Syllabus Tool - Instructor Level (At-a-Glance version)


CSI Staff
Staff Writer
Center for Support of Instruction

Category: » Webtycho » Syllabus-area

These Instructor Level instructions have lot of screenshot as well as detailed explanations on how to use the syllabus tool features. If you find these instructions do not have as much detail as you would like, please take a look at the expanded set of instructions.

Faculty have access to their syllabi four weeks prior to the beginning of the semester.

E-Mail Notifications:

Once the Director has published the master syllabus, the syllabus tool system will send an email indicating that your syllabus is ready for editing. If you do not receive this email or you can not access they syllabus from the "Faculty Center" link in WebTycho, please contact your director immediately.

Email notifiation

Adding/Editing Text - You have the ability to choose from two different editors.

  • TFE Applet - This is a Java applet editor. You will need to use this editor if you need to use math equations. It requires that you have Java Virtual Machine (JVM) version 1.4.2 or higher.
  • PinEdit - This WYSIWYG HTML editor requires no applets, activeX or plugins.

Accessing the Faculty Level Syllabus


1. Log into your WebTycho classroom. 

2. Select the Faculty Center link from the left-hand menu.

Faculty Center Menu

3. Select the Manage link to the right of the syllabus option.

Manage Link

4. Check the Status to see if the Director has Preapproved the course by looking at the Status line located just under the Course Name. (You will want to make a mental note of the status for your syllabus as you will need to know this to publish the syllabus to your students.)

Syllabus Tool Key

Status 1: Preapproved but Not Published to Course - No further approval is needed from Director before making the syllabus available to the students.

Status 2: Syllabi Not Submitted for Approval - The syllabus must be returned to Director for approval before it can be made available to the students.   


Editing the Syllabus


Before you begin editing the Syllabus you will want to choose which editor to use. The active editor will be displayed under the course title. If you want to change the editor, under the Actions menu select the appropriate editor link

active-editor.

Under the Edit Sections menu you will find a list of sections that you can edit. (Note the sections listed in the image below may not be the sections you have access to).

Edit sections

To make changes or enter new data select one of the items listed under Edit Sections located on the left-hand side of the screen.

Pick a section

After making edits to a particular section of the syllabus click on the Save Changes button.

save changes

Click Return to Syllabus to modify additional area's of the current syllabus.

return to syllabus

Unless otherwise noted by your Director you have the ability to create your own schedule or select a pre-constructed schedule as listed under Course Schedules menu.

Course Schedule

If your original document has embedded HTML coding, you cannot cut and paste this content directly into the TFE. You will need to copy/paste the material into a Word file, remove any HTML coding and then copy/paste the cleaned content into the TFE.

Create a Schedule


You can choose to post a schedule as:

  • Single Entry Schedule - With this schedule you can type directly into the editor or cut/paste text from another source (e.g., MSWord or HTML).
  • Standard Schedule - The schedule is formatted into rows/columns. Weekly course information will need to be added individually to each row/column

Single Entry Schedule

Select Create a Schedule from the Course Schedule menu.

Create yor own schedule

Select the Single Entry radio button. Fill in the name of the schedule (e.g., Fall, Spring, Summer, 14-wk schedule), then select the Create Schedule button.

Single Entry

Click on the Edit Schedule link to add schedule content.

Edit Schedule


Standard Schedule

Select Create a Schedule from the Course Schedule menu.

Create yor own schedule

Determine the Column Titles

The schedule allows you to have up to four column titles. The first and third columns are required. Columns two and four are optional and are displayed as Do Not Show by default.

Determine Columns and Rows

Determine Number of Rows

The number of rows needed is determined by the number of class units held during the semester. A standard semester typically runs 14-15 weeks. (Note: You can add or delete rows at a later time if needed.)

Select the Create Schedule button to create the schedule table.

Create Schedule

Select the Edit link located in the last column and fill in each column with appropriate text and click the Save Changes button.

Add Content

When you have completed the entire schedule click on the Return to Schedule link.

Return Schedule

When you have completed the updating of the course schedule click on the Syllabus link located at the top of the screen.

