Guide to using the course syllabus template provided by Google Docs
How to create a Course Syllabus with Google Docs Templates
With the new school year just a few months away, teachers, professors and instructors alike will need to complete their course syllabus soon. A course syllabus is a detailed summarization of the topics the instructor plans on teaching during the year. It also briefly lists all the rules and regulations the teacher expects to see in her class at all times. An overview of tests, assignments and the grading system is also included along with the requirements for the class like calculators, textbooks or suggested reading.
This tasks requires an in depth review of what the instructor plans to teach as well as how to best convey her expectations to the students. This might seem as a weighty task especially for new teachers who are eager to do right by the minutest detail.
Google has developed a template just for the purpose of making this job easier. Google Docs has an entire template gallery providing templates for a variety of uses like albums, holidays, business, calendars and more. One of these categories is especially developed for the needs of students and teachers.
To access the course syllabus template provided by Google Docs:
- Sign into your Google account and click Documents at the top.
- Select New> From template…
- A new window or a new tab will open up with the list of template categories on the left and a preview of some of the templates on the right.
- Click Students & Teachers from under the Narrow by category sub-heading.
- You will be presented with a preview of some of the templates available under this category. Locate the Course Syllabus template and click the Use this template button.
- A copy of the Course Syllabus template will open in a new window with editing tools at the top.
Remember, this is only a template. You can choose to keep whatever you require or you can edit or delete whatever is not relevant to your syllabus. You can work on your course syllabus as any other Google Document with the same editing tools.
You can insert or delete existing tables. You can change the number of rows and columns. As with all other Google documents, you can directly edit the HTML code of this page. You can share this document and have multiple collaborators; a very useful feature when instructors teaching the same subject and grade level need to present a common syllabus. You can view revision history to keep track of all the changes made.
The template has another feature which allows your course syllabus to be published as a web page. With the unique URL Google assigns to the web page, it has become easier than ever to distribute course syllabi to students and parents.
In the next part of this series, we will cover how to add tables to the template, edit existing tables and how to share the course syllabus via the Publish as web page option.
This post is part of the series: Google Docs Course Syllabus template
Being a teacher is hard work. With assessments, lesson plans,etc., it is easy to become overwhelmed. But by using the templates provided by Google Docs, your work could become a bit easier. Check out the features of Google Docs Course Syllabus template and how easy it is to customize them.
