Beta testing with a limited number of instructors and students was completed in March, and we are now making final edits in advance of making Simple Syllabus available to all instructors on April 23, the same day that Carmen Canvas becomes available for Autumn 2026 courses.
Several virtual workshops are planned to assist instructors in the use of Simple Syllabus to post their syllabi – these are available for registration in BuckeyeLearn. More dates will be added as needed. Simple Syllabus also includes extensive help information, including guidance on how to complete each individual field in compliance with SB-1, ODHE, and University policies. Technical assistance is available from OTDI by email at syllabus@osu.edu.
The course templates available in Simple Syllabus will prioritize pedagogical autonomy for instructors while meeting the requirements set in SB 1. The public-facing syllabus for courses numbering 5000 and below will be limited to the elements required by law: the instructor’s name and professional qualifications, the course description, the course calendar/topics, and the required/recommended readings.
The template will include sections for instructors to include all the additional course details traditionally included in a syllabus. Most of these sections will be optional; all of these sections will be visible only to students and instructors. Instructors of graduate-level courses (6000 and above) will have access to Simple Syllabus, but no sections of those syllabi will be public.
To ease the administrative load, Simple Syllabus is designed to pull existing data directly from the Registrar’s system and CarmenCanvas to pre-populate some fields. Learning Systems also expects to be able to provide elevated access to unit administrative staff who can pre-populate sections on behalf of instructors. After adding their own content to the remaining fields for the first time, instructors will be able to copy syllabi into other sections of the same course in the current or future semesters.