Info on Publishing Syllabi, Textbooks, and Course Instructor Surveys

Creating and Publishing Your Class Syllabus


The School of Information makes all of our class syllabi available online with links posted to our online Class Schedule.  For any given semester, it is recommended that syllabi be posted to our website before registration begins to better aid in students' course selection process.  Otherwise, they must be posted by the first day of classes. 

Additionally, the State of Texas, under House Bill 2504, has mandated that the University must maintain a centralized public search site compiling syllabi and instructor CVs for all courses offered at the Undergraduate level.  Further details can be found below, and official instructions for complying with this requirement are available here.

Creating An Effective Syllabus

The UT Faculty Innovation Center provides a wealth of guidance for new faculty to assist with course planning, instructional strategies, and implementing classroom technologies. 

Among those resources is this very useful instructional page specifically on how to build an effective course syllabus:

https://facultyinnovate.utexas.edu/instructional-strategies/effective-syllabus

Using Canvas

Course Syllabi are typically generated within Canvas.

Using File Upload

You may also simply create your syllabus the old fashioned way and save it as any one of these standard document formats (doc, docx, pdf, rtf, txt). We will still need to publish it online and make it findable via our online class schedule, so...

House Bill 2504 Undergraduate Syllabus Requirements

In 2011, The State of Texas passed House Bill 2504 requiring that syllabi for all undergraduate courses as well as each instructor's Curriculum Vitae (CV) be made publicly available and searchable via the University's main web page before the first day of classes each semester. It is required that each individual faculty member provide these documents in searchable PDF format following a specific file naming convention. Failure to comply with this rule may result in corrective action by state authorities and the Provost's Office.

Further information regarding this legislation may be found here

Questions about this process may be directed to the iSchool's Course Scheduler, Aaron Ulmer.

All feedback regarding the uploading system and its instructions, should be directed to regops-course-docs@utlists.utexas.edu.

Textbooks Adoptions


Prior to each semester, faculty may submit orders for their students' required textbooks to the University Co-op Bookstore on Guadalupe Street. The Co-op staff will research each textbook and place the appropriate orders for the upcoming semester. It is highly encouraged that faculty turn in their orders by the priority deadline. Doing so will help ensure your textbooks are available before classes begin, as well as increase the likelihood of offering a cheaper used book option.

For the most up-to-date information on the Co-op's textbook requisition procedures and to link to their new online request system, please consult the textbook adoptions portion of the Co-op website at http://www.universitycoop.com/info/textbook-adoptions.

If at any time your students should have difficulty obtaining their textbooks or if additional books are needed after classes have begun, please contact the Co-op at 512-322-7003 or 800 555-2414 as soon as possible.