Students returning to K-State this school year may have noticed a change in their Canvas courses: standardized syllabi across all classes.
The change is a result of Coursedog, a new academic management platform K-State implemented to manage syllabi, curriculum processes and the university catalog.
Margaret Mohr-Schroeder, vice provost for academic affairs and innovation, said the university adopted Coursedog to replace old systems that required information to be manually transferred across platforms.
“We needed to modernize our systems,” Mohr-Schroeder said. “Coursedog has helped us clean up those inefficiencies, provide some better interfaces and improve the user experience and reduce our workload overall.”
The most notable change students may notice is the new standardized syllabus format. In previous years, syllabi varied from class to class, with information appearing in different formats and locations. Now, course information is organized consistently across every course.
“All the sections are in the same place across all of your courses,” Mohr-Schroeder said. “That helps with the user experience.”
The university has also used the platform to ensure students receive syllabi for every class, with nearly 2,700 syllabi now available on Canvas through Coursedog.
“We’re really pleased with the syllabus,” Mohr-Schroeder said. “Having the student be able to pick up a syllabus across each of their courses and know that if they scroll down to this section, then they know that their assessments are going to be listed in this course.”
Before selecting Coursedog, K-State evaluated systems other Big 12 universities use and sought a platform that would integrate directly with the student information system (KSIS). Mohr-Schroeder said that capability ultimately drove the university’s decision.
While administrators have noted the system’s benefits, some instructors said adapting to the platform has been a challenge. Daniel Effah, a graduate teaching assistant studying rhetoric and composition, said adapting to the system took some getting used to.
“Comparing it to the old system, I would say it has complicated it,” Effah said. “Some of my colleagues have passed comments concerning how complicated it is.”
Mohr-Schroeder acknowledged that some instructors were initially hesitant to transition to the new software. To make the shift as seamless as possible, the university offered training sessions before the school year began.
“Some faculty and course instructors were not excited about using the tool,” she said. “They would come into the workshops not excited and then they would leave and be like, ‘Oh, this is nice.’”
While many students may not know what Coursedog is, Mohr-Schroeder said the platform reflects K-State’s commitment to improve academic services and the student experience.
“We do think about our students and center our students in those decisions,” she said.
University officials plan to expand Coursedog’s use in the near future to academic scheduling, assessment and faculty workload management tools. For now, the most visible result for students is a simpler and more consistent experience across Canvas.
