CLS - Posting Syllabi Online

I. Syllabus requirements

The following items MUST be present in your syllabus:

Course Title, Contact Information, TA Contact Information
Office Hours, Office Locale (TA Office Hours/Locale, if applicable)
Course Objectives/Goals
Topical Outline (at least tentative)
Methods of Student Evaluation and Grade Determination
Class Attendance Policy
Make-up Policy
A Statement Related To Accommodations for Students with disabilities, such as the following:

"Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the Instructor when requesting accommodation."

For a sample syllabus with the required elements, refer to: http://www.crim.ufl.edu/help/samples/samp_syllabus.html

For a sample topical outline, refer to: http://www.crim.ufl.edu/help/samples/samp_schedule.html

Also, refer to the University standards: http://www.ir.ufl.edu/fac_handbook/syllabi.htm

II. Creating the syllabus and saving to an online location

For those who want to get started quickly and do not need much help, the basic steps to posting your syllabus online are as follows:

Create your syllabus in a word processing program (e.g. Word or Word Perfect) or using a webpage editor (e.g. Netscape Editor or Mozilla Composer)
Save the file as an html document in your I:/ drive.
Access the document with the URL http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/{USERNAME}/{FILENAME}

For those of you requiring further instruction...

Before you begin, you must decide which software you are most comfortable using. If you have no experience creating web pages, you should probabably use Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect. The guidelines below walk you through creating an online version of your syllabus using Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, Netscape Editor/Composer, or Mozilla Composer.

1. Microsoft Word

Type the syllabus as you normally would, then follow these instructions when you save the document:

Pull down the "File" menu and select "Save As Web Page".
Type in the file name.
Under "Save in:", select the I:\ drive (shown below).
Click the "Save" button.
Refer to Section III of this document for information about accessing your new online syllabus.

Figure 1: Saving your syllabus in Microsoft Word.

2. Corel Wordperfect

Type the syllabus as you normally would, then follow these instructions when you save the document:

Pull down the "File" menu and select "Save As".
Toward the bottom of the following screen, under "File Type", select "HTML" (as shown in Figure 2).
Type in the file name.
Under "Save in:", select the I:\ drive.
Click the "Save" button.
Refer to Section III of this document for information about accessing your new online syllabus.

Figure 2: Saving your syllabus in Corel WordPerfect.

3. Netscape Editor/Composer

Type the syllabus as you normally would in any other word processing application, then follow these instructions when you save the document:

Pull down the "File" menu and select "Save".
Type in the file name.
Under "Save in:", select the I:\ drive (as shown in Figure 3).
Click the "Save" button.
Refer to Section III of this document for information about accessing your new online syllabus.

Figure 3: Saving your syllabus in Netscape Editor/Composer.

4.Mozilla Composer

Type the syllabus as you normally would in any other word processing application, then follow these instructions when you save the document:

Pull down the "File" menu and select "Save Page As".
Type in the file name.
Under "Save in:", select the I:\ drive.
Click the "Save" button.
Refer to Section III of this document for information about accessing your new online syllabus.

III. Accessing your syllabus online

If you saved your new syllabus directly to your I:\ drive, it can now be accessed via a URL like the following:

http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/{USERNAME}/{FILENAME}.

Here, USERNAME is your CLASnet user name, and FILENAME is the name of the file you saved to the I:\ drive. For example, if I saved the file "syllabus.html" to my I:\ drive, I would access it via http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/bstults/syllabus.html.

To help organize your files, you may want a separate location for each course. To do this, follow these instructions:

Double-click on "My Computer" from your desktop
Double click on your I:/ drive.
Create a new folder by right-clicking in any of the white space near your syllabus document and selecting "New >> Folder".
Click and drag your syllabus to this new folder.
For example, I might creat a folder called "ccj3701" and drag my file "syllabus.html" into it. Now I could access my syllabus at the following URL: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/bstults/ccj3701/syllabus.html.