CASE STUDY
Concordia University Wisconsin Creates More Consistent Syllabi with CourseLeaf
See how Concordia University Wisconsin uses CourseLeaf SYL to connect course information, create consistent syllabi, and give students reliable access to the information they need.
At a Glance
Institution Type: Four-Year Private
SIS Integration: Ellucian Banner
Challenges: Inconsistent syllabus formats, decentralized collection and storage, discrepancies between syllabi and catalog information, and no reliable archive of the syllabi provided to students
CourseLeaf Solutions: CourseLeaf CAT Academic Catalog, CourseLeaf CLSS Academic Scheduling & Analytics, CourseLeaf SYL Syllabus Management
Creating a More Reliable Approach to Syllabus Management
At Concordia University Wisconsin (CUW), providing students with accurate academic information is an important part of supporting the university's educational mission. But for years, managing syllabi was largely a manual and decentralized process.
Before implementing CourseLeaf SYL, CUW's Academic Office provided an annual syllabus template for departments to use when creating or revising syllabi. Faculty, however, were not required to publish section syllabi using that year's template.
The result was significant variation from one syllabus to another, along with limited visibility into what students actually received.
"It led to a hodge podge of syllabi...at least in terms of the syllabus format," said Allison Wolf. "There was also no tracking to ensure that the faculty member actually published or provided a syllabus to students."
Those inconsistencies extended beyond formatting. Department chairs were expected to submit new and revised master syllabi to the Academic Office, but the process was difficult to maintain consistently.
For some courses, CUW had no historical syllabus. For others, the university had an original syllabus but no record of subsequent revisions. In other cases, information such as course descriptions, prerequisites, grade modes, or course titles had been changed on a syllabus without being reflected elsewhere.
"We regularly identified inconsistencies in our data between our SIS, the catalog, and syllabi," said Wolf.
Moving Beyond a Process That Wasn't Sustainable
Managing that volume of information also placed a significant burden on university staff.
One individual was responsible for receiving, reviewing, approving, and archiving syllabi, in addition to her other responsibilities. CUW attempted to create internal systems to make the process more manageable, but submissions continued to accumulate.
CUW was already using CourseLeaf CAT and beginning its work with CourseLeaf CIM when the university decided to implement CourseLeaf SYL.
For Wolf, three capabilities have become particularly valuable: automatically generating course information from the university's SIS, creating a consistent format across syllabi, and maintaining a record of the exact course information available to students when they enrolled.
"There's no more guessing as to whether students did or didn't receive a syllabus, or whether the syllabus they received was current and accurate," said Wolf.
Connecting Syllabi with Trusted Course Information
One of the biggest changes has been greater consistency between CUW's systems.
High-level course information in SYL is populated from the university's SIS, Ellucian Banner, rather than being independently entered and maintained by individual faculty members. That helps ensure information presented in section syllabi remains aligned with the academic catalog.
"In terms of consistency and visibility, it is a 1000% improvement," said Wolf. "Since high-level course details are always pulling from what is current in our SIS, and we don't allow individual faculty to edit them, then we can be assured that the data is always consistent across all section syllabi."
The change has also reduced CUW's reliance on traditional master syllabi. Because current course details are pulled directly into SYL, departments no longer have the same need to separately maintain master documents simply to keep core course information current.
"So now we are guaranteed to be teaching courses with class data that matches our catalog," said Wolf.
Creating Consistency Without Losing Faculty Voice
Standardization does not mean every syllabus at CUW is identical.
Faculty now contribute information specific to their individual sections, including grading and classroom policies. That gives instructors greater flexibility to communicate how they will teach their courses while maintaining consistency around institutionally controlled course information.
"We have sections of the syllabus where faculty are tasked with putting in their own details, such as their grading, AI, and classroom policies, so syllabi have more personalized elements than in the past," said Wolf.
For returning instructors, SYL's "Copy New Syllabus From..." functionality can also make it easier to begin preparing a new syllabus using information from a previous one.
Giving Students Reliable Access to Course Information
For CUW, one of the clearest outcomes is knowing that every course section now has a syllabus on record.
Previously, the university could not always confirm whether students had received a syllabus or determine exactly what information had been provided to them. Historical requests could be particularly difficult to fulfill.
Today, CUW maintains an archive of every section syllabus.
"We now have a record of syllabi for every course, and before we didn't have that at all," said Wolf. "Now we have a repository which is completely different than what we had before."
Consistency also makes course information easier for students to navigate.
"With SYL, we have assurance that the students actually have a syllabus, all the pertinent information is made available to them, and because of a consistent format from syllabus to syllabus, they know right where to go to find information," said Wolf.
Elevating the Importance of the Syllabus
Implementing SYL has prompted a broader conversation at CUW about the role a syllabus plays in the academic experience.
"I think the implementation of SYL has shined a light on the importance of the syllabus, and as a university we've elevated the conversation about syllabi so that faculty better understand how important it is to have that 'contract' with students enrolled in the course," said Wolf.
CUW has only been using SYL for a year, so the university is still learning how the system can support future needs. Wolf sees opportunities to make institutional changes more efficiently through shared content and configurable syllabus elements as policies and requirements evolve.
At the center of the university's experience, however, is something more fundamental: confidence that academic information remains consistent as it moves from institutional systems to the information students ultimately receive.
"CourseLeaf has allowed us to better sync course information to ensure that it's consistent - from our SIS to the catalog, to the individual course syllabus," saidWolf. "This is so important for the integrity of our program and course data, and the overall student experience."