ProfEd Faculty News & Notes - December 2008

 

 

 		 

Faculty Orientation – Coming Online in 2009

The new Faculty Orientation is coming online soon! This orientation is for current part-time temporary faculty as well as all new faculty that are approved to teach for ProfEd.

 

This long-awaited program will welcome new part-time faculty to our team and is also designed to provide our experienced instructors with a helpful reminder of ProfEd/CMU policies, procedures, and expectations. Participation for new faculty will be mandatory, but we strongly encourage everyone to read carefully through this detailed information.

 

The orientation will be launched January 5, 2009 on the Faculty Resource Center (FRC) Web site at www.cel.cmich.edu/faculty. There will be a Faculty Orientation link on the sidebar that takes you to the program. We welcome your feedback. Please contact Carmen Ceja-Blohm or Stephanie Bechtel if your have questions concerning this new program.

 

2007-2008 ProfEd Annual Report

It has been a year of major innovations at ProfEd: new programs, new financial model, and a renewed spirit of collaboration. Please take a few minutes to look over our annual report and share in the accomplishments. You can access the information by following this link: 2007-2008 ProfEd Annual Report.

 

*IMPORTANT TAX NOTICE*

Please check your address on the portal at https://portal.cmich.edu/MyEmployment/default.aspx to be sure it is correct. We will be mailing W-2's in January to the permanent address we have on the system. You will have until January 16th to make changes before the W-2's are mailed.

 

If you filed exempt from taxes in 2008 you need to file a new W-4 (Employee's Withholding Exemption Certificate) for the 2009 calendar year. Also, if your tax filing status, exemption allowances; or state of residence has changed since the last filing of your W-4 form, you need to file a new Form W-4 for the 2009 calendar year. Please download the W-4 form(s) from the Tax Forms section of www.controller.cmich.edu/downloads/forms.htm#Payroll, or come to the Payroll and Travel Services Office in 204 Warriner Hall.

 

Any employee receiving an EARNED INCOME CREDIT ADVANCE must file a new FORM W-5 for the 2009 calendar year to retain this status.

 

Holiday Contract Payments and Grading Portal Availability

Please be aware of the following dates and deadlines concerning contract payments and grading portal availability during the holidays.

  • Payments for Fall II Online Courses will be made with the December 31st payroll, regardless of whether final grades have been submitted. Questions may be directed to the payroll office at (989) 774-7509.

  • The Grading Portal WILL BE available for the submission of grades during the holiday break.

  • The deadline for submitting all Fall 2008 grades is January 15, 2009 at 5 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time).

IRBNet and CITI Training Reminder

As of January 1, 2009, all Institutional Review Board (IRB) applications must be submitted through the new online system, IRBNet. No paper applications will be accepted by the IRB office as of this date. In addition, all investigators conducting research with human subjects will be required to complete training in the protection of human subjects in research through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI).

 

If your students will be conducting research as part of a course, you will need to register in IRBNet and familiarize yourself with its functions. You will also need to complete the CITI training and exams for "Social and Behavioral Research" (Basic/Refresher). Any student who is using human subjects will also need to complete this training and the attached exams. The training and exams take approximately 2-3 hours and an 80% overall is considered satisfactory for meeting the requirement.

 

ProfEd and OCLS will both launch information pages for students on their Web sites by January 5, 2009. In addition, you may visit www.orsp.cmich.edu for additional information, materials and forms for both faculty and students.

 

Electronic Contracts Have Arrived

We have been sending Spring 2009 contracts via e-mail and so far we are pleased with the success and hope you find the process smooth as well.

 

Below are some reminders about accessing and returning your contracts:

  • You must access your cmich.edu account to receive your faculty contract. Directions on accessing Webmail is included with the contracts.

  • We are accepting an electronic signature on contracts. A valid electronic signature would be your typed name and your globalid or Central Michigan University e-mail address.

  • After entering the electronic signature, please save the contract. Do not change the name of the attachment (contract) when returning.

  • Make sure the contract is returned from your cmich.edu account and as an attached document.

  • It is important to return the contract to: ProfEdFC@cmich.edu. Please do no return your contract to other e-mail addresses or send to duplicate e-mail addresses.

