Welcome back! Tip #1 What needs to be included in your syllabus?

Welcome back!

The Fall 2018 semester is now underway, and it’s great to see the campus alive with faculty and students again after a verrrry quiet summer. Let’s get started, shall we?

Teaching & Learning Tip 1: What needs to be included in your syllabus? 

A syllabus describes the essential features of a course: the course title and description, the instructor’s contact information and office hours, the course learning objectives and required materials, and specific policies that govern behavior and procedures. While much of the syllabus varies by course and even by instructor, some material is required by the Higher Learning Commission, the accreditation body that oversees Minnesota State University, Mankato.

We designed a syllabus template to help you ensure that your document adheres to the standards. Contact CETL to request a copy of the template.

• Page 1 contains required information that describes your course. 
• Page 2 contains recommended information about policies and procedures for your course. 
• Pages 3-6 contain university policies that are relevant to teaching and learning. There is no expectation that you include this on your syllabus, but you and your students should know about them. 
• Page 7 contains a weekly schedule template to help students prepare for each week of class meetings. 
• Page 8-10 contain concept maps that illustrate the course-level and module-level objectives for three of my courses. I began experimenting with concept maps in last year as a way to help students visualize connections within the course content. I’m sharing them with you simply as lagniappe (a Cajun word for “a little something extra”). 

Remember that many of you are teaching a course that fulfills one or more of the university graduation requirements (general education, diverse cultures, and writing intensive). This means that in addition to the course objectives you or your program have established, you must design your course to meet the university’s objectives, too.

For example, I often teach ENG 271w Technical Communication. ENG 271w fulfills 2 general education goal areas and one of the writing intensive requirements. The course is a prerequisite for technical communication majors and minors, and it is a required elective for several other degrees. In short, this one course can check a lot of boxes for students, and other people and programs are counting on me to prepare students for work or courses they will take in the future. Thus, the learning outcomes for my course must address the program’s content-specific outcomes plus the ones for both goal areas. Sound tricky? It can be, but the IT Solutions instructional designers are ready to help you design activities and assessments to fulfill all the outcomes you need to meet.

Teaching & Learning Tip 2: Ideas for the first week of class. 

We all know that students use the first day, even the first week, to “shop around” and decide which classes to keep on their schedule and which ones to drop. It can be tempting, then, to let the first week pass uneventfully as we wait for the rosters to settle down. But research suggests that students make up their minds about a course within the first 10 minutes. So do something fun and constructive to assure them that your course is where they want to be this semester. Contact CETL for a list of ideas to liven up the first day (or week) of class. This document is available in alternate format upon request.

Registration Now Open for Fall 2018 Events 

Learn more about each on the CETL website at http://www.mnsu.edu/cetl/programs
Register for these events at https://link.mnsu.edu/cetl-registration

Professional Learning Communities 

• Adjunct Faculty Cohort 
• First Year Faculty Cohort 
• Supporting First Year Student Success 
• Second Year Faculty Cohort 
• Online Teachers Cohort 
• Academic Trends & Issues 
• Cultural Competency Cohort 
• Women in Higher Ed 
• Book Discussion of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption 
• Team-Based Learning Certificate 
• Assessment for Student Learning Certificate 
• Program-Level Assessment Certificate 
• Shut Up and Write 

Professional Development On Demand 

• Teaching & Technology Workshops (a collaboration with IT Solutions) 
• Students Consulting on Teaching (SCOT) – Now observing online classes, too! 
• Peer Faculty Teaching Observations 
• Peer Faculty Mentoring 
• IRB Drop In Hours 
• IT Solutions Tech Tactics 
• IT Solutions Instructional Design Consultations 
• IT Solutions D2L Brightspace Drop In Support 

Special Events in Collaboration with Institutional Diversity 

Immigration in the Trump Era: A Talk by Afia Yunus (no registration, students encouraged to attend)
Black Minds Matter

Comings & Goings

Say Hello to Dr. Elizabeth Harsma 

Elizabeth Harsma joined the IT Solutions academic technology team in July as the new D2L administrator and instructional technologist. You might remember Elizabeth from her work teaching Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages. We’re delighted that she’s decided to join us full-time to help you design your courses and learn how to use the D2L Brightspace learning management system. You can schedule an appointment for a private consultation or visit her during the D2L Brightspace drop in hours. The D2L Drop In calendar is at www.mnsu.edu/its/academic/trainingcalendar.html 

Say Goodbye to Mary Van Duynhoven 

Mary Van Duynhoven retired from the University at the end of May. Mary was the face, heart, and institutional memory of the Center for Excellence and Innovation since the doors to ML 88 opened five years ago. Before coming to the Center, Mary worked in the College of Science, Engineering, and Technology organizing the annual Science Fair. She helped all of us at one time or another by scheduling rooms, planning events, designing promotional materials, answering questions, responding to faculty, students, and staff, and making gallons and gallons of coffee! The administrative assistant position is currently vacant, so for now, please direct inquiries to me. 

Teaching & Learning Tip #3: Put continuing preparation at the center and rely on your team. 

During his college meeting, CSET Dean Brian Martensen called continuing preparation the central element of one’s professional development. The time you spend on yourself will reap rewards in your teaching; scholarship, research, or creative activities; contributions to student development; and even your service. And you have a support team right here on campus for assistance in teaching, supporting student learning, planning research, applying for grants, assessing both programs and courses, and accessibility accommodations.

• Heather Camp, Writing Across the Curriculum 
• Beth Claussen, Accessibility Resources 
• Mary Hadley, Institutional Review Board 
• Elizabeth Harsma, D2L Administrator & Instructional Technologist 
• Dan Houlihan, Center for Excellence in Scholarship & Research 
• Paul Mackie, University Assessment 
• Michael Manderfeld, Instructional Designer 
• Carrie Miller, Instructional Designer 
• Kristel Seth, Research & Sponsored Programs 
• Julie Snow, Accessibility Resources 
• Jennifer Veltsos, Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning