What is HB2504?
Texas House Bill 2504 requires all public universities to make all course syllabi available online for a period that extends up to the second anniversary the class was taught. For example, the syllabus for a class taught in Fall 2011 needs to be available online until Fall 2013 at which time it may be removed. Faculty CVs must also be available in the same fashion. Due to limited staffing, all faculty members—full time and adjuncts—are asked to assist the university's compliance efforts by uploading and managing these documents individually using the faculty webpages provided on the UNT Dallas website.
Faculty Resources
Templates for face to face syllabi and online courses are available here.
Course syllabi must be posted within seven days of the first day of class.
According to the HB 2504, all syllabi must include the following information:
- major course requirements including assignment and examinations
- required and recommended reading
- general description of the subject matter of each lecture or discussion
This information should be available for a period that extends up to the second anniversary the class was taught.
Accessibility
The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that U.S. programs and services be accessible to students with disabilities. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 says that electronic documents (like course syllabi posted on the web) should be web accessible.
Syllabi and CV File Requirements
Proper File Format & Naming Convention
File Format
The UNT Dallas website requires all course syllabi and curriculum vitae files to be converted into PDF format before uploading to your faculty page. Saving a PDF copy from your original Word document can be done using the Save As command and selecting PDF from the format drop down menu.
File Nomenclature
Imposing a standard file nomenclature is not intended to help the person saving the file; rather, it is intended to help the person who must find the file at some point in the future. For the sake of our students, we ask that all UNT Dallas faculty members use the same naming pattern when saving the PDF versions of their course syllabus before uploading. While this may feel like an oppressive nuisance, doing so makes it easier to manage an ever growing number of files. The standard nomenclature we are asking everyone to adopt is as follows:
Example: LING 3060-020 Shappeck Sp20.pdf
- 4-letter course abbreviation: ACCT for Accounting
- Course code: 4300. Add section number if applicable as: 4300-001
- Last Name
- SemesterYear: Use sp20 (no space) for Spring 2020, fa for fall, su for summer
You may separate the terms using spaces, hyphens, or underscores, and you can put them in any order you want, but please try to be consistent. You are not required to include the course name in the new nomenclature. If you choose to do so, please add it to the end of the name, after the semester code.
This naming scheme provides a number of advantages to UNT Dallas administrators and students. Division administrators can remove faculty members from the directory without removing access to their course files during semesters when they are not teaching.