Digital Syllabus involves three general types of users: students, instructors and deans (or equivalent department heads). For the purpose of determining appropriate access levels to the database, the system recognizes the following categories of user types:
Although the potential of Digital Syllabus is most fully realized when all key users are actively involved, its value is not entirely dependent upon the full participation of everyone. For example, if only one or a subset of a given student’s full course load is available for subscription on Digital Syllabus, that student should still find it a useful organization and visualization tool for that/those courses that are available for subscription. Likewise, participating instructors would still benefit from the convenience of Digital Syllabus as a structured, web forms-based publishing tool regardless of how many students subscribe to their information. However, a course whose syllabus information is available through Digital Syllabus offers students compelling incentive to become active users, and as students become increasingly accustomed to the convenience of Digital Syllabus, they may begin to request it from their instructors as an alternative to a paper syllabus or course website.
To motivate instructor adoption, Digital Syllabus offers the option to delegate their data entry and editing responsibilities to a trusted and willing proxy, such as a student volunteer or department administrative or teaching assistant. In this way, those instructors who are more comfortable using traditional tools (paper or word processing software) to construct a course syllabus might use those tools as methods for communicating instructions to appointed Digital Syllabus delegates.
The initial prototype of the Digital Syllabus system has been designed with higher education-level students and instructors in mind. Clearly, it is most intended for students and instructors with convenient access to the World Wide Web, who are relatively comfortable using online applications, and who manage multiple courses per term. It is certainly conceivable that, with minimal alterations to the data model (with regard to the semantics and structure of how a course is numbered and described, how instructors are defined, and so on), the system could flexibly extend to a broader user base that includes middle and high school students.