Simple Syllabus

The former Syllabus area within Content will be renamed “Overview”. Simple Syllabus has been added to the course navigation bar as “Syllabus”. If you perform a course copy from a semester prior to Fall 2026, your former syllabus will appear in Overview. You will need to remove it from Overview and create it using Syllabus from the course navigation bar.

No. Beginning Fall 2026, submitting your syllabus in Simple Syllabus simultaneously publishes a student view and a public view of your syllabus.

The privacy toggle will automatically be set to “Public” for the six syllabus components the university has deemed required for public-facing syllabi. These include:

• Course Information
• Course Description
• Course Learning Outcomes
• Learning Materials
• Assignments
• Determination of Course Grade

No. To promote clarity and consistency across course syllabi, components pre-populated by the university cannot be renamed.

For any additional components you add to the syllabus, you will have full control of the name, visibility, and privacy settings.

Yes. Simple Syllabus provides instructors with a built-in accessibility checker that reviews content accessibility as you make edits. Any issues detected will be indicated by the accessibility checker icon and will need to be corrected before the syllabus can be submitted.

No. At this time, any additional components or language required by individual units should be communicated directly to instructors for them to add to their syllabi. Once added, these components and/or language will be copied to subsequent syllabi but may be modified as needed.

No. Only individuals listed as an instructor of record for the course can “Edit and Submit” the course syllabus.

Individuals added as an instructor to the Brightspace course via the Enrollment Manager can “View” the course syllabus. They cannot “Edit.”

• Visible/Invisible: Controls whether a component is included (Visible) in a published version of your syllabus or hidden and visible only to you in the template editor (Invisible).
• Public/Private: Controls whether the syllabus component is visible to both your students and the general public (Public), or visible only to your students and those with assigned access (Private). Several pre-populated components of the syllabus will be automatically designated as Public to comply with Indiana state law. These include:
  • Course Information
  • Course Description
  • Course Learning Outcomes
  • Learning Materials
  • Assignments
  • Determination of Course Grade
  • All other pre-populated components will be marked Private.
• Toggles with a lock icon cannot be changed.

No. A file cannot be imported into Simple Syllabus; however, text can be copied from a Word or PDF document and pasted into Simple Syllabus.

Some course information is populated automatically from Banner, PNW’s student information system, and cannot be edited in Simple Syllabus.  Any errors in the course information must be corrected in Banner.

Corrections to the course description must be handled via the formal curricular approval and revision process. Please follow the established guidelines and workflows to request a curriculum change.

Yes. If the component is not “Required”, it can be removed in one of two ways:

• Option 1: Remove all text from the component’s content editor. Simple Syllabus will recognize there is no content and will not display the component in the published version of your syllabus.
• Option 2: Toggle the visibility slider for the component to Invisible.

With either option, the component will remain visible to you in the editor but will be removed from your submitted syllabus.

Yes. Click +Add from the left menu, name the component as desired, and click Save. New components are automatically added to the bottom of your syllabus, but can be relocated (see below).

You can establish if the name of this component will be displayed in your submitted syllabus and modify the visibility and privacy settings as desired.

Yes. Click Reorder from the left menu. Reordering components can be done in one of two ways:

• Option 1: Click and drag components to your desired order.
• Option 2: Click the up/down arrows to reorder components in your desired order.

Yes. Simple Syllabus auto-saves as you make changes. You are free to leave and return as desired. DO NOT “submit” your syllabus until it is finalized.

Yes. Click Preview at the bottom of the screen. This will open the student view in a new tab. When finished, close the tab to return to the editor.

No. The syllabus will need to be submitted before you can view it as the public will see it. There is not a feature equivalent to the student preview.

Click the Submit button at the bottom of the screen to publish your syllabus. The student-facing view will be made available in Brightspace. The public-facing view will be made available on Purdue’s Simple Syllabus website. No further action is required once you have submitted your syllabus.

Navigate to Purdue’s Simple Syllabus website. Be sure you are NOT logged in and then search for your course.

Yes. You can return at any time throughout the semester to make changes to your syllabus and re-submit.

Yes. When creating your Brightspace course merge, the parent course you select in the Course Merge tool will be the syllabus applied and visible to all students and sections in the merged course. You DO NOT need to create a syllabus for each course section in the merge.

Yes. The next semester you teach the course, your most recent syllabus for that course will be automatically imported. You can then choose how you would like to proceed:

• update the imported content to reflect the current semester
• select a different syllabus to import
• “reset” your syllabus template to clear all content and restart with a blank version of the university’s template

Anyone you have added to your Brightspace course via the Enrollment Manager tool (i.e. Grader, Teaching Assistant, Course Builder, Instructor, SI Tutor, Read Only Course Copy) will be able to “View” your student-facing syllabus.

All others will see only your public-facing syllabus.

Only individuals listed as an instructor of record can “Edit and Submit” the course syllabus.

It is possible not all requirements have been met. You will want to check that:

• All syllabus components marked “Required” have been completed. Any “Required” components not yet completed will be outlined with a red border.
• All accessibility issues have been resolved. Any unresolved issues will be indicated in the Accessibility checker icon.