Faculty Center

Start of Course Teaching Checklist

• Review and Sign Teaching Offer Letter via DocuSign

• If new faculty – complete Faculty Onboarding Training online.

• Review course on dashboard to familiarize.

• Add an autobiographical video or written introduction (about a paragraph) with specific examples of what expertise you bring to the course and subject matter. Be specific to the course with examples and credentials.

• Add a Week 1 announcement video that welcomes students to the course.

• For all videos you create and upload, be sure to upload using Panopto. The Panopto video icon is a green circle-shaped ribbon next to the YouTube icon in Canvas. Even if you use Zoom or other software to record your videos, upload them into Canvas using Panopto. Panopto provides closed captioning and other ADA compliance features in addition to helpful video analytics for you and CLU students.

• Enable notifications – go to your account Canvas, then the upper lefthand circle – “Account,” – and click on “Notifications.”

• Review all Faculty Expectations.

• Review the Bi-weekly Report template and add to calendar reminders for submitting at the end of Weeks 2, 4, 6, and 8.

• Create a spreadsheet to track responses to students each week.

• Read/ view all students’ introduction videos and Discussion Board posts and respond individually, keep a spreadsheet noting specifics that can be added throughout course as references in discussion.

• When responding to Week 1 introduction videos, reply to the Canvas posting, NOT the video itself. Responding to the message in Canvas instead of the video will allow us to track data for instructor engagement.

Reminders:

• Add a new video announcement each week to be available by the Sunday prior to week start reviewing previous week, explaining any assignments and/or content, and a quick preview of following week. Consider posting by the Thursday of the previous week to incentivize “early bird” students and welcome them to the week.
• Read and add comments to all learning reflections, called “Quizzes” in Canvas (they are auto graded, but add any zeros to those not completed). These happen every other week and students reflect on their learning outcome achievement and often share questions for their instructor to which you will want to respond.
• Add zeros for all Assignments and Discussion Question replies not posted at end of week, even if the student has made arrangements to submit late. This will keep the grade calculations accurate.

CLU Faculty Classroom Tips

Weekly announcements need to be a video and available for viewing no later than the Sunday prior to the start of the week (you can delay posting if set up early).

• Videos should briefly review the previous week, provide tips for the current week, and briefly preview the next week. It is a good idea to post a separate video with details on assignment expectations and tips for the week’s assignments are due.
• The suggested program to use for recording the video is Zoom. All faculty and students of CLU have a free Zoom account. To access, go to your course and click on the Zoom link on the left bar. Zoom allows for showing a PowerPoint along with video commentary by sharing your screen. 
• You can also use Zoom to meet with students individually or in groups (there is a 40- minute time limit on these accounts, but an unlimited amount of meetings).
• Once you have your Mp4 from your zoom recording, go to the course and click on the left side STUDIO link. Upload new by browsing. Then when you compose your announcement and are ready to embed the video, click on the blue STUDIO icon and it will walk you through the process (more information on this process in the Canvas module).

Please make sure that all emails with your students are done in Canvas or through CLU email. This is very important for FERPA. All CLU communication will also be sent to your CLU email for that reason (as opposed to personal email addresses).

“Sign” all announcements and emails. Canvas does not automatically “sign” the emails and announcements. Therefore, please add your name and course title at the end of all announcement postings and emails.

Engage in the discussions early. Add additional thought-provoking or current event topics and videos to spark conversation and apply the course content. Adding content (TedTalk, current event topic, short article, etc.) on Mondays (and throughout the week) to the discussion will encourage early participation from students.

Engage in the discussions often. Faculty should log in to the course at least every 24 hours and engage with students in the discussions. A good way to organize the amount of participation with students is to create a list or excel sheet with all the student names and check them off when posting to a student each week. Faculty are encouraged to reply to students throughout the week, but it is necessary to reply to each student within the week for individualized participation.

Use the student spreadsheet to capture details from the student AutoBios. Read/ view all introductions and respond individually. Note any professional or personal details (job, goals, career aspirations, etc.) that can be added throughout the course to personalize discussion responses. Since the LMS is a scrolling platform, faculty posts can get lost. A best practice is to change the font color of your message when you post so that students can find them easily. Choose one color for consistency throughout the course.

Use the Biweekly report (due to your Department Head at the end of Weeks 2, 4, 6, and 8), Faculty Expectations, and the Discussion Question Rubric. Please review these often.

Course content in the LMS is locked. Recommendations to update the course content should be recorded and passed along to the Department Head in the Bi-weekly reports. If a broken link or typos are discovered, please email your Department Head immediately.

Please accept the invite (sent to your CLU email) to our writing center (WRN) and then the center will appear on your course dashboard. Additionally, actively encourage students to register in the WRN and use the resources including the writing coach. Continue to mention the WRN in your announcements and in grading feedback. The email to contact the writing coach is: writingcoach@claremontlincoln.edu.

Students are given an orientation too. There is a required student synchronous orientation via Zoom with student services. This should help with preparedness and retention for incoming students. Students also have an online self-paced orientation that they should have completed prior to the course start.

At CLU we all support you and are available, so please reach out with an email or phone call for any questions, issues, or feedback.

Thank you for your engagement with and care of our students!