New Faculty Resources
Whether you are a tenure-related faculty member, a career faculty member, or are joining us as a pro tem colleague, we are excited you are a part of UO's teaching community. This webpage should help orient you with specifics about teaching at UO and offers a suite of our four key resources to smoothly launch your UO teaching experience.
Both UO Online and the Teaching Engagement Program are here to support you. Our Event Calendar has dates for teaching workshops, reading groups, and other teaching-focused activities. Reach out to us with questions or to request a consultation.
The Office of the Provost offers a range of new faculty workshops, groups, social events, and more throughout the year.
Check out UO's programing for new faculty!
Teaching and the University of Oregon
As Oregon's flagship university, UO's commitment to teaching bubbles upwards from our faculty. More than 30 years ago, a faculty-led push for teaching support resulted in the creation of the Teaching Engagement Program (TEP); now TEP and UO Online are the two central offices with the privilege of supporting faculty in their teaching roles. We offer regular workshops, one-on-one teaching consultations, faculty working groups, and more.
Teaching excellence is a core principle at UO. The University Senate, Provost's office, and faculty union (United Academics) collaborated to develop and adopt a campus-wide definition of teaching excellence and aligned evaluation and awards systems. Our commitment to teaching is foregrounded in the goals of our strategic plan, Oregon Rising, to enhance pathways to timely graduation, become a leader in career preparation, and create a flourishing community at UO.
UO's Definition of Teaching Excellence
UO uses a specific definition of teaching excellence—teaching that is Professional, Inclusive, Engaged, and Research-Informed, often abbreviated as the PIERs. This definition is not just an aspirational goal. It is the principle that guides in-class practices, underpins teaching evaluations at UO, and are the teaching criteria for faculty awards and promotion.
Learn more about teaching excellence:
- Our page on PIERs defines our institutional view on teaching excellence and outlines teaching practices that reflect them.
- Our page on Faculty Evaluation details how the PIERs fits into it.
- Nominees for UO's set of Distinguished Teaching Awards are evaluated on their teaching's alignment with the PIERs.
UO's Academic Calendar
The University of Oregon runs on a quarter system. We have three terms during the academic year and (a variety) of summer terms. During the academic year terms are 10 weeks, immediately followed by a week of final exams. This abbreviated calendar impacts what content can appear in each course, the structure of a course, and the pacing of assignments during a term.
Learn more about our academic calendar:
- The five year Academic Calendar includes deadlines for the law school's 15-week semesters.
- UO's Final Exam Schedule from the registrar's office.
- The Registrar's office has directions for inputting grades via DuckWeb, the information system that UO uses to manage enrollment.
UO's Students
About half of our 20,000 undergraduates are Oregon residents and three to four percent are international students coming from 98 countries. Students come from a variety of sized high schools and 15-30% of new students transfer to UO from another college. One-in-five students are the first in their family attend college and around quarter of incoming students are Pell-grant eligible. These diverse personal and academic backgrounds impact how students perceive UO and your course.
Learn more about our students:
- Our Canvas Welcome Module includes a sample survey you can import into Canvas for learning about your students.
- The University of Oregon Undergraduate Student Dashboard has demographic information for the campus, departments, and majors.
- The Office of Institutional Research has a number of tools for looking at student demographics.
- UO’s Student Life Office of Assessment and Research examines students' experiences and backgrounds through projects like the Student Wellbeing and Success Initiative
UO's Campus
The University of Oregon campus in Eugene covers 295-acres with six libraries, 11 residents halls, and more than 50 academic buildings. UO also has a campus in Portland and the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology on the Pacific Coast in Coos Bay, Oregon.
Learn more about our campus:
- Use our interactive map to find buildings and “enter” buildings to see the classroom floor plans. You can also use the search bar to put in your classroom and it will locate it on the map.
- Search for your classroom on the Classroom Technology site to see pictures of it, review a list of amenities/equipment it’s supposed to have, and see contact info if you need in-room tech support.
Key Resources for New Faculty
Our website is full of resources, ideas, suggestions, and support. These four key resources help faculty get their courses off the ground and should help if you are teaching a course for the first time, working on a major course redesign, or even just doing regular improvements on your existing course.