Poster Publication
Megan Englert. 2026. Syllabusly: A Tool to Improve Your Introductory CS Syllabus for Students' Self-Efficacy and Motivation. In Proceedings of the 57th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V.2 (SIGCSE TS 2026), Vol. 2. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1319–1320. https://doi-org.colorado.idm.oclc.org/10.1145/3770761.3777232
Instructions
This tutorial assumes that you have your syllabus in a Google Doc. If you are interested in collaborating on bringing Syllabusly to a different platform, let me know!
Installation
All code is available at my GitHub repository.
- In your Google Doc, open the Apps Script interface through the Extensions menu.
- In the Settings menu, enable the option to show the appsscript.json file. Replace the default contents of appsscript.json with the contents of the file of the same name in the GitHub repo.
- Add two files: Code.gs and Sidebar.html with the contents of the files of the same name in the GitHub repo.
- Save your Apps Script project.
- Return to your Google Doc and refresh the page. Now, under the Extensions menu, you should see an option for Syllabusly. Use this option to Check Syllabus.
- Enable permissions to grant Syllabusly access to your document. You will then be returned to your document with the sidebar open!
How to Use It
Language Suggestions
Press Check Document to generate your list of suggestions. Scroll through the sidebar to see your suggestions. You can click on a card to jump to the location the suggestion applies to in the document. Suggestions can be either accepted or rejected. To learn more about why you should consider a suggestion, most suggestions offer a "Learn More" link to an external site with additional information.
After making changes, you can once again press the Check Document button to refresh your suggestions.
Structure Suggestions
Click on the "Structure" tab to receive feedback about the contents and ordering of your syllabus structure. Add or reorder sections and recheck the document in order to get new feedback.
Clear Highlights
Once you're finished, any remaining highlights can be removed with the "Clear Highlights" button. Your syllabus is now ready for students!