In building an atmosphere of trust between instructors and students, it is vital to set clear expectations. Research bears this out: a 2025 survey of students carried out by Inside Higher Ed found that 34% of respondents considered “clear, consistent expectations” to be a priority in building classroom trust. But how to achieve this goal? It begins, as with so much else in the classroom experience, with the syllabus.
In many ways, the course syllabus is a contract between you and your students. As with any contract, the clearer and less ambiguous its terms, the easier it is to abide by for all parties. At the same time, the classroom environment itself is fluid: as the quarter passes, circumstances may call for a re-evaluation of what you expect of your students. Sometimes it may be sufficient to spell out changes through Canvas Announcements (“You don’t need to read Passage X for Friday, just Passage Y”), but this method isn’t ideal for major reconfigurations of the syllabus.
It is here that the “evolving syllabus” becomes truly useful. Digital technology makes it possible to iterate the syllabus over time, updating it as needed without the time and expense involved in printing out a fresh paper copy for every student. In the remainder of this post, we’ll explore various methods through which you can create a digital evolving syllabus, weighing the affordances and limitations of each.
Create a Syllabus in Canvas
The simplest and most straightforward means of creating an evolving syllabus is to leverage the Syllabus tab in your Canvas course site. You can upload your syllabus (which automatically creates a link to it), copy and paste the full text of the syllabus into the Rich Content Editor, or both. If/when the terms of the syllabus change, you can then upload a new version and/or edit the text you’ve pasted into the RCE.
If you wish to enliven your syllabus and make it interactive, Canvas supports multimedia. In addition to static images, you can record and embed audio or video clips, using either the native Canvas recorder or Panopto, the University’s video management system.
While this method is quick and requires no additional tools, it does carry the risk that your students may become confused as to which is the current version of your syllabus, especially if you upload multiple file versions without deleting the previous versions. We therefore recommend that you give a clear indication of the date of the most recent version. If you are uploading a file, name it descriptively: e.g. “Syllabus_08202025,” not simply “Syllabus”. If you are editing text in the RCE, note the date of the most recent edit at the top of the page.
Note also that you can select the text of a hyperlink in the RCE and delete it. It is therefore helpful to delete links to superseded versions of your syllabus.
Always be sure to click the maroon Update Syllabus button to save your changes!
And finally: you can set the Syllabus page to be your course homepage, so that your students will see it first when visiting your course site. Just click on Choose Home Page in the Home Page sidebar.
A Note on the Canvas Course Summary
The Course Summary section on the Syllabus page automatically compiles a list of assignments, quizzes, and other dated activities from across your course. To ensure the summary is accurate, be sure to assign specific dates and times to each assignment and quiz when creating them. This automated summary gives students a quick reference for important deadlines and allows students to visualize the course timeline.
If you wish to turn off the Course Summary, you can do so by visiting your Syllabus page, clicking Edit, and unchecking the Show Course Summary box.
Create a Syllabus in a Google Doc
Some faculty and instructors prefer to write their syllabus in a Google Doc and update it as needed. The advantage of this method is that Google Docs automatically retains a version history, so that, if needed, you or your students can “step back” through previous iterations and see what’s changed. You should, however, be sure to communicate all changes to your students, e.g. through a Canvas Announcement.
Like Canvas, Google Docs supports embedding static images. It does not, however, support embedded audio or video.
A Note on the UChicago Google Workspace and Permissions
As a faculty member or instructor, you have access to the UChicago Google Workspace and can log into it using your CNetID and password. We recommend that you create your syllabus in the UChicago workspace, rather than using your personal Gmail account. Doing so allows you to restrict access to your syllabus to members of the UChicago community. If you choose “University of Chicago” in the Share dialog box and then copy/paste the link in the Syllabus section of your Canvas course site, your students will have to sign into the UChicago Google Workspace to view the document, which adds an extra layer of security.
Finally, as with the previous method, it’s always helpful to note at the top of the document the date on which it was last updated, to avoid confusion.
Create a Syllabus on a Voices Course Site
If you request a Voices course site (also known as a “course blog”) for your course, you can use it to house your syllabus if you wish. In addition to blog posts, Voices allows for the creation of pages, similar to standard webpages (or Canvas Pages), which you can edit as needed. Like Google Docs, Voices retains a version history of edits made to pages or posts. Also like Google Docs, you should be sure to communicate changes to the syllabus to your students.
As long as you are using the Voices-Canvas integration (which is the default setting when Voices course sites are created), your site, and thus your syllabus, will be visible only to you and students enrolled in your course. Also, even after your course has been completed, your students will retain access to the Voices site (unless you specifically remove them via the Users menu), so that they can continue to refer to your syllabus.
Finally, Voices supports not only static images but also embedded audio or video clips from Panopto.
Create a Syllabus on a Third-Party Site
Some faculty and instructors prefer to host their syllabi on websites they themselves own/host, or on third-party platforms such as Github. This method gives you the most fine-grained control over the content, layout, and editing of your syllabus, as you are not constrained by the functionality of Canvas, Google Workspace, or Voices. However, please be aware that UChicago cannot provide support if your syllabus “lives” on a third-party website: maintenance and privacy controls will be entirely up to you.
A Note on Rubrics
Canvas supports the creation of rubrics, which you can tie to specific learning outcomes. However you choose to deliver your syllabus to your students, you can employ rubrics to make clear what criteria you will be using to evaluate particular assignments, as well as how much each criterion will be weighted in calculating the overall grade. Rubrics can help your students feel that you are evaluating their work fairly, rather than arbitrarily, and thereby build a sense of trust between you and them.
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(Cover Photo By: Kaboompics.com)
