eSyllabus System

Faculty, students, and staff can view and print online syllabi from the University's eSyllabus system located on the Course Information and Schedule link in the Agora Portal. Faculty and department designees also use the Course Information and Schedule link to upload and edit syllabi.

Please note: To ensure the security and integrity of eSyllabus, access is limited to members of the BC community only. All are required to authenticate by logging on to their Agora Portal account before they can view a course syllabus. Online syllabi are not available on the public, unsecured Course Offering Schedule web page on the Student Services website.

Adobe Acrobat 8 or higher is recommended for viewing the online syllabus pdf. If you don't have Adobe Acrobat 8, directions for downloading can be found on the Help Center's website at www.bc.edu/help.

Video Tutorial

In addition to the information listed below, instructions for uploading and linking a syllabus from the eSyllabus system to Blackboard are available on a video tutorial.

Formatting Syllabi for eSyllabus

Although there is no required template, uploaded files must be in a pdf format with no security added. If you are unsure about how to create a pdf document, you can link to www.bc.edu/pdf for more information. Be sure to include the number and title of your course on the syllabus, so students may find it more easily if they choose to search by keywords. Syllabi as large as 1.5 MB may be uploaded to eSyllabus.

You may also upload syllabi to the system that are not in their final state. To protect faculty, an automatic disclaimer is added to each syllabus upon upload indicating that the document being viewed may not be the final version and that the content is subject to change. Leave a margin of at least .5 inches at the top of each file for the disclaimer.

Logging on to eSyllabus

To upload a syllabus logon to your Agora Portal account. From the Portal page, input your username and password to access the "Faculty Home" screen Agora transactions. A List of BC supported browsers can be found at www.bc.edu/bc/offices/help/essentials/software/web-browsers.html.

To open up the eSyllabus system with Firefox 3.0 and higher on a Mac a plug-in is recommended. This is a quick download which allows pdfs to open in the browser window with no prompts. However, this plug-in is not compatible with Firefox versions lower than 3.0. If you use a lower version of Firefox, you will need to install Adobe Acrobat. When you click on the icon to view a syllabus, a pop up window will ask you how it should be viewed. The default for Macs is "Preview." Change to "Adobe Acrobat" and the syllabus will open.

You may want to configure your browser to "Automatically Install" updates to ensure that you have the latest and most stable version of the browser. In the FireFox menu, select Tools. Select Options from the drop down menu. On the Options screen, select the Advanced option and then select the Update tab. Check off the Automatically install updates (recommended: improved security) radio button.

Uploading

Once you have opened the Faculty home screen, follow the steps listed below:

• Select "My Services." You cannot upload syllabi from the MyCourses link in the portal.
• Click the "Course Information and Schedule" line under "Academics and Courses."
• Select "Course Schedule."
• Enter the criteria specified under "Course Schedule," including term, school, department, and course status. Be sure to select "all" for course status to ensure that you have access to any of your courses that might be closed or restricted. Type in your last name in the "Instructor" section to find your courses without having to browse through your department's course listing.
• If you don't see an icon for your course, check with your department administrator or chairperson. All faculty members, including new instructors, will only see an icon in the "Syllabus" column if they are listed on the university's master schedule with their correct Eagle ID number as the instructor for that course.
• Graduate teaching assistants may see the syllabi for courses they are taking and upload syllabi for the courses they are teaching.
• Department administrators, administrative assistants, or other eligible staff who don't see icons on their department's "Course Information&Schedule" web page need to have their chairperson contact the Office of Student Services for the correct permissions.
• An online syllabus is associated with only one course/section number. If you are teaching multiple sections of the same course, you will need to upload a syllabus for each section. For example, if a syllabus is uploaded for RL 003 01 Elementary Italian 1, students in RL 003 02 will not see that syllabus until it is uploaded for section 02. Department administrators and administrative assistants must also upload the same syllabi for all sections of a course.
• If you are the instructor for a cross listed course, you must upload the syllabus for all cross listed sections. All instructors for team taught courses have permission to upload and delete their syllabi.

Once you have found your list of courses, follow the steps listed below.

• Click on the vertical bar to the left of the course column to open the links. The eSyllabus icon is on the left-hand side. If you hover over the icon, you will see the description.
• Click on the "Upload Syllabus" icon which will bring you to the "Syllabus Maintenance" page. Use the "Browse" link to select the syllabus you would like upload.
• When the "Preview" icon is selected, the syllabus will display in a pop-up window. Once a syllabus is uploaded, anyone who authenticates through the Portal can view your syllabus. Access to your syllabus is not restricted to those students registered for your course.
• Click the "Edit" icon, next to "Preview," if you have already uploaded your syllabus and would like to make some changes. The "Syllabus Maintenance" page will open. From there you will be able to preview, delete, or update a syllabus. eSyllabi are stamped with a "Last Modified" date, so you will know which version of your syllabus is currently online. When you upload a new syllabus, it will replace the original one, which will not be saved.
• If you receive an error message telling you that your syllabus upload was not successful, check to be sure your document has been saved as a pdf file. eSyllabus will only accept a document saved as a pdf. Information about converting a word document into a pdf can be found at www.bc.edu/pdf. Your syllabus will also fail to upload if the file is too large (>1.5 MB) or too small (0 KB) and you will need to adjust your syllabus.
• Click on the vertical bar to the left of the course column to close "Additional Information."

Archiving

You may upload or maintain syllabi for courses in current or future terms only. Once the semester has ended, usually the day before the grading transactions for the current semester become available, you may not upload syllabi for any courses offered during that term. Existing syllabi will be archived and no longer modifiable. Archived syllabi will be available for viewing only with a "Preview" icon but no "Upload" or "Edit" icons. From the Course Information and Schedule link, choose a term from a previous semester, a school, department, and then click "Get Requested Courses." When you select the "Preview" icon in the "Syllabus" column, the syllabus will appear in a popup window. Archived syllabi are searchable for 30 months after their date of upload.