Over the past two years, the Office of the Provost has been working closely with a cross-functional working group to better understand the decentralized processes and challenges of managing Course Outlines across McMaster University. The group includes representation from three Faculties as well as several central units including University Technology Services (UTS), the MacPherson Institute, the Library, Institutional Research and Analysis, and the Registrar’s Office. Throughout the process, the working group also engaged in broad consultations with instructors, learners, and various service units across McMaster University. As a result of this work, a new Course Outline tool, called “Simple Syllabus,” has been selected to better support a streamlined and simplified Course Outline creation and archiving process across all Faculties. The implementation that is currently underway is for undergraduate course outlines.

The new portal will:

• Integrate important course elements from MOSAIC (i.e. course name, course description) without the need for manual entries
• Provide predefined course outline templates in adherence with the Undergraduate Course Management policy
• Automatically populate the mandatory advisory statements
• Allow Single Sign On using active MacID for instructors, approvers, students, and staff
• Allow Faculty, department, and/or program-designated approvers to approve course outlines
• Provide access to course outlines outside of the portal and eventually within Avenue to Learn
• Store digital course outlines in a central location

Undergraduate instructors will be required to use the tool for Fall 2023 course outlines. The initiative is funded through the Strategic Alignment Fund.