Building a “Too Long, Didn’t Read” Syllabus View in Canvas
Is there any document in academia that is simultaneously more important and more ignored than a syllabus? We pour hours into crafting it, only for students to ask questions that are answered on page three.
This observation really pushed me to rethink my syllabus page in Canvas. I decided to treat it less like a legal contract and more like a user-friendly guide—a "TLDR" (Too Long; Didn't Read) version that hits the key points and sets the tone for the entire semester. While my students still have to read and annotate the full PDF syllabus for a week-one assignment, the Canvas page is their go-to hub.
So, what makes it different? I focus on three things:
Humanizing the Instructor: I include an "Instructor Info" section with photos of me and my spouse, a list of my favorite things (video games, movies, and podcasts) indicated through easter eggs… for those who ikyk, and even a link to my Spotify Wrapped playlist. It reminds students that I’m a person, not just a professor, which helps build rapport and makes office hours feel more approachable.
Translating the “Why”: Instead of just listing official learning outcomes, I break them down into three core skills: Understand, Apply, and Create. Under each, I explain why we’re doing certain activities (like readings) and then provide a "Use It" box with language they can adapt for job interviews, connecting their classwork directly to professional skills.
Using Accessible Language: My course uses an ungrading, XP-based system that can be confusing at first. So, I explain it using video game analogies, talking about "quests" (assignments), "XP" (points), and "leveling up" to their desired grade. This framing makes a complex system instantly more understandable for them, especially because I teach computer science, engineering, and other video-game centric students.
These strategies help make the syllabus a welcoming and genuinely useful document that sets a positive, professional tone. And if you’d like to try this approach without starting from scratch, I’ve made my entire Canvas syllabus page available as a free HTML template in the freebie section of the Teacher's PET shop.
You can just download the text file, copy the code, and paste it directly into the HTML editor on a Canvas page to get the full layout. From there, you can edit it with your own content. And if you want to change the colors to match your school’s branding, our free HTML Preview Editor lets you paste the code and easily find and replace color codes to customize it perfectly. Give it a try and let’s make the syllabus a document our students will actually use!
All this talk about the syllabus is also why I use PAL, the chatbot trained on my selected course documents with a public-facing view for students. You can build that in the Teacher’s PET app 🐝.
-Hayley
