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.

 

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Grading Portal Availability

Please make a note of the following closures and deadlines pertaining to the Grading Portal:

• The Grading Portal will be unavailable for the submission of grades starting Friday, December 5, 2008 at 6 p.m. through Monday, December 8, 2008 at 8 a.m. (Eastern Standard Time) for production updates.

• 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).

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IRBNet and CITI Training – Beginning January 2009

This week, we are sending out e-mail messages to Off-Campus graduate students and faculty regarding important changes to CMU's Institutional Review Board (IRB) application and review processes.

 

As of January 1, 2009, all 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 & 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.

 

Please watch your e-mail for further information. You may also visit www.orsp.cmich.edu for additional details and materials.

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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.

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Thank You for Your Generosity

During the past three years, CMU Off-Campus Programs has awarded over 60 scholarships to deserving non-traditional students. Among them are single parents, students with 4.0 GPA's, the unemployed but trying to improve their lot in life, and many men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces.

 

During this time several recipients of our awards have written to say they could not have continued to attend courses had they not been awarded a scholarship. Because the future economic picture for our county is uncertain at best, our students most assuredly will require increased financial support. I ask that you make a donation to the University Annual Campaign. Your gift will be matched by the University at the rate of 50% if you contribute during the campaign which ends December 5, 2008. Please go online today at www.giving.cmich.edu/campaign and designate your gift to one of the Off-Campus Programs scholarships. Our scholarships are listed at www.cel.cmich.edu/finances/scholarships.html.

 

On behalf of future scholarship awardees, I thank you for your generosity.

 

Dave Nicholson, Manager, Alumni Relations and Development

Off-Campus Programs, Central Michigan University