[ARCHIVED] [ARCHIVED] Syllabus

[lvitanza]

Hello,

We are working on implementing Canvas at our school which is an accredited, postsecondary educational institution.  Is anyone familiar with syllabus requirements?  Are schools required to have a paper syllabus to supplement their online syllabus?  Are schools required to have the grading system, SAP, and school policies on each syllabus?  We are an on campus school.  Thank you, any input is appreciated.

[kona]

Greetings, what is required on a course syllabus will vary from State to State and based on your accrediting body. I took a quick look and it appears that your Institution is accredited through The Council on Occupational Education. Via their handbook (pg 55, #22) it states, "For all coursework delivered via distance education: The institution has in place a standardized course template, course descriptions, learning objectives, course requirements (i.e. standard syllabus, outcomes, grading, resources, etc.), and learning outcomes of its programs in order to facilitate quality assurance and the assessment of student learning. (Objectives 2-C-4 and 2-C-5)." If this isn't helpful, I would recommend contacting someone there for more information on what's required.

Not sure if it will help or not, but we are in Illinois and no, we don't provide a paper copy of our syllabus to our online students (or even a lot of our hybrid and traditional students). The online version - as long as it is accessible to the students - is fine. As for what is required to be on our syllabus, we consider it our contract with the student. It lets them know what they can expect from us and what we expect from them. This means we have all grading policies, SAP, attendance, relevant school policies, and contact information for different student resources. This is in addition to information about the course, Instructor, textbook, course outline, etc...

Hope this helps!

[lvitanza]

Hi Kona,

Thank you for your input.  It is very helpful.  Our current accreditation is on campus only.  We have a combination of blended learning and instructor led classes. 

[kona]

Ah, in that case I would figure out who will be doing the accrediting for your online courses and see what they require.

[lvitanza]

okay, thank you.