News...

Hello. 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.

Greetings and Salutations

Please read the message from Dr. Merodie Hancock, Vice President/Executive Director of CMU Off-Campus Programs.

Course Cancel Procedure/Contact Hour Requirements

Instructors are required to notify their program director when a class is cancelled and provide alternate assignments to address the contact hours missed. The complete procedure can be found under Procedures on the FRC.

New Mileage Rate

As of January 1^st, 2007 the new mileage rate is $.485/mile.

Student Class List Updates

Please make sure that you are reviewing your class list with your program administrator. Addition or removal of students names must be done before grading begins. 

Learn Student Names Video

Take 5 minutes and learn some new techniques for memorizing student names and institute this best practice as outlined in Maximizing Learning Principle 1: Understand and Respect Individual Differences. Here is a video that might help. 

Faculty Seminar Series for February

Please join us for Keeping up with Technology, offered online February 15^th, to discuss the Elluminate tool, and Using Variety in Your Instruction to Motivate Students and Maximize Learning offered at the Troy Center on February 24^th.

Assessment Reports

Every year, each program submits an assessment report to be shared with all stakeholders. This assessment report details how learning outcomes were measured over the last year and will be measured in the upcoming year. Check out how your program measures learning.

Technology Update...

IE 7.0 ad SBT

Internet Explorer 7.0 can now be used to access the Syllabus Build Tool.

Installing Yahoo Toolbar, Google Searchbar or ICQ Yields Unexpected Results

Many popular Internet Explorer add-ons, such as those mentioned in the title above, are configured to include pop-up blockers. Even in the case where pop-up blocking may be disabled within Internet Explorer or customized to allow pop-ups from certain sites, these additional pop-up blockers may still prevent certain types of links from opening in new windows. Often, faculty are unable to access Blackboard's chat rooms or quick links available on the Faculty Resource Center Web site. 

If you believe you have an additional pop-up blocker and find that it is causing difficulty, you may be able to configure it to allow pop ups from blackboard.cmich.edu, www.cel.cmich.edu and other sites as needed. If you'd prefer not to deal with it, these products can be removed using the "Add/Remove Programs" icon in the Windows Control Panel. For additional information or assistance, contact Jeremy Bond or Sue Parker.

Reminders...

Temporary Postings

If you have a colleague interested in becoming a part-time, temporary off-campus instructor for CMU please have them check the Web site for Acquisition Management as well as Reading and Literacy course needs where local candidates are preferred and all qualified candidates will be considered.

If You Have A Question About . . .

• Recruiting/Open Positions/ADA, contact Carmen Ceja-Blohm.

• Approvals, contact Bonnie Bohannon.

• Staffing, contact Jennifer Jones.

• Use of the Syllabus Build Tool, submitting your grades online, hotel or center directions contact your program administrator.

• General Blackboard support, call the Help Desk at 800-950-1144, ext. 3662.

• End-of-Course Assessments, Mentoring, Faculty Seminar Series, Academic Issues, contact Alicia Haley.

• Getting Paid, contact Deb Mathewson.

• Travel/Reimbursement Voucher, contact Kay Fox.

• Guest Speaker Reimbursements, contact your program director for prior approval.