Panama City or Proctored Exams-Tallahassee block (using the grey up-and-down arrow next to it) to the space where the previous Proctored Exams/Honorlock block was located within the list. This will move the new Proctored Exams (with updated content) block up to the old Proctoring Exams location within your Syllabus. You can also adjust the order of any other syllabus blocks in this way.
Click the Update Syllabus button located just below the text editor to save the changes you have made.