Notes on the Web Interface -------------------------- UserIDs Allowed to Edit If the field is empty then anyone can edit the course, otherwise only system administrators and the specified UserIDs can make changes. If you are listed in that field then you can make changes, but you can not remove yourself from that list (you can try, but the system will automatically put you back on it). Optional Fields Checkboxes (Lecture/Lab/Misc, Prescribed Textbook, Schedule External link, etc.) control the presence of optional items or input fields. For example if Lab is checked, then input fields for Lab Time, Room, etc. will appear, otherwise those fields will not be present. If Undergraduate Course is checked, then an ABET Outcomes section will appear. If Freshman Course is selected then a statement about attendance for first-year students will be added to the Attendance Policy section of the syllabus, otherwise a custom Attendance Policy field will appear. If Custom Electronics Policy is checked then an input field for Electronics Policy will appear, otherwise the standard college Electronics Policy will be used. Textarea Height, Widths These settings apply only to the input textarea fields in the Tentative Schedule web form, they do not affect the generated outline.pdf or config.tex files. Save Changes To save changes: use one of the Save Changes buttons at the top or bottom of the display, or just press Enter in any of the single-line input fields. If the semester is changed then some fields will be updated from the course catalog and master schedule for the new semester. To force an update using the master schedule check "Use master schedule". If a course has multiple sections with the same info (e.g. grad in-class and DL sections, ECE-4970, etc.) check "Combine sections" which will set the configuration to have just one section named All. To undo combine sections check "Use master schedule". Saving changes takes a few seconds since it has to update the configuration and run latex. If you click on Save Changes again before it is finished, the original save should still work, but the second one may fail due to a lock mismatch and you may see the error message "Edit lock has changed or was removed, start over". To start over just reload the page. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Update, 10 Nov 2025 The "Use master schedule" option is working again. It now uses a static copy of the master schedule which is updated frequently, instead of a real-time connection to the registrar database. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Update, 22 Oct 2025 The "Use master schedule" option (used to get the course schedule and catalog description from the registrar) is temporarily displayed with a strikethrough line through it because it is not working due to changes in the registrar web interface. When this issue is fixed the strikethrough will be removed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Update, 30 Jan 2024 ABET Outcomes 1-7 for undergraduate courses have been expanded into subcategories 1a,1b, 2a,2b,2c,2d, 3, 4a,4b,4c, 5, 6a,6b, and 7a,7b. The new subcategories have been initialized for each course with whatever was selected previously in the main category, e.g. 6a and 6b will be checked if category 6 was checked. Instructors must adjust the selections as appropriate. An optional AI Policy section has been added. To include this section in a syllabus, select the "AI Policy" checkbox under "Lecture/Lab/Misc" near the top of the course edit page. The policy appears near the bottom of the course edit page and is initialized with the choices suggested by the college dean. It must be edited by the instructor, modifying as desired, and removing the \textcolor{red}{ ... } container. An empty "Class Instr Web Page" field will now automatically be set to the top-level ECE Directory: https://www1.villanova.edu/university/engineering/academic-programs/departments/electrical-computer/directory.html This is linked to the Class Instructor name in the syllabus. Instructors should modify the link as desired to refer to their home page. Empty AI Policy and Electronics Policy sections will now automatically be reset to their initial contents, which is mainly advice about customizing these sections. So to reset, just remove whatever is currently there. These sections must then be edited by the instructor, modifying as desired, and removing the \textcolor{red}{ ... } container. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Update, 27 Dec 2022 Dummy course ECE-0000 was set up for use by the syllabus system administrators to create schedule templates. There is no change to the user interface, so under Schedule Options selecting "Initialize using template" works as before. But internally it copies the schedule from an ECE-0000 archive instead of a separate schedules directory. Syllabus system administrators can create a schedule template by editing the ECE-0000 course, setting the semester, filling out the schedule, then selecting the "Archive" option at the top to save it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Update, 11 July 2022 New courses can now be created by specifying the department and course number on the main syllabus auto-generation page. After creating a course: check "Use master schedule", then select the desired semester, and then save changes to update. Also on the main page is a new "archives" link to view archived copies of the course outlines by semester. The archive was initialized with all current courses; to update your course in the archive use the "Archive" link at the top of the course edit page. Complete course configurations can now be copied from current or archived courses using the "Copy from" option at the top of the course edit page. This will copy everything from the specified course except the course number and title. To copy only the schedule from another course use "copy schedule from" in Schedule Options. To copy from a current course just specify the department and number, e.g. ECE-1234; to copy from an archived course include the registrar semester prefix/, e.g. 202230/ECE-1234 for Spring 2022. Note that the registrar notation for semesters uses the May academic calendar year, and 10, 20, 30 endings for Summer, Fall, and Spring. So 202310 is Summer 2022, 202320 is Fall 2022, and 202330 is Spring 2023. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Update, 13 Dec 2021 Locking has been disabled; it was causing more problems than it was designed to solve. Original documentation: Locks An advisory lock is used to help prevent synchronization issues if multiple users attempt to edit the same course at the same time. If a course is locked by someone else, or you do not have edit permission, a Readonly view of the course is displayed. Locks automatically expire 1 hour after last use. To facilitate usage, someone holding a lock can release it using the "release lock" link near the top, and anyone with edit permission for a course can force a release and relock using the "acquire lock" link. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Update, 19 Aug 2021 A References input field has been added to the Textbook section. It will appear if the References box is checked. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Update, 14 Aug 2021 Save Changes now has a "Combine sections" option which sets the number of sections to 1 and the section name to All. This is useful for courses where all sections have the same instructor, schedule, etc. like grad courses, ECE 4970, and others. Slight differences between sections can be specified in the other fields, e.g. class time: Tu/Th 10-11 or 11-12 Blank lines are now ignored in "List of Topics" input so they don't generate empty list items. If the inline schedule has more than 30 rows then the line spacing is reduced in the resulting pdf so it should still fit on one page. In some cases LaTeX omits space or does not insert enough space, e.g. Class Time: R 01:00 pm may appear as "R01:00 pm" in the pdf. To insert extra horizontal space use one or more ~ e.g. R~01:00 pm The link to view all PDFs was renamed "PDF view & zip download" and now provides links to download a zip file containing all of the current (not archived) syllabi for a semester. This can be used by the office to collect and archive the syllabi in blackboard each semester. (To upload zip file content in blackboard: in Course Management, Content Collection, go to the location where you want to upload files, point to Upload and select Upload Zip Package. The zip file will automatically be unzipped after uploading.) "Class Instr URL" and "Lab Instr URL" input fields were renamed to "Class Instr Web Page" and "Lab Instr Web Page". Inserting rows or columns in the middle of an inline schedule: you can change the number of rows and columns, which effectively adds or removes rows or columns at the end, but not the middle. That and other complex spreadsheet functionality will probably never be included. So it is best to decide in advance how many rows and columns are needed in your schedules. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------