The Syllabus in Canvas makes it easy to communicate to your students exactly what will be required of them throughout the course in chronological order. By default, the syllabus is set as your course home page.

Quick Start

Open Syllabus

You can add your syllabus under Files or within the Syllabus section.

To upload your syllabus, go to the desired course and click on the Syllabus link in the Course Navigation Menu.

course navigation menu item showing Syllabus

View Syllabus

syllabus course summary and calendar with grade weight view

The syllabus includes:

1. 1. the Course Syllabus description (editable)
  2. the Course Summary (auto-populated by Canvas as you create assignments and events),
  3. and the sidebar.

Edit Syllabus

The syllabus description is where you can post your course description, a brief introduction, class guidelines, weekly reminders, and other important information. You can copy content from Word documents directly into the Rich Content Editor or create original content inside of the Rich Content Editor. You can also link to your Syllabus by uploading it into Course Files as a PDF and embedding the document in the Rich Content Editor. Canvas will automatically create a preview of your document so your students don't have to download it before reading it.

To edit the Syllabus, click the Edit button.

example of course syllabus description and edit button

View Course Summary

Under your syllabus description, a list of your assignments will automatically appear every time you add an assignment to your course.

example of course summary area

The Course Summary is automatically generated for the course and contains a list of assignments and events.

Assignments are indicated by the Assignments icon.
Events are indicated by the Calendar icon.
Non-graded items with a to-do date show the to-do date.
Undated items are listed in alphabetical order.

Any assignments or events that are past the due date are highlighted in gray.

All assignments (unpublished and published) are listed in the syllabus for instructors, but students only see published assignments. Changes to these dated events can be made in both the Assignments and Calendar features and will be automatically updated in the Syllabus. Click the title to view the details of the assignment or event.

Disabling Course Summary (optional)

The Course Summary is enabled by default. To disable the Course Summary, uncheck the Show Course Summary checkbox in the Rich Content Editor.

View Sidebar

sidebar on syllabus

The sidebar section displays information about course events and grading. The assignment group information can be edited in the Assignments feature while the Calendar information can be edited in both the Assignments and Calendar features. Any changes made will be reflected in the Course Summary section of the Syllabus.

The sidebar includes:

Mini Calendar - any date that includes an event or assignment due date are shown with a gray background. To view an associated assignment or event in Course Summary, click the calendar date.
Weighted Grades Scale - if your course includes weighted assignment groups, the sidebar also shows the percentages of each group. Assignment Groups are created within the Assignments tab.

💡 Tips:

The Syllabus is automatically generated based on Assignments and Events within a course. It can only be changed by editing or deleting the Assignments or Events. All assignments (unpublished and published) are listed in the syllabus for instructors.
While Canvas will auto-generate a Syllabus as you create Assignments, Quizzes, Discussions, etc., keep in mind this is not meant to replace your legally binding Syllabus document, as this "syllabus" may change if you change due dates or other items in your course.

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