Turn Your Ordinary Class Syllabus into an Amazing E-Document!

Do you currently have a syllabus that you pass out the first day of school only to find that your students stuff the syllabus in their backpacks and never really look at it again? 

Why not consider creating a digital syllabus using Google Presentations!

Generation Z students appreciate anything in a digital format for viewing.

There are many purposes to a syllabus.

Let's talk about content and design ideas for your digital syllabus.

First of all, check out my example. Try to picture your own content in this syllabus, customized to you and your students' needs. I included expectations, course content, grading information and contact information. You might also include a video, links to websites or even class rules that you and your students create together.

I started by creating a new Google Presentation.  Before I added any content, I first changed the size of the slides in the presentation to 8.5 x 11 inches so that the syllabus looks like it is regular pieces of notebook paper.  I clicked on File - page set up - and custom. 

I downloaded free icons from a site called Flaticon.com  I stayed away from the premium icons that cost money and found an attractive set from Icon Pond for free download. The only requirement is that if you use the icons, you need to give credit to the creator, which I did on my final credits page.

To give my shapes and backgrounds a color scheme, I used an extension called Eye Dropper. I love how this extension let me get the code to copy for any color to apply to my Google Slides. Here is a quick how-to video.

I inserted a pie chart by clicking on Insert - Chart - Pie. Then I customized my pie chart by clicking on the little arrow in the top right corner of the pie chart, which opened my pie chart in Google Sheets.

Once I clicked on the chart in my spreadsheet, I could see three dots in the top right corner and then I clicked on "Edit chart". From there I could customize the pie chart to look exactly like I wanted. Once I finished, I went back to the Syllabus on my Google Presentation and I clicked on "update" on the pie chart, which updated all of the changes I had made. 

This is what the chart on my syllabus shows after changes were made on the Google Spreadsheet.

I found a gif on Giphy.com which I downloaded and inserted as an image.

The shapes tool was useful to insert various shapes to create blocks of text and color within my syllabus. Click on the shapes menu, then on shapes, and then choose a shape. One of my favorites is bevel, which looks like a frame.

 After I created the shape I filled the color with the paint bucket. In addition, I changed the border thickness and the border color with the two tools to the right of the paint bucket.

 To add text inside of a shape, I simply double clicked on the shape, chose my font, size and color and started typing. 

Another fun effect is to fill a shape with a gradient fill. To do this, I first drew a shape and then chose the paint bucket and gradient fill. There are limited colors to choose from and different fill effects.

Adding lines to a slide can also divide up your content and there are many ways to display the lines on your slides.

Start with the line tool and draw a line.

Next, adjust the line thickness.

Choose how the line will start  and end.

The results is a nice decorative border..

One tip that is very useful when designing a digital syllabus is to use the shift key. Here are some ways that the shift key can be helpful.

• Hold the shift key to select several items on a slide which allows all of the items to be resized, rotated, colors added or borders added all at once.
• Hold the shift key to rotate any item in 15°increments.
• Hold the shift key to move any item one pixel at a time for very precise placement.
• Hold the shift key when resizing any object to keep the correct proportion and avoid stretching the object.

I included a credits page to role model digital responsibility for copyright laws and giving proper credit. This is going to set a great example of what I would expect from my students throughout the school year.

Finally, I downloaded my Google Presentation as a PDF

(click on file - download as - PDF document). This is what I will upload into Google Drive and share with my students. 

I hope this blogpost inspires you to create your own digital syllabus for your class. I appreciate all that you, the readers of this blog, do to bring technology literacy and integration into your classrooms. Thank you so much for reading this post and have an amazing 2017-2018 school year!

If you create a digital syllabus, please share it with me. I would love to see your creativity and ideas.