As soon as you are able, visit the classroom you are teaching in and explore the environment. Nothing is more embarrassing than students watching you struggle to manage technology on the first day! Knowing your classroom also helps you to make the most of the space you have and ensure all your students can have good experiences in your class.
Actions
to Take | - Visit the Information Services' Classroom Technology Support website to do a Classroom Search to find out the details of your room, including the details of technology available your classroom.
- Visit your classroom to test the technology and to understand the experience your students may have in the room.
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Questions
to Consider | - What opportunities or limitations are offered by the physical space? Are there adjustments to make to your planned lessons or activities?
- What instructional technologies are available in the room? Test how to use them – can you connect to the projector as you wanted, how does the sound system work, which setting shows the document camera?
- Do you intend to use a student response system? UO had adopted iClicker Cloud as our campus-wide platform.
- What might your student experience be like in different spots around the room? Are there many screens that students can see? What font and image sizes might be a challenge for students sitting in different areas?
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Support
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Teaching Excellence | - Ensuring all students can engage during with class is one component of Inclusive Teaching.
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Depending on your course, you may be just one member of a teaching team made of other instructors, graduate employees (GEs), undergrad learning assistants, university staff, or maybe even external speakers. Coordinating your efforts is critical to run a smooth course. We recommend meeting before the term begins to get everyone started on the right foot.
Actions
to Take | - Reach out to all the members of your teaching team to set a course planning meeting. Our Coordinating Teaching Teams page offers suggested topics for you to discuss in your first team meeting and other tips for coordinating your duties.
- Before your meeting, draft a document of responsibilities for the different members of your teaching team. You don't need to assign them by name, but listing the group responsibilities (GEs, LAs, instructors, support staff) is sufficient before your first meeting.
- Download and print copies of the Workload Allocation Form to clearly lay out expectations for the work of your GEs. Bring the forms to your team meeting.
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Questions
to Consider | - What are the responsibilities of your GEs and LAs? What are your, and other faculty members', responsibilities?
- What is the FTE of each of your GEs? How do their duties fit into their time allotment?
- How will your teaching team communicate with each other? How will you communicate collectively with your students?
- How often will you meet with your teaching team to discuss the course?
- If GEs are responsible for discussion sections, recitations, or labs, who is responsible for the content and pedagogy of those sessions? If it is you, how will you communicate that information with your team?
- If others in your team besides you have grading responsibilities, how will you communicate your expectations for grading and giving feedback to students? How will you ensure everyone on your team understands the assignments to correctly answer student questions about them?
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Support
Resources | - Each academic department is required to regularly produce a General Duties and Responsibilities Statement (GDRS) for managing their GEs. Make sure your plans align with your department's guidelines.
- Graduate employees at UO have been unionized since the 1970s under the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (GTFF). Their collective bargaining agreement recommends supervisors and GEs complete a Workload Allocation Form to help clearly lay out the duties for individual GEs and help ensure they are staying within their contracted time commitment.
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Teaching Excellence | - Ensuring that students know and understand your course policies is one component of Professional Teaching. Work with your team so that they know those policies and can address student questions about them.
- Having clear communication is one component of Professional Teaching. Decide with your team who is responsible for responding to different student questions and make sure your students know who on the team they should reach out to for help.
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The syllabus helps students understand the policies, content, and philosophy of your course—your grand plan distilled down to a few pages. UO policy does require certainly elements in your syllabus, but what else is included is up to you.
Consider these two quotes from UO students. Which you would rather hear your students say about your course?
“It was very helpful to meet with the instructor in office hours. However, it would have been more helpful to have more office hour times throughout the week.”
“The instructor had office hours every day for one hour a day. I really appreciated that the office hours every day were at different times because it meant that there would be at least one time during the week that students could go to office hours.”
Actions
to Take | - Download our Syllabus 'Starter' and decide what sections of it you want to include in your syllabus.
- Review the sample syllabus language in the syllabus 'starter' and adopt or adapt language that fits your course.
- Check that your course policies on absences and on cheating align with UO's reason neutral attendance and engagement policy and UO's academic misconduct policies.
- Upload your syllabus into Canvas. A syllabus is one of the few items required by UO's Canvas Use Policy.
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Questions
to Consider | - What are your office hours going to be? Vary the time and days of weekly office hours. If your office hours always occur immediately after your class, a student who has another class right after yours may be accidentally blocked from getting help during office hours.
- Will you provide a calendar of lessons and assignments to help keep your students on track?
- What non-required syllabus items would your students benefit from having?
- Does your syllabus have a friendly tone, or does it read like a legal document?
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Support
Resources | - The Office of the Provost's site lists Syllabus Requirements for both Undergraduate and Graduate courses. These are set by the University Senate.
- We have a student-facing University Course Policy page that details some university policies. It will automatically appear in your course Canvas site navigation menu, but you should include a link to it in your syllabus and review the site yourself to understand the policies.
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Teaching Excellence | |
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Use our 10-step guide to Getting Your Canvas Course Ready for the Term to double-check that your Canvas page is clear and supportive for students. You can return to this guide each term to ensure future students continue to be supported.
