With the launch of SimpleSyllabus at Auburn, courses were showing two syllabus-related links in Canvas navigation: the native Canvas Syllabus tool and SimpleSyllabus. To prevent confusion for instructors and students about which link to use, beginning August 17th, we've hidden the native Canvas Syllabus tool from students and replaced it with a new Course Summary page.
How does this help?
For students: Only one clearly labeled place to check the official syllabus (SimpleSyllabus) and one clearly labeled place to check due dates and schedule (Course Summary). No more guessing between two similarly named "Syllabus" links.
For instructors: Your workflow doesn't change. Keep setting due dates in Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions as usual, and they'll continue to flow automatically into the Course Summary page. You also avoid fielding "which syllabus do I use?" questions from students, and any existing Syllabus description content can be copied over.
The updated course navigation will begin with Home, Announcements, Simple Syllabus, and Course Summary.
About Course Summary
The Course Summary page recreates the same layout as the Syllabus tool:
Top section: A course syllabus area, just like the original Syllabus description, where instructor and course information lives.
Bottom section: An auto-updating Course Summary that pulls in assignment, quiz, discussion, and calendar due dates directly from Canvas and requires no manual maintenance. The native Syllabus tool link is now hidden from students in course navigation but remains visible to instructors. If you had content in your original Syllabus description, you can copy it over into the top section of the new Course Summary page so students see the same information in one place.
The course events appear beneath a text box that currently says, “Welcome to your course summary!” This text is editable. Select Edit to change the text displayed at the top of the page.
You can replace the welcome message with information you previously included in your Canvas Syllabus description or with other information you would like students to see.
Important
Please do not remove the “Loading course summary...” text located beneath the editable text. This text is required for the Course Summary to load properly.
Instructors can choose Course Summary page and set it as the course’s Front Page, or hide the Course Summary tool from students if they would prefer not to use it.
Set Course Summary as the Front Page
If you would like to use it as the first page students see when they enter your course, you can publish it and set it as the course’s Front Page.
1) Navigate to the Course Summary page. Select the three-dot menu next to Edit, then select Use as Front Page.
2) Return to Pages. A Front Page marker will now appear beneath the Course Summary page.
3) On the Homepage, click Choose Home Page on the right, then select Pages Front Page.
Don’t Want to Use Course Summary?
If you would prefer not to display the Course Summary page in your course navigation, you can hide it from students without deleting the page or its content.
- In your Canvas course, select Settings from the course navigation.
- Select the Navigation tab.
- Find Course Summary in the navigation list and drag it to the hidden (grayed-out) section.
- Select Save at the bottom of the page.
This removes the Course Summary link from students’ course navigation without deleting the page or its content. You can move it back to the visible navigation list at any time.
Support
For any technical questions, please file a ticket with Biggio Tech at aub.ie/biggiotech.