Some of you may be getting a head start on preparing for the Fall semester. Your chair or dean will soon be sharing (or may have already shared) with you the UAH Syllabus Template that we ask you to use in the creation of your Fall 2022 syllabus(i). This template was developed with faculty to be fully compatible with screen readers used by visually impaired students and to define the minimal information research tells us is effective in helping students successfully navigate a course. Most of you are probably already providing this information and will simply need to copy it into this formatting. This template is meant to be a starting point. You should add any information necessary for students to succeed in your particular course(s).
Three Notes Regarding Editing the Template
- Examples are highlighted in yellow; instructions are italicized – The text highlighted in yellow are examples of statements that could be used in that section. You need to review this text. After editing this, if you want to, you should remove the highlighting. The text in italics are instructions. After following the directions, this should be deleted in all cases.
- Keep the formatting – The formatting is essential to allow screen reading programs to accurately read the document to visually impaired students. If you paste information from another document, you need to make sure the formatting is identical to the template. Use the automatic formatting selections in Word; do not change font size manually.
- University Information will be updated each semester – At the end of the template, you will find a section entitled University Information. It will be separated from the text by a line break. Everything in that section (between the lines) will be provided by the Provost Office each semester. That information will also automatically appear in an inalterable box on the Syllabus page in Canvas.
After editing the document for your course, we ask that you follow the instructions that accompany the template and post your syllabus on the Syllabus page in Canvas as well as anywhere else you find effective to place your syllabus. With that, every student will know at least one place where they can always find the syllabus for every course they are taking. As a reminder, as stated in the faculty handbook, every instructor is required to provide a syllabus to their students in the first week of class and post the syllabus on Canvas.
Additional resources on building an effective syllabus will be available on the Enhanced Teaching & Learning Center (ETLC) website. Look for an email with the links later in June.
If you have any questions or would like assistance in using the template, please contact the ETLC at helpdesk@uah.edu.
