The Salsa project completes Phase 1

Having successfully provided web-accessible online syllabi to more than 5,000 students during the Fall 2014 pilot program, the Salsa project completed Phase 1 on January 31, 2015.

Phase 1 was made possible through funding provided by the Utah Science and Technology Research (USTAR) initiative, and a partnership between Commercial Enterprises and the Center for Innovative Design & Instruction (CIDI).

Salsa is an open-source, web-based application for creating accessible higher-education syllabi. The full application is available for download at GitHub.

Incorporating Bloom's Revised Taxonomy into a Syllabus

Many higher education institutions recommend that instructors use Bloom's Revised Taxonomy when creating a syllabus. Here are a few examples: Chicago State University, Duquense University, University of Illinois - Champaign-Urbana, University of Minnesota, University of North Carolina - Greensboro and University of West Florida.

Incorporating Bloom's Revised into a syllabus is very easy with the open source syllabus authoring tool Salsa. Action verbs grouped by Bloom's Revised are built into the product:

Instructors can select a level of Bloom's:

And when they click on the verb, it is added to the text editor:

What are your thoughts on Bloom's Revised in the syllabus?

Salsa is up and running!

We'll be launching version 1.0 of Salsa shortly, but in the meantime, the open-source application is up and running.

Follow Salsa on Twitter: Follow @Salsa4HE

What are SALSAs?

SALSAs are styled & accessible learning service agreements for contemporary higher-education students, particularly those participating in some form of asynchronous learning delivered online.

SALSAs are:

• accessible to all students regardless of physical or sensory impairment
• styled to provide clarity and consistency
• organized into six parts: information, outcomes, resources, activities, policies and grades

The Center for Innovative Design & Instruction at Utah State University is developing an open-source, web application named Salsa. Building on the design of the PDF Syllabus Builder, this authoring tool generates online documents in PDF and HTML format.

PDF Syllabus Builder is Need-to-Know News

Thanks to Debbie Morrison at the online learning insights blog for featuring the PDF Syllabus Builder in today's post: Need-to-Know News: The Making of a MOOC, College Scorecard and Syllabus Builder Tool.

Introduction to the PDF Syllabus Builder

Here is a 3-minute video introduction to the PDF Syllabus Builder.

You can now download version 1.0 of this open-source tool.

Online Course Syllabus Template

In the current issue of the Journal of Interactive Online Learning, authors Lewis, Baker and Britigan recommend the use of a template for designing an online course and syllabus:

"Use a sample course and materials as a template or foundation on which instructors can build a new course, customizing it as necessary. The template provides the basic course structure and navigation, introductory information modules, and suggestions for content to enhance the course site. Using the template also speeds up development time and may also facilitate the course development process for new online instructors - for example, a course syllabus template that shows all the key components and content areas in detail."

Here's a link to the full text.