ProfEd Faculty News & Notes - May, 2008
News...
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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.
Grading
The Grading Portal will be unavailable for
entering grades beginning at 5 p.m. (EST) Thursday, May 22nd
until 8 a.m. (EST) Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 due to a system
upgrade. Grading for the Spring 2008 semester will close at 5
p.m. (EST) Friday, May 30th.
Electronic Contracts
Beginning Spring 2009
I am please to announce beginning with Spring
2009, all course contracts will be sent to instructors via CMU
e-mail accounts. We feel this will provide an efficient means to
distribute the contracts as well as save on postage costs and
paper consumption for the University.
Instructors will required to sign and return
contracts in one of the following ways in order to be added to
the payroll system:
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Return the contract signed with an
electronic signature to an off-campus payroll e-mail
address.
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Print the contract, sign, and fax to the
off-campus Financial Services office.
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Print the contract, sign, and mail a hard
copy to the off-campus Financial Services office.
Contracts will be sent as an attachment, using
PDF format, and will include full instructions on returning the
contracts in one of the above formats.
As a reminder, all instructors should be
accessing their CMU e-mail accounts on a regular basis, or you
may forward your CMU e-mail to another personal e-mail account.
You may forward your CMU e-mail by going to
https://myaccount.cmich.edu.
Jennifer Jones
Coordinator/Faculty Assignment
CMU Off-Campus Programs
Blackboard - it's
not just for online courses
A Blackboard course Web site is
automatically created for every course offered by CMU,
whether that course takes place in Mount Pleasant, Michigan;
Atlanta, Georgia; Online; or in Minot AFB, North Dakota.
Instructors need not take any special action to make sure
the course sites are created. If a course is scheduled in
SAP, a site is created in Blackboard. Once a signed contract
is returned, the course is associated with an instructor in
SAP, which in turn updates Blackboard, adding the course to
an instructor's list. Face to face courses can benefit from
the use of Blackboard as a place to load documents, conduct
assessment and provide students with feedback. Visit
www.cmich.edu/blackboard/home.asp and click "Faculty
Tutorials" to get started.
Newly Created
Scholarship
Dr. Hancock and Dave Nicholson are pleased
to announce that General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) with
headquarters in Sterling Heights, Michigan, has created a
$100,000 endowed scholarship for members of the U.S.
military and their family members. The scholarship is named
The General Dynamics Land Systems Military Scholarship.
The Charitable Giving Committee of GDLS recently agreed to
award CMU Off-Campus Programs $20,000 a year until the
scholarship is fully endowed. We hope to take applications
for this scholarship beginning with the school year
2009-2010. A special thank you to CMU Off-Campus Programs
alums and employees of GDLS, Michael Morris and Jackie
Roskopp for their role in this award.
Connie Hildebrand
Retiring After Twelve Years
The
Off-Campus Library Services department lost one of its
longest-serving librarians when Connie Hildebrand retired on May
15th after more than twelve years of service to the University.
Connie joined OCLS in 1996 and served as the distance librarian
for the western region of the United States, Canada, and Mexico
throughout her time at CMU, and last year became the first
librarian to offer library instruction sessions to online
classes using Wimba. Additionally, Connie planned and organized
six Off-Campus Library Services Conferences, a biennial event
that gathers an international audience of distance librarians
and educators to discuss the topic of providing library services
to remote learners. Connie's last Conference, held in Salt Lake
City from April 23 - 25, 2008, received very high marks from
those in attendance. All the best to Connie as she moves into
this next chapter of her life.
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Reminders...
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Part-Time Temporary
Instructors Needed
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.
The following courses are in need of part-time instructors – most urgent is the Washington, D.C./Richmond, VA
areas.
COM 560: Communication and
Social/Organizational Change
Requirements: Ph.D. in Communication
with a concentration in Communication or Mass Communication
Theory
COM 561: Communication in Conflict
Management
COM 665: Seminar in Communication and
Negotiation in Employee Relations
Requirements: Ph.D. in Communication
or Ph.D. in Communication with an optional specialization in
Organizational Communication preferred
COM 667: Seminar in Intercultural
Communication
Requirements: Ph.D. in Communication
and either teaching experience in intercultural
communication or appropriate graduate course work in
intercultural communication
Locations:
Lansing and Southfield, Michigan as well as other Michigan
locations
The Pentagon, Washington, DC
Richmond, VA and other Virginia locations
The successful candidate will teach adult
students in classes offered on alternating weekends or one night
a week for eight weeks. A generous stipend is paid plus
reasonable travel expenses incurred with the teaching of the
course.
The University does not cover sponsorships to
the United States and/or relocation expenses for
temporary/part-time courses.
If you are interested in further information
concerning these opportunities at CMU and how to apply please
visit our Web site at
www.cel.cmich.edu/faculty/opportunities/application.html.
To view CMU's Off-Campus job postings please visit CMU's Web
site at
www.cel.cmich.edu/faculty/recruitment/job-postings.html.
For additional information, contact Amy Courter at 800-950-1144
or court1al@cmich.edu.
If you respond by e-mail please attach your curriculum vitae.
CMU, an AA/EO institution, strongly and actively
strives to increase diversity within its community (see
www.cmich.edu/aaeo).
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Technology Corner...
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Blackboard Upgrade Follow-up
Over the weekend of May 16th, CMU's
Blackboard environment was successfully upgraded to
version 8.0. The 'gradebook' is now called the "Grade
Center" and is completely re-designed and equipped with
a multitude of new features. Scrolling vertically or
horizontally through grades is no longer confusing, as
the students' names and column headings stay firmly in
place. Fully customizable views, history tracking and
reporting are among the enhancements. Illustrated
tutorials explaining the new Grade Center features are
available at the
Blackboard@CMU Web site,
www.cmich.edu/blackboard.
Concurrently with the software upgrade, two new servers
were added to the environment, improving performance and
capacity. Blackboard's collaboration (chat) tools were
also de-commissioned and officially replaced with the
Wimba Classroom. In addition to providing a more stable
environment, Wimba's "Classroom" has many more features.
For more information on the Wimba Classroom visit
www.wimba.com or download tutorials from
www.cmich.edu/blackboard.
Teaching Online Workshop
Sessions for the 2008 "Teaching Online Workshop" offered by the Center for
Instructional Design
are open for registration. Please check out
session dates to sign up. Seating is limited.
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This monthly e-digest provides information that will assist you
with a successful classroom experience. If you have any suggestions,
comments, or questions, please contact
frc@cmich.edu.
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