  • You will receive an automated e-mail reply indicating that your contract has been received.

  • If you prefer, contracts may be returned by faxing to: (989) 774-3542.

  • If you choose to mail the contract please return to:

Central Michigan University

ProfEd

802 Industrial Drive

Mount Pleasant, MI 48858

Attn: Payroll

  • If you have difficulty accessing your e-mail account, please call the Help Desk at (989) 774-3662. The hours are listed below:

  Monday - Thursday:    7 a.m. - 12 a.m.
  Friday:    7 a.m. -   7 p.m.
  Saturday:  12 p.m. -   6 p.m.
  Sunday:  12 p.m. - 12 a.m.

 

Blackboard Course Copying Tips

One of Blackboard's most useful (and most commonly used) features is the ability to copy materials from one course to another. Course Copy allows materials in a Summer course to be re-used in a Fall course, eliminating the time and effort in uploading all the files again. Here are some important considerations to help resolve some of the questions and/or problems that occur.

  • Always begin from the Control Panel of your old course, which contains the materials to copy.

  • When prompted for the Destination Course ID, a partial ID (i.e.: MSA 101) will not work – you must enter the full ID (i.e.: MSA101-09300-22020000) or browse to locate the course.

  • If the course being copied contains online exams or quizzes, the "Tests, Surveys, and Pools" and "Grade Center Columns and Settings", and "Content Area" where the assessments are deployed must all be selected. If all three of these areas are not chosen, exams will not work properly in the new course. Similarly, if there are graded Discussion Boards or Blackboard Assignments in the course being copied, you must also select Grade Center Columns and Settings to copy.

  • If an initial copy does not provide the intended results, avoid re-copying the course over and over. During the copy process items with the same name are not replaced or over-written, but simply added to the course – this can result in large numbers of duplicate items and cause existing tests and pools in the course to grow exponentially.

  • After completing a course copy, always review your course and clean up any duplicate content that appears and remove empty menu items to keep course easy to navigate.

  • If Discussion Board is selected, the forum topics, as well as existing discussion threads, are automatically copied as well. Cleanup in the new course is usually required to remove the old threads.

  • Do not select Enrollments – contact the Help Desk if this occurs.

  • See the "Copying a Course" and "Copying Exams" tutorials, www.cmich.edu/blackboard/tutorials/faculty/default.shtml, for more information.

Off-Campus Instructors Needed

We need your help! Off-Campus Programs has an important need for instructors to teach in the following areas of study:

  • Anthropology (Ph.D. in Anthropology in Michigan)
    ANT 171 (online)
    ANT 173 (online)
    ANT 175 (Metro Detroit)

  • Communication (in Washington, DC)

  • English (in the Metro Detroit area, Ph.D. in English required)

  • Philosophy (in the Metro Detroit area)

  • Religion (in the Metro Detroit area, Ph.D. in Religious Studies required)

  • Sociology (in the Metro Detroit area)

  • Teacher Education (in Winnipeg, Canada or surrounding area)

If you know of colleagues or interested faculty/instructors that may meet the requirements and wish to teach part-time, please have them contact Carmen Ceja-Blohm at cejab1c@cmich.edu or 1-800-950-1144, ext. 2199.

 

Technology Corner...

 

Teaching Online Workshop

Sessions for the 2009 "Teaching Online Workshop" offered by the Center for Instructional Design are open for registration. Please check out new offering dates. Seating is limited.  

Faculty News and Notes is a monthly electronic publication distributed to all instructors in our faculty pool who have taught off-campus in the last two years. This publication was created to help you feel more connected to CMU and to provide you with news and updates to our off-campus policies and procedures. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at frc@cmich.edu.


For more info visit the Faculty Resource Center today!

Carmen Ceja-Blohm (Recruiting) - (989) 774-2199 | Ernie Bedford (ADA) - (989) 774-4464
Bonnie Bohannon (Approvals) - (989) 774-3869 | Jennifer Jones (Staffing) - (248) 526-2624
Stephanie Bechtel (Faculty/Academic Issues) - (800) 950-1144, ext. 6489

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North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

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