Select the Syllabus Link

Selecting a Pre-constructed Schedule

To select an existing schedule, click on the desired schedule posted under the Course Schedules list located on the left-hand side of the screen.

edit existing schedule

To modify the content of the existing schedule select the Edit link for the appropriate row.

Modify Content

When you have finished editing that particular row click Save Changes button.

Save Changes

Once you have modified the entire schedule click on the Return to Schedule link.

Return to Schedule

When you complete the updating of the course schedule click on the the Syllabus link located at the top of the screen.

Return to Syllabus

Finish the process and publish to Syllabus to Students


Once you have completed the editing of your syllabus you must make the syllabus available to the students by publishing it.

As mentioned earlier there are two statuses that the Director can impose. The steps you need to follow in order to make the syllabus available to your student's will depend on which status your Director has chosen for your syllabus.

If your syllabus was:

  • Preapproved but Not Published to Course - No further approval is needed from Director before making the syllabus available to the students. Follow these steps.
  • Syllabi Not Submitted for Approval - The syllabus must be returned to Director for approval before it can be made available to the students. Follow these steps.

Publishing a Syllabus with a Status of "Preapproved but Not Published to Course"

When you have completed all changes to the syllabus, click on the Publish to Students link.

Publish to Students

On the next screen entitled Publish Syllabus To Student the syllabus is displayed without a course schedule.

From the Select Schedule drop-down choose the appropriate schedule. If you wish, you may view the schedule by clicking on the View Schedule button.

Select a schedule

From the Publish Syllabus to Students window, select the Publish Syllabus button.

Select the Publish Link

Select the Log Out link to exit the Syllabus Tool.

Logout

Go to your WebTycho classroom to view the syllabus.  If you want to make any changes, click Faculty Center and click the Manage link located next to the word Syllabus.  Login to the Syllabus Tool.

Check the WebTycho Classroom to ensure the syllabus is visible

If you choose the wrong schedule or want to make changes to it after you have publish syllabus to the students you can go back to Manage Syllabus and edit the appropriate sections. Once you have saved the changes, the option to publish to the students will be made available.

Submitting/Publishing a Syllabus with a Status of "Syllabi Not Submitted for Approval"


When you have completed all changes to the syllabus click on the Submit for Approval link listed under Actions menu on the left-hand side of the screen.

Submit for Approval Link

On the next screen entitled Submit Syllabus for Approval the syllabus is displayed without a course schedule.

From the Select Schedule drop-down chose the appropriate schedule. If you wish, you may view the schedule by clicking on the View Schedule button.

Select a schedule

To complete the process, click the Submit Syllabus for Approval button.

Click oon the submit syllabus for approval button

A message will display that The syllabus has been successfully submitted for approval. Click the Return to Syllabus link.

Click on the Return to Syllabus link

The status will show Submitted-Not Yet Approved.

The director will receive an email indicating that the syllabus has been submitted for their approval. The academic director will then review the syllabus and either approve or reject it, then republish the syllabus back to the instructor. If the syllabus has been rejected, notes and/or suggestions from the Director will be displayed along with the syllabus. The director will NOT make any editing changes to the syllabus.

Check the status

If the syllabus has been rejected, it will need to be modified and resubmitted to the Director for approval before it can be made visible to the students.

syllabus has been rejected

Select appropriate course link to read Director's comments and to edit the syllabus accordingly.

Review Director Comments

Once the syllabus has been approved by the Director the instructor you can review the approved version, then publish it to the students.

Resubmit for approval

From the Publish Syllabus to Students window, select the Publish Syllabus button.

Select the Publish button

The following screen will appear when the syllabus has been published to the WebTycho classroom.

Syllbus has been successfully published

Select the Log Out link to exit the Syllabus Tool.

Log out

Go to your WebTycho classroom to view the syllabus. If you want to make any changes, click Faculty Center and click the Manage link located next to the word Syllabus. Login to the Syllabus Tool.

Check the WebTycho classroom to ensure syllabus is visable
If you choose the wrong schedule or want to make changes after you have published syllabus to the students, you can go back to Manage Syllabus and edit the appropriate sections. Once you have saved the changes, the option to publish to the students will be made available.
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Comments

John Campbell -- Oct 30th 2008

This is very detailed and well done I will obviously need to print it out in order to get through the process the first time -- but I believe once I have done it there should be no problem.

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