the E-Syllabus

Staff in the Office of Academic Affairs and the School of Dentistry's Instructional Management Task Force would like to assist you in the placement of your teaching materials online. Our goals are to help faculty get their traditional materials online in a Web-optimized format and to assist faculty in producing teaching materials that take advantage of the dynamic, multimedia capabilities of the Web.

The current structure of the Electronic Course Syllabus is composed of four hierarchical divisions: the Online Calendar, Course Page, Session Pages, and Supporting Materials. Each division plays a role in presenting students with organized, useful learning materials.

Submitting Materials
Guidelines for Instructors Self-Posting to the E-Syllabus
How-To Guides

1. Send schedule of lectures to the DDS or DH/DA registrar, and await for all of the changes to be made in the database.
2. Digital photography, video-taping, scanning, creation of MPGs, and creation of other learning materials can be done in the Center for Educational Development and Informatics (CEDI).
3. Give materials to the E-Syllabus Manager in the CEDI office for posting.

Submitted materials should include the following:

• Description (brief summary)
• Objectives (brief summary, preferrably not bulleted)
• Course Policies (brief summary)
• Textbooks
• Old exams or self tests, if available

• Overall Objectives
• Reading lists
• Lecture materials
• Handouts
• Reserve Readings*
• Videos and/or Modules
• Other supporting materials

*NOTE:   Any electronic reserves must follow the submission procedure.

The first page students see when entering the Academic portion of the Dental School Web site is the Online Calendar. Every class session for every course is presented on the daily calendar here. Although you won't need to create any materials for this page, your timely submission of your updated course schedule is essential in its creation. It is important, then, that you submit your updated course schedule to Terry Barker (DDS) or the Dental Allied office assistant (DH/DA). See detailed instructions.

The Course Page is often the first page students see when seeking information on a course. As such, it provides a summary of the most general level of information on the course, including (but not limited to) information that has traditionally appeared in a course syllabus. Students can expect to find the course description, objectives, policies, textbooks, and contact information on this page. Keep in mind that these items should be a brief summary. A complete course syllabus can be placed as a link on the Course Page. Any bulleted Objectives should appear under the corresponding Session Page.

The Course Page (as well as Session Pages) also presents individual session information from the Online Calendar. As stated previously, submitting your schedule changes before the beginning of the semester is critical.

Each course has its own individual session pages. These pages should have, at a minimum, the Session Objectives and a Session Outline/Notes. Other materials that are specific to that session may also be included.

You may edit these pages yourself in HTML for posting directly to the Web using an editor such as Macromedia Dreamweaver or Microsoft FrontPage. You would need to coordinate with the School of Dentistry Web Administrator in order to gain proper permissions and access to the files and folders to be updated.

These are the individual learning tools that are linked on the Session Page, including, but not limited to:

• converted PowerPoint Presentations (How-To)
• graphics, figures, and digital slides
• handouts and supporting documents
• Audio/Video Files
• Reference Materials*** / Online Resources
• Case Studies
• Challenge Exams/Sample Questions
• Lab Assignments
• Self Study Questions
• Submitting Reserve Readings***

***Please see information about copyright issues.

Where

Place all materials relating to the E-syllabus in the J:\Share\SYLLABUS_MATERIALS folder (also known as \\dentistryfnp2\Share\SYLLABUS_MATERIALS). All faculty members have access to this directory. If you are unable, contact OCIS to obtain permission. Or, bring your material on a disk to the CEDI office. Do not e-mail files to the E-syllabus Manager.

How

Instructions on locating and gaining access to J:\Share\SYLLABUS_MATERIALS

After placing your file(s) in the SYLLABUS_MATERIALS directory, send the E-syllabus Manager an e-mail notifying that the files are there. Be sure to include in the e-mail:

1. the session date
2. the session title
3. state if the files replace any existing files/links
4. any other special instructions

Text Changes

When you submit updates, please make it as clear as possible what text needs to be modified. For example, if you choose to make changes yourself in Word, please submit the new version with the changes highlighted. HTML does not function as a word processor and therefore, changes are not as easy or simple as cut/copy and paste.

Guidelines for Instructors Self-posting to the E-Syllabus

If you are creating materials for direct posting to the Web site, all materials should be prepared in Web-optimized formats (see Online Materials and Proprietary Formats for acceptable formats) whenever possible. The Web Development staff is available to assist you in preparing materials for online use. Contact the E-Syllabus Manager to arrange for assistance.

Some faculty may prefer to work on their session pages themselves. We encourage the independent design process; however, we ask that faculty adhere to the following guidelines:

• Always work from the most recent available session page by downloading your page to your local hard drive via FTP (see FTP instructions).
• DO NOT modify the information in the main header table on the session pages.  This information is generated automatically by the database system that the registrar maintains.  Schedule changes must go through the registrar.
• DO NOT delete these hidden tags or modify information between these hidden tags within the HTML - it will cause scripting errors! <!-- *Start Session Table* --> and <!-- *End Session Table* -->, <!-- #BeginLibraryItem ...> and <!-- #EndLibraryItem --> or after the <!-- *Start Modified Date* --> tag. Do not delete the <!-- #End Page --> tag on the main Course Page or place information after it.
• DO modify the date and your name at the bottom of a session page when you update your materials.
• DO NOT change the file names for syllabus session pages. Links using these file names are located in multiple locations and in some cases are generated automatically.
• We recommend that you use Macromedia Dreamweaver to edit your HTML. Microsoft FrontPage and Netscape Composer are inexpensive alternative HTML editors that we also minimally support.

How-To Guides

To assist faculty in producing materials for the Web, the Web Development staff has created the following How-To Guides and policy statements, which describe various tasks and issues faculty may face in this process:

• Converting PowerPoint Slides to HTML
• Adding Content to a Session Page
• FTP instructions
• Online Materials and Proprietary Formats
• Creating Printable Online Documents
• Copyright Issues
• Submitting Reserve Readings for Use Online
• Scanning Slides (self-service, in CEDI office)

As always, the Web Development staff is available to assist you with any phase of your efforts to provide your students with high-quality online materials.

Last modified: