SUBJECT: Please share with faculty in your Department
Chairs,
Could you please share the following message with your faculty. We appreciate your partnership and support.
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Colleagues,
We hope the semester has gotten off to a good start — so far so good, it sounds! Congratulations on finishing Week Two-ish! We know how hard everyone is working and how much we are all managing between our professional and personal responsibilities. Those challenges are felt acutely by our students as well, and so we are writing to remind all faculty that there are campus-wide minimal requirements for using Canvas in your course.
They include:
- Standard Course Syllabus – ideally placed under the syllabus tab on your course page
- Assignments / Quizzes with due dates and point values, regardless of submission type (in-class or online)
- Gradebook with accurate points and weights for all items, consistent with the course syllabus, and set up at the start of term
We are unfortunately receiving word that some students are having trouble finding information about how to access their course content, where they can find Zoom links, what assignments are required and when they are due in an asynchronous format. Please remember that if we are to achieve our collective goals of academic success and student retention, students need to have access both to your expertise and to your course materials.
If your students are having trouble navigating Canvas you can share the newly created student-centered “Canvas Basics” video created by a team in the Mardigian Library. Find it in Canvas Commons under “Remote Learning at UM-Dearborn” or view it on the Mardigian library (#2 on the list).
Beyond these minimal requirements, we urge you to remember that there are numerous other Canvas tools available to enhance your teaching power, improve students’ learning experience, and save time and effort for all, thereby allowing opportunities for focus on other high life and work priorities. For more information or UM-Dearborn specific visit the faculty support for Canvas.
Thank you, and thanks for all you do for our students!
Sue, Maureen, and Mitch
Office of the Provost