Course Syllabi Resources

A course information sheet or syllabus must be distributed for all university undergraduate courses and is strongly recommended for graduate courses. The syllabus itself is a statement of intent and serves as an implicit agreement between the instructor and the student that outlines the course's policies and expectations. This guide highlights useful resources and recommendations for creating and distributing your syllabi. 

Creating a Syllabus

ASU’s Policies

All course syllabi should contain the elements and policies outlined in ASU policy ACD 304-10 Course Syllabus. Visit the Provost’s Syllabus Guidelines page to learn more about the requirements.

Getting Started 

To get you started on creating your syllabus, the Teaching and Learning Center has developed a syllabus template and a content checklist.  

• SOLS Syllabus Template. The template includes policies and information required by ASU, as well as common language to standardize syllabi across the School of Life Sciences. Areas of the syllabus highlighted in yellow need to be customized for your class.
• SOLS Syllabus Checklist

Distributing Your Syllabus

All syllabi should be uploaded to your courses and distributed to students prior to the first day of class. It is important that you communicate to your students the expectations for how and when they will attend class, as well as the technical requirements, before you meet for the first time.

Uploading to Canvas

ASU requires that syllabi be made available to students during the first week of classes. Sharing your syllabus via the Syllabus page in Canvas is the easiest way to ensure students have online access to it.

There are two primary ways to utilize the Syllabus in Canvas:

• To create your syllabus directly in Canvas, see How do I use the Syllabus as an instructor?
• To embed or attach a PDF copy of your syllabus, see How do I upload a document in the Rich Content Editor?

Uploading to MyASU

The syllabus for your courses should also be up to date and made available to students 2 weeks prior to term start through the faculty tools in your MyASU.

Once uploaded, any students enrolled in your course will have easy access to your syllabus, which will appear on their MyASU accounts next to the course details. See how to upload a syllabus to MyASU.

Changing Your Syllabus Mid-Semester

We discourage changing the syllabus once the course has started; however, we recognize that issues arise that require some adjustments. Our SOLS syllabus template includes a general disclaimer that allows for such adjustments.

Additional Resources

• Office of the Provost : Learning expectations