Instructors are required to publish the course syllabus by the seventh day of class for the part-of-term the course is offered. However, you may find that most of your instructors have the syllabus published by the first day of class, if not sooner.
Students can access the syllabus for a course in a variety of ways. Select a link below to jump to a section of this article for more information:
1. Search for a Course Syllabus in the Simple Syllabus Library
Syllabi are only available for Academic courses. If you are searching for a course syllabus from Fall 2013 to Fall 2022, view this guide for locating historical syllabi in the Syllabus Library.
The Alamo Colleges District Syllabus Library is a repository of all syllabi that have been published by the five Alamo Colleges and made available to the public, and you can access it from your home college's website:
Use any of the available search filters to locate a course syllabus for the current or previous terms:
- Term - Select the part-of-term the course takes place. (View this guide for locating historical syllabi in the Syllabus Library.)
- College - Select the college or academic department offering the course from the organization menu.
- Search - Use the text entry field to do a general keyword search for the course by title, discipline, etc.
- Subject - Select the four-letter subject identifier for the course from the drop-down menu. [Example: "ACCT" for Accounting]
- Course number - Use the text entry field to enter the 4-digit course number + "-" + college acronym, then select it from the drop-down menu once it populates. [Example: "2302-NLC"]
- Instructor - Use the text entry field to search for the syllabus using the instructor's first/last names or Alamo email address.
If you are unsure which courses you're enrolled in, consult your class schedule in ACES > Student tab, Web Services portlet.
Each document in the Syllabus Library will have a View button that links to the web version of the syllabus, and a Print button which links to the PDF version of the syllabus for you to download and/or print for your files.
2. Access a Course Syllabus through Canvas
Once your instructor has published the course in Canvas, you can access the syllabus through the Course Syllabus link in the course's navigation menu.
To begin, log into ACES and select the Canvas link from the Home tab.
- Your Canvas Dashboard will open in a new browser tab or window. Select the course from the dashboard or your Courses list to load the course Home page.
- Select the Course Syllabus link [A] in the course navigation menu. The syllabus will open, and you will be prompted with a Syllabus Acknowledgment message [B] upon initial launch.
If you receive a message that "The requested syllabus is currently being worked on"—and it is past the seventh day of class—contact your instructor through the Canvas Inbox or Alamo email to inquire about the status of the document.
Students registered in CE or COM classes will receive a "This course is not currently set up with Simple Syllabus" error message.
Syllabus Acknowledgment
As you read through a syllabus for the first time, Simple Syllabus calculates and displays how much of the document you have viewed in total. When you reach the end (i.e., you've read 100%), you will receive a blue Acknowledge button [C] at the bottom. Clicking on this to lets your instructor know you've read the document in its entirety.
Your instructor has access to data in Simple Syllabus that details:
- How many times you have viewed the syllabus;
- How much of the syllabus you have viewed;
- If you've "acknowledged" you have read the syllabus; and
- The date/time you last viewed the syllabus.
Students who are not registered for the course will not receive an Acknowledge button the first time they view the document from Canvas, nor will the syllabus be listed in their Simple Syllabus Student Portal.
To ensure you are registered for the course, check your class schedule or contact your Academic advisor for assistance.
Syllabus Navigation
Once you acknowledge that you have read the syllabus, you can click on the Course Syllabus link at any time to re-read, download, or print the document.
Select the Table of contents menu [D] to jump to a specific section of the syllabus, or select the Print link [E] to access the PDF version of the document to print or download to your device.
The syllabus will also display the term [F] and course information [G] as well as when the document was Last updated [H] by your instructor or institution. You can choose to Follow [I] a syllabus which will notify you of any changes to the document through a message sent to your ACES student email. Select the "Following" link again to stop following a syllabus.
Clicking on the View your other course syllabi link [J] will take you to your Simple Syllabus Student Portal where you can access all of your course syllabi and list of materials for the current term.
3. Access all Syllabi through the Simple Syllabus Student Portal
The Student Portal in Simple Syllabus makes preparing for class easy by providing you centralized access to syllabi for all courses you are enrolled in for a term, as well as putting together a list of materials you will need for your courses this semester. You can connect to the Simple Syllabus Student Portal directly though your ACES account.
To begin, navigate to the Student tab of ACES and locate the Simple Syllabus portlet in the center column. Select the Simple Syllabus logo to launch the website.
The public-facing syllabus site will load in a new browser tab or window; select the Login button in the upper right to sign into your Simple Syllabus account.
Once the login page appears, select Click here to log in using your institution credentials.
Users who logged into ACES recently will connect to their Simple Syllabus portal right away, but if your ACES has timed out, you will be required to authenticate again.
Once you've logged into the web-based tool, you will have access to the following areas of the Simple Syllabus website as a student:
My Courses
The My Courses tab is a centralized collection of syllabi for classes for which you are enrolled, per academic part-of-term. From here, you can choose to view a digital or print version of your syllabus by clicking the "View" or "Print" buttons. You can also choose to be alerted to any changes made to the syllabus by selecting the "Follow" button.
In addition to having your current syllabi, the My Courses tab keeps a record of all classes you have previously taken since Spring 2023 and their associated syllabi. To view old syllabi, click the Term drop-down menu and choose the specific part-of-term you are looking for. View this guide for more information about locating historical syllabi from Fall 2013 to Fall 2022.
When viewing a digital syllabus from the My Courses tab, you will also see the "last updated" date, ensuring you have the most up to date information.
Material List
Simple Syllabus compiles a list of course materials in the Material List tab which can serve as an aggregate shopping list of materials that you'll need for each term. You are able to filter your Material List by part-of-term using the Term drop-down menu at the top of the page.
Syllabus Library
The Syllabus Library is the central repository of syllabi that have been published for the five colleges in the Alamo Colleges District. The search tool allows you to filter down syllabi to a specific term, college, department, subject, course number, or instructor. Additionally, you can do a general keyword search using the Search field.
Profile
Information found in your Profile has been auto-populated with data from your Banner student account. If you'd like to update your profile to show your preferred first name, please view this guide for more information about requesting a change to your Canvas display name.
While you do have access to update the information in your Simple Syllabus profile, we recommend you DO NOT edit the Name or Email fields or update your password as it may result in connection errors to your syllabi. Changing your name could also cause your instructors to have incomplete data for your student acknowledgment.
Support
Selecting the Get Help button will display a Simple Syllabus Help form that will be routed to Simple Syllabus's IT Support. The Simple Syllabus Help Desk is available Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. - 6 p.m. CST.
For faster processing, provide the following information for each ticket you submit:
- Name - Provide your name as it appears on your Simple Syllabus profile.
- Institution - Type "Alamo Colleges District" or "https://alamo.simplesyllabus.com".
- Email - List your @student.alamo.edu address.
- How can we help? - Provide a brief description of the technical difficulty you are experiencing with Simple Syllabus as well as the course/college acronym/section number and the part-of-term the course takes place. [For example: ACCT-2302-NLC 004 for the Spring 2023 Full Term.]
Term and course information can be found at the top of each syllabus.
For further technical assistance with Simple Syllabus, please contact [email protected]. For questions about the information found within the syllabus, please contact your instructor for the course.
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