Effective June 5, 2026, Auburn University Board of Trustees adopted the policy on Academic Curriculum, Courses, Syllabi, and Core Educational Requirements. Please view Section VI of this policy which includes the requirements for syllabi submission and deadlines.
Simple Syllabus is a centralized, template-driven platform built by Simple Higher Ed that enables instructors to quickly personalize and publish interactive class syllabi—directly within Canvas.
Simple Syllabus provides an extremely customizable system along with unparalleled technical support and customer service.
To ensure course instructors have a voice in this process.
Listening sessions will be ongoing through summer and fall.
From an institutional effectiveness perspective – Simple Syllabus will help provide better consistency, improved accreditation reporting, and better student access. Simple Syllabus has highly customizable templates than can be prepopulated, reducing workloads for faculty and while ensuring current policy statements are accurate.
List of required elements can be viewed and found in the AU BOT Policy on Academic Curriculum, Courses, Syllabi, and Core Educational Requirements
The level of detail for each standard is at the discretion of the course instructor and department chair.
AU login credentials required for all syllabi
De-identified information for course instructor
August 2026 available for course instructors
Department heads/chairs and program coordinators will be responsible for ensuring course syllabi meet Board policy requirements.
Yes. Simple Syllabus has different roles that can be assigned to allow certain administrative permissions – including downloading syllabi. An example of this would be for specialized accreditation reporting. These roles will be determined at the local level in a way that works best for that unit.
Simple Syllabus provides a framework to help standardize certain required elements per Board policy. Course instructors will have full discretion with the content and layout of that content in their course syllabi. In addition, Simple Syllabus has a rich text editor to make formatting easier and more personalized. You may also paste or edit HTML-formatted content.
Simple Syllabus is designed to reduce administrative burden while preserving faculty control over course design and content. Key benefits to faculty include:
- Less time on formatting and compliance
- One place to make updates.
- Fields within the templates can be pre-populated no ensure accurate policy updates, which will reduce faculty workload.
- Provides an easier way for department heads/chairs to review course syllabi.
- Once syllabi are created, copying or importing old syllabi to new courses and semesters reduces time and workload
- Embedded ADA compliance checker
Most higher education institutions have a syllabus management system. Among those, here is a non-exhaustive list of several institutions who use Simple Syllabus.
- University of Alabama
- Clemson University
- University System of Georgia eCampus
- University of Alabama Birmingham
- University of North Alabama
- University of Tennessee Health Science Center
- University of Florida
- Florida State University
- Texas A&M
- The Ohio State University
- University of Kansas
Simple Syllabus will improve the process to confirm policy statement accuracy and consistency of the required elements per Board policy across campus.
- Creating a single syllabus repository will expedite reporting requests
- Improving accuracy, consistency, and transparency for syllabus elements (learning outcomes, grading policies, assessment, policy statements, student support services)
- Demonstrates systematic oversight while preserving faculty control over course content
- Supports continuous improvement narratives through historical syllabus records
Simple Syllabus provides a structural framework to help mitigate risk for course instructors. It protects both faculty and the institution by making expectations clear, documentation reliable, and processes sustainable. Examples of risk mitigation:
- Reducing accidental omissions
- Ensuring accessibility by default
- Preventing outdated or inaccurate policy language
Auburn’s Simple Syllabus administration team can provide colleges with reports on which courses/sections are missing syllabi. Further, “Report†roles in Simple Syllabus can be assigned to any administrator who would like to run their own reports for their unit. This will allow them to keep track in real time rather than wait for a report to be sent.
Simple Syllabus site should be live by August 3rd. Please note that the document upload feature will be a simple task requiring minimal training/guidance and should not impact posting syllabi in Simple Syllabus five business days before the first day of class.
No. All old syllabi in Canvas will be archived and untouched.
No. Old Canvas syllabi did not use Simple Syllabus templates; therefore, they will not align with Simple Syllabus templates currently being created. However, faculty can copy and paste old syllabi information into new templates if they wish.
Name, email, phone, office location, and office hours.
No. Faculty who choose to use the document upload feature will have to manually de-identify their personal information.
The Canvas syllabus tool will remain in the navigation menu to access old course syllabi. To create and publish syllabi starting Fall 2026, please use the Simple Syllabus tool. The Canvas syllabus tool does not connect to the Simple Syllabus repository.
For additional questions, please contact us at syllabus@auburn.edu.
