Simple Syllabus integrates with D2L to keep your syllabus aligned with course content. You can sync graded activities such as assignments, quizzes, and discussions so they appear in your syllabus with their titles, due dates, and point values (if applicable). This ensures students can view all graded work in one place, reducing manual updates for instructors.
NOTE: If you edit the schedule manually after syncing, the connection will be broken and further updates will not sync automatically. For merged courses, only one section’s Tentative Schedule can be synced automatically. Other sections require manual entry or importing.
Important Notes for Merged Courses
-
Primary Section Sync: Only the primary section of your course will automatically sync with Brightspace.
-
Manual Updates for Secondary Sections: For secondary sections that are merged with the primary section, you must manually enter or update the information for those sections.
-
Automatic Schedule Sync: The schedule syncs with Brightspace nightly. If information is incorrect, update it in Brightspace, and the changes will automatically appear in Simple Syllabus.
-
Avoid Editing in Tentative Course Schedule: Editing items directly in this section will break the sync. Any changes made will not reflect in Brightspace.
Syncing Activities from D2L Brightspace
Simple Syllabus can pull activities directly from your D2L course, including assignments, discussions, and quizzes. When you sync, these items appear in the syllabus with their titles, due dates, and point values (if applicable), helping students see all graded work in one place. Instructors can choose which items to include, hide, or remove after syncing.
NOTE: Any updates to dates or details should be made in the grading activity first, then re-synced in Simple Syllabus to keep the syllabus accurate.
- Ensure all activities in D2L have the correct dates set. For Assignments and Quizzes, dates are pulled from the Due Date you have set for each grade item. For Discussions, it uses the End Date.
- Assignments: Due Date
- Quizzes: Due Date
- Discussions: End Date
- Assignments: Due Date
- Navigate to the Tentative Course Schedule section in Simple Syllabus and make sure the visibility setting is turned on.
- Click the two-arrow circular icon on the right to sync your Tentative Course Schedule with grading activities such as assignments, quizzes, and discussions.
- During syncing, you will see the icon spinning for a few minutes.
NOTE: After selecting the sync icon, it may take some time for updated dates to appear. Even if the spinning icon stops and the page reloads, the previous dates might still be visible. Please allow 10–20 minutes for the new dates to fully update.
- Once the dates are synced, you can manually remove any items by clicking on the [trashcan] icon, or add any additional dates by clicking [Add new item]. Enabling the [Show Deleted] checkbox will reveal items that were deleted.
ALERT: Please be aware that manually making any changes to the tentative course schedule in Simple Syllabus will permanently break its ability to sync with D2L. This cannot be reversed. If this happens, you will need to manually maintain the Tentative Course Schedule if you wish to continue using it.
