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UM’s faculty senate has a procedure that guides syllabi on campus. It lists required information, suggested information, and includes a guide to writing learning outcomes.

There is! You can find a very long list of them here.

Engaging students at the beginning of the course is vital to the success of the semester. However, there is also very practical reason to use simple engagement techniques in every class period for the first 15 days of classes: later in the semester, you might need to report evidence of student engagement on these days. The Registrar’s Office often needs faculty to be able to offer evidence that a student who relies on has attended class. Your ability to show that a student has attended class will help the student – and it will help UM comply with the federal guidelines. (And since you will not know if you have students who rely on Pell Grants in your classes, then you should always focus on this!)

This is a great question! It is ideal to talk with your program director or chair about your course outcomes; often there are learning outcomes that have been generated by your program or department.

In addition, you can find information about course attributes, institutional requirements, and outcomes by visiting . First, select your teaching term. Then you can then enter your course information and search. When viewing the results, look for the column called “attributes.” If you course has career competency or general education attributes, you will see attributes like “Critical Thinking (CC)) or “GenED – Writing Across the Curriculum.”

Learn more about Career Competencies here or by reaching out to the folks at Experiential Learning and Career Success.

Learn more about

Learn more about General Education Writing Classes (attributes: GenED – Writing Across the Curriculum and GenED – Writing In the Disciplines).

Note, too, that the course may be a major requirement. If that’s true, then it will not be noted in the course search, but your department will have the information you need!

The academic calendar is always your go-to source for lists of holidays and other closures.

Colleagues in your program might be your first best option, but the folks at the Writing Center are also excellent partners for envisioning or revising writing assignments. You might also be interested in the Writing Center’s Teaching Resources page, which includes ideas for designing assignments in any course, responding to writing, and navigating plagiarism.

The Writing Center is a great resource for you. Check out their Resources for Instructors and request a conversation with them – or an in-class workshop.

These instructional design resources offered by Educational Initiatives and Innovation are a great place to start. The website includes resources to help you better understand accessibility, review your own documents, Canvas shell, and style guides, and connect with designers for more personal support.

The ODE website has a lot of great information for you including a guide for instructors.

Student engagement is a huge topic, so there are many answers here.

There is a very practical reason to use simple engagement techniques every class period for the first 15 days of classes: later in the semester, you might need to report student evidence of engagement on these days. The Registrar’s Office often needs faculty to be able to offer evidence that a student who relies on has attended class. Your ability to show that a student has attended class will help the student – and it will help UM comply with the federal guidelines. (And since you will not know if you have students who rely on Pell Grants in your classes, then you should always focus on this!)

Check out UM's self-paced Canvas course called . The course will teach you about student engagement, Universal Design for Learning principles and practices, proactive digital accessibility, and just good sound pedagogy. 

This teaching resource page, hosted by the Office for Organizational Learning and Development offers a number of ways to explore the general idea of student engagement.

If you would like to brainstorm with colleagues, you might keep an eye on Learning Communities and Inquiry Projects (or maybe you want to propose a new one!).

Maybe you could invite the Writing Center to come offer a workshop for your students.

Many instructors like to include High Impact Practices (HIPs) and Career Readiness Competencies (CRCs) into their courses (you can learn more about these attributes here). At UM, ELCS is a centralized hub offering support to faculty to help understand, integrate, and assess HIPs and CRCs in their curriculum. They have a wide variety of resources online to help you with your own professional development journey, to explore how HIPs and CRCs elevate your teaching in new and exciting ways, and to transform the student learning experience. Also, ELCS’s Associate Director of Curriculum Design and Integration is available to meet with faculty 1:1 and/or departments and provide consultation to explore ideas and resources, and assist in curriculum design/re-design.

Yes! While there are various groups who can come and conduct workshops in your class (like the Writing Center or Instructional Designers) the Learning Assistants Program can help you with ongoing support in your classroom. If you’re curious about how these folks might support you, reach out to them for more information!

Connecting with a student’s adviser is an excellent idea. At UM, we use an Early Alert process that connects instructors with the advising community and other student support providers across campus. As the instructor of record, you will receive communications from the Office for Student Success that will explain how you can offer progress reports or raise an alert.  Detailed information on the various types of alerts and on what happens after you submit an alert can be found here.  Lastly, students can look up their assigned advisor in Griz Portal (formerly called Cyberbear) or in Navigate, or you can use the  to look up primary advising contacts by undergraduate program of study.

If you're worried about a student’s behavior or notice signs of distress in your classroom, your first step should be to consult with your program director or department chair. They can help you assess the situation and determine appropriate next steps. The CARES Team is another valuable resource. This cross-campus group helps coordinate support for students who may be struggling. You can submit a referral directly to the CARES Team if you believe a student would benefit from additional outreach and support.

The ODE website has a lot of great information for you including a guide for instructors.

This is a great question! It is ideal to talk with your program director or chair about your course outcomes; often there are learning outcomes that have been generated by your program or department.

In addition, you can find information about institutional requirements and outcomes by visiting . First, select your teaching term. Then you can then enter your course information and search. When viewing the results, look for the column called “attributes.” If you course has career competency or general education attributes, you will see attributes like “Critical Thinking (CC)) or  “GenED – Writing Across the Curriculum.”

Learn more about Career Competencies here or by reaching out to the folks at Experiential Learning and Career Success.

Learn more about .

Learn more about General Education Writing Classes (attributes: GenED – Writing Across the Curriculum and GenED – Writing In the Disciplines).

Note, too, that the course may be a major requirement. If that’s true, then it will not be noted in the course search, but your department will have the information you need!

Everything you need to know about submitting grades can be found here. But also, as the end of the semester approaches, keep an eye out for communications from The Registrar’s Office!

Whether or not they say it out loud, this is something every teacher wonders. People often find that connecting with colleagues offers the kind of context that can enable you to reflect on your experiences productively. There are many ways to connect and reflect with your teaching colleagues at UM. You might join a community of practice, join the Pedagogy Project to gain insight through mid-semester student feedback, or reflect on assignment design and assessment with an instructional designer or the Writing Center.

It can be so tempting to change things once the semester has begun, but except for in extreme circumstances, you need to be sure to honor the terms of the syllabus you shared with students at the beginning of the semester. Many students have busy, complicated lives and they plan their semesters based on the information they received in the first week of classes. It is usually better to use your new ideas to plan for a future semester.

This might be a more common experience than you think, but no matter how common it is, it can be debilitating. Feel free to reach out to Amy. She’ll be able to connect you with the right folks.

This is such a common difficulty for graduate students – so common, that the Writing Center hosts events and groups just for graduate students! Sometimes, connecting with graduate students from other programs can help.