SUBJECT: October News and Updates from the Office of the Provost
Dear Colleagues,
I hope the semester is going well for you and yours, and that you are all taking good care of yourselves. I have put off sending out emails of late since I know you are all super busy, but we do have some news and updates to share… Without further ado (and in no particular order)!
Canvas and Preferred Pronouns
Personal pronouns are now supported in Canvas and will be displayed almost everywhere a name is found. For more information about the University’s policy and processes around this subject, please visit the Preferred Name website.
Round 2 of Early Warning Reports — Due October 31st
The second round of Early Warnings will remain open until October 31. Please consider using M-Success to identify any undergraduate student who is not showing signs of academic success in your courses. Alerts are routed to areas like advising, tutoring, the learning centers, the Dean of Students, and more to ensure students are connected with support and resources. For more information on Early Warnings, please visit the website.
Mid-Course Student Feedback
Being transparent with your students about the challenges of this remote semester will help create a collaborative and positive environment. You can gather immediate student feedback to assist your classes by searching the Canvas Commons for "UM-Dearborn Course Feedback," an ungraded, anonymous quiz that you can import directly into your courses. Also, mid-course student feedback sessions, facilitated by a Hub consultant, are an option for particularly challenging courses. The process is confidential. To request a session, please fill out this form. Mid-course feedback is an opportunity to start thinking about how to apply the lessons learned from fall towards the winter semester. Even if you gather your own feedback, you can request a working meeting with a Hub Instructional Designer to talk it over in a confidential and non-evaluative setting.
Classroom Recordings, FERPA, and Accessibility
Please remember that, with most faculty recording lecturers this semester, it is important that everyone review the University of Michigan Recording Class Activities Rules of the Road page. To comply with FERPA regulations, course videos which identify students cannot be used in other courses or sections without written consent of all identified students, as the video would be shared with people outside the members of the course section in which it was originally recorded. Information about supported video systems, FERPA, and accessibility can be found on the UM-Dearborn Academic Video Page.
Zoombombing
We have been experiencing "Zoombombing" episodes where individuals have joined class or student organization meetings and interrupted the meeting with offensive or racist remarks. Please make sure you are following the below instructions to secure Zoom meetings and prevent these deeply disturbing occurrences.
Look for an email soon with information on a short training class specifically for faculty on Zoom security features and preventing Zoombombing.
- For class meetings and activities, and student organization meetings where all attendees are U-M students, faculty, or staff, ITS recommends using the setting Only Authenticated Users May Join>University of Michigan Users and sending your invitees instructions on logging in.
- If some attendees will be from outside U-M, use a Waiting Room configured using the U-M recommended settings and send your invitees instructions on making sure they are logged into Zoom. Instruct U-M attendees to leave, log in, and re-enter if they see a message that they are in the waiting room. Non-U-M attendees would be admitted via the Waiting Room.
- You may use multiple security options for increased security. However, do not simply use a Passcode, as a Passcode is the least secure option.
- You can choose whether to allow telephone audio, computer audio, or both. If only computer audio is selected, those with smartphones can connect via their Zoom app on their phone. If telephone audio is allowed, attendees can dial in using their telephone even if Only Authenticated Users May Join is configured.
Complete information on securing videoconferencing is available here.
If you do experience Zoombombing, please contact the UM-Dearborn Service Desk at (313) 593-HELP (4357) or [email protected] with the name and meeting time of the class and the details of the incident.
Reminder! Student Study Space
Student taking on-campus classes during the Fall 2020 semester may have access to limited reservable study space in designated campus areas. This space will only be available to students who have two on-campus courses in a day or a synchronous course immediately before/after an on-campus course. Individual study spaces will include access to a computer and printer. More information can be found in the Student Return to Campus guide.
Reminder! Faculty Workspace
As a reminder, there is temporary faculty workspace available on campus. The space includes a desk and access to a printer. If you are interested in reserving a space please click on the scheduling page!
Reminder! Campus Resource Guide
The Campus Resource Guide is available to signpost students to services and support. It provides — in a handy PDF — listings of various campus offices and programs that are important to the success of students. Please do take a look and share with students and colleagues.
Sign Up for the New Office of Research Website
The Office of Research (OR) is excited to share the launch of our refreshed website designed to support UM-Dearborn researchers and scholars with research development and grant administration. We invite you to explore our services and our team!
If you would like to continue to receive information about external funding, sponsor guidelines, policy changes, and other news related to research, grants and sponsored projects at UM-Dearborn, we invite you to join the [email protected] email group:
- Go to Mcommunity.umich.edu/
- Log in with your UM-Dearborn uniqname and password
- Search "UM-DearbornResearchNews"
- Click on it and once open, select "Join" form the top left corner of the group window
Heads up! Provost Listening Sessions Coming
I want to let you know that, after the Thanksgiving break, my office is preparing to hold some Provost Listening sessions where my team and I can ask for your thoughts about the Summer 2021 and Fall 2021 semesters. As we did during the July listening sessions, the goal is to hear from different parts of the campus about how best to plan and prepare for the upcoming semesters.
That’s more than enough for now! Please let me know if you have any questions.
With my best wishes, and continue to take care,
Sue
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs