Teaching resources for new LAS faculty

Before you can get access to some of the teaching resources, you may need to finalize employment paperwork, so you may get started by reviewing the Onboarding Resources (Human Resources). You’ll need to get your NetID before being able to access anything account protected (see NetID Claim, Employees, UI New Hire (Tech Services)).

The New Faculty Resources (Provost) is another good starting place to review resources that are available for all aspects of your new faculty role. We highly encourage you to register and attend Illinois New Faculty Orientation (INFO) (August, January).

The College of LAS also provides Faculty and Staff Resources (LAS), which may be a good link to bookmark and return to throughout your career.

Whether you are creating a new syllabus document or adapting from a previous professor’s syllabus, policies and procedures may change from year to year, so it’s always a good idea to review the following:

• LAS syllabi requirements (PDF)
• Checklist for LAS Course Syllabi (PDF)

Credit hours

You’ll be able to check the credit hours in the description for your course in the Course Explorer. The number of credit hours indicates a specific number of weekly contact hours (instruction) and weekly hours of expected student work (see Assigning Credit Hours (Provost)).

For courses that offer “differential credit” for undergraduate students (e.g., 3 credits) and graduate students (e.g., 4 credits) or “variable credit” (e.g., 1 to 3 credits), your syllabus should clearly indicate how the workload will be different by number of credit hours.

General education (Gen Ed) courses

It’s important to know whether your course fulfills a General Education requirement and therefore must meet certain criteria or learning outcomes (see Gen Ed Course Details & Category Criteria (Provost)). You’ll be able to check if/which gen ed requirements your course fulfills in the course description in the Course Explorer.

Templates & Policies

When it comes to resources and policies, the Course Syllabus Resources (Provost) page provides comprehensive syllabus resources, including a standard campus Syllabus Template. They provide examples of different policies, such as Class Attendance and Academic Integrity, along with various student resources, such as for Students with Disabilities and Mental Health resources.

If you’re planning to reuse policies from an older syllabus or another institution, you’ll want to double check that they adhere to the Illinois Student Code, especially the sections on Part 1 § 1-107 Religious Accommodations, Part 1 § 1-110 Students with Disabilities, Part 1 § 3-103 Computation of Scholastic Averages (GPA), Part 4 § 1-401 Academy Integrity, and Part 5 – Class Attendance.

Certain course levels or formats may have to meet requirements by different governing units. For example, for online courses, you should review the LAS Online Policies & Guidelines. For graduate-level courses, you should review the Recommendations for Syllabi (Grad College) and note the Guidelines for Participation/Discussion Grades for Graduate Courses (Grad College) (note: to access Grad College resources, join their Canvas site first).

Calendars

As you set your course calendar, it will be helpful to check out the Academic Calendar (Office of the Senate) for campus holidays and breaks. You should also refer to the Final Exams (Office of the Registrar) for setting your final exam date.

You generally don’t need to include Registrar deadlines in your syllabus, but the Calendars (Office of the Registrar) will be a helpful reference for you as to when students will add/drop your course and when your midterm and final grades will be due.

Exams

For those with large class sizes, there are two main exam resources:

• For standard multiple-choice tests on paper, you can use CITL’s machine-scannable answer sheets, called “Scantron,” and have them scored and analyzed at no cost (see Exam Scoring Services (CITL) and schedule a consultation). If interested, you also have access to ATLAS’s Scantron Results app to release test results to students.
• You may want to use the Computer-Based Testing Facility (CBTF), an in-person, computer-based proctoring service, to host your exams; you should reach out as early as possible to set up and schedule your exams (see For Prospective Faculty (CBTF)). If you use CBTF, refer to Student Code Part 2 § 3-202 Outside-of-Class-Period Examinations as you add exams to your syllabus calendar.

Textbooks

Departmental orders for course materials (textbooks and supplies) are due well in advance of the semester. See Textbooks and Teaching Supplies (Provost) for deadlines and the textbook order link. Questions about book orders should be directed to Textbook Manager, Illini Union Bookstore.

We use Canvas as our campuswide learning management system. Learn more about our university’s Canvas resources on the Canvas Start Page (Tech Services). Canvas also provides great resources: Instructor Getting Started Resources (Canvas) and How do I use the Course Setup Checklist? (Canvas).

See How to request a new space (Tech Services) to get started. If you’re new to Canvas, you might start off with a “Development Space” where you can play around with tools. When you’re ready to set up your site for the semester, you will request a “Registrar-Affiliated Space”. 

There are three different units that can support you with setting up your Canvas site:

• ATLAS, the College of LAS’s technology support unit, can offer you support from their Teaching & Learning with Technology (TLT) team during their ATLAS TLT Virtual and In-Person Office Hours, or you can reach out at atlas-tlt@illinois.edu.
• For technical support, you can submit a Help Desk ticket with Technology Services at consult@illinois.edu.
• For course design support, you can reach out to the Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning (CITL) at citl-info@illinois.edu. CITL's Instructional Support Team also hosts open office hours on Zoom during the academic year (see CITL’s Calendar).

A few things to consider having ready on your site for the first day of class:

• Post your syllabus document on your Canvas site’s “Syllabus” section, which can automatically show the course grade breakdown and assignments if you wish (see How do I use the Syllabus as an instructor? (Canvas)).
• Set up the course grade breakdown by adding groups to the “Assignments” section; this will display the grade breakdown on the Syllabus and give you a place to start creating assignments (see How do I add an assignment group in a course? (Canvas) and How do I weight the final course grade? (Canvas)).
• Set your homepage, where students will land when they first access your site. New Canvas users often use the "Modules" section or the "Syllabus" page (see How do I change the Course Home Page? (Canvas)).
• Consider how you want students to navigate your site. You can decide which sections are most helpful for students to understand the course structure and hide all other sections (see How do I manage Course Navigation links? (Canvas)).
• If you decide to use the Modules (many people do), you should add the content for your first day of class (e.g., pages, files, assignments) (see How do I add course content as module items? (Canvas)). 
• Check out the Moodle Activity Hub for in-house special activity types to add functionality to your Canvas site (see Moodle Activity Hub - Available Activities (ATLAS). For example, the Moodle Attendance activity allows you to grade attendance and participation and students to view it; with the Moodle H5P activity, you can create interactive content powered by HTML5 with no coding knowledge necessary; Moodle Scheduler allows you to set up appointment slots, including for a gradeable assignment. See the Moodle Activity Hub - Quick Start Guide (ATLAS) to get started.

Your classrooms are probably already assigned, and you can find them in the course listings for your course in the Course Explorer.

Classroom technology is supported by different units depending on the room:

• General assignment classrooms are supported by Technology Services (see Technology Enhanced Classrooms, Building List).
• ATLAS supports computer classrooms (see Classrooms (ATLAS)).

Check out interactive Facility Access Maps (Facilities & Services) to see building layouts with information about accessible entries, parking, assistive listening systems, and lactation spaces.

To prepare for classroom safety, review Resources for instructors (Campus Police), which promotes a Run-Hide-Fight approach to emergency situations.

If you will drive to campus, do you know yet where you’re going to park? It’s highly recommended to purchase a parking permit because you can spend significant time looking for meter parking near your building at peak times of the day and hourly parking adds up quickly (see “New Faculty/Staff” section on Permit Types (Parking)). We also have a great bus system that is free for faculty, staff, and students (see Maps & Schedules (Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District)).

Graduate teaching assistant (TA) assignments are made by the Department Head, Executive Officer, or Director of Graduate Studies of your unit based on your teaching load and your unit’s available resources; TA appointments can vary by classroom responsibilities (teaching lecture, discussion, laboratory, or studio sections or grading) and can vary by percentage, typically 17-50% appointments (calculated on a 40-hour work week). 

Graduate student employees are automatically protected by the GEO Contract through their collective bargaining unit, the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO). As their faculty supervisor, you will be expected to adhere to this contract, so you should become familiar with the sections on Orientation and Training, Evaluations, and Hours of Work, especially.

For Campus-wide TA Orientation, new graduate teaching assistants are invited to participate in CITL’s Graduate Academy for College Teaching, which is a required 4-day pre-semester orientation (offered during pre-semester week in August and January) that introduces TAs to foundations in teaching strategies and resources. Beyond this orientation, it is your responsibility as a faculty supervisor to set clear expectations and support your TAs to be successful in their teaching responsibilities. Fall contracts usually start on August 16 each year, and you should plan to meet with them before the start of the semester to get started.

Get to know what your students look like by accessing the ATLAS Photo Roster tool. If you (or your TAs) have a smaller class, it can be helpful to print the roster to learn students’ names.

Considering the large number of international students that you are likely to have in your classes, you might be curious to check out The Name Project (International Education) and the most recent report for Illinois International Statistics (ISSS).

For those teaching large classes, you may find it helpful to use iClickers to promote student participation and assess student learning throughout your class (see iClicker (CITL)).

Once you’re ready, don’t forget to publish your Canvas site for students (see How do I publish a course? (Canvas)). 

Students and their data are federally protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, commonly known as FERPA. It is your responsibility to keep educational records, including students’ names and grades, private and secured. If you’re not familiar with this law, review this overview of FERPA (Office of the Registrar) before start of term. All new faculty should consider completing the FERPA Training (Office of the Registrar) within your first few weeks.

Security of this data includes being mindful about where you store it– you should only store student data with your Illinois NetID account in campus storage services, yet still not all of our campus cloud services are FERPA-compliant. Review Cloud-based storage solutions for campus (Tech Services) to find out which campus cloud services are “approved for storing FERPA data”.  If you use AI tools, you should also review AI Apps (Office of the CIO), which provides a list of applications/tools that are classified by data sensitivity and protection levels.  

Our campus and the College of LAS need to ensure that digital materials such as course content, data, software, and website content comply with the ADA Title II Accessibility Rules by April 2027. This is a college-wide priority for LAS. (See Introduction to the Americans with Disabilities Act if you’re not generally familiar with this law.) What this means for individual faculty members related to teaching is that the course materials that you provide to your students must be formatted in a way that is digitally accessible by the April deadline.

If “digital accessibility” is new to you or you’re overwhelmed by the vast amount of content that needs to be remediated, ATLAS offers support to faculty– such as consultation, helping to create a workflow, answering questions (see Digital Accessibility Support, ATLAS). We also have a central university Digital Accessibility website with some FAQs about Getting Started with Digital Accessibility (Chief Information Officer). 

There are multiple campus units that will be able to provide you with support:

Templates & Checklists:

• Syllabus Template; as the first point of contact for your students, it is essential that ALL COURSES have a syllabus document (or Canvas page) that is digitally accessible.
• Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL) offers great guides and checklists to Make Your Course Accessible (CITL), including Document Accessibility and LMS (Canvas) Accessibility, which are good places to start if you have some familiarity.
• Import syllabus for Canvas Page from CITL?

Learn more about digital accessibility:

• ATLAS, the College of LAS’s technology support unit, can offer you support from their Teaching & Learning with Technology (TLT) team during their LAS Digital Accessibility Virtual and In-Person Office Hours, or you can reach out at atlas-tlt@illinois.edu.
• CITL also offers regular Quick Start Workshops on accessibility with a video playlist of previously recorded sessions and a list of upcoming offerings (see Accessibility Training Opportunities (CITL)).
• Learn more about our Boldly Accessible Strategic Priorities (CIO) as a campus. If you’re ready to jump in, consider pledging your course for the Boldly Accessible Challenge (CIO) to commit to making it digitally accessible, step by step, and get on the Boldly Accessible Wall of Fame.

Note: If a student requests an accommodation for your class, you will receive a letter from the Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES); DRES’s focus is on supporting students’ accommodations, not specifically supporting the digital accessibility initiatives.

Since the widespread access of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, higher education has been greatly impacted. As an educator, you’ll need to stay informed on what tools and capabilities are available, what their benefits and limitations are, how to use them effectively, and what ethical issues are relevant to your field– and you need to form an opinion on if/how students should use AI tools in your course. Without staying informed in this way, you risk keeping your course relevant, missing important subject area knowledge for students, and perpetuating faulty assessments of student learning.

Fortunately, we have many units on campus that are working to support you in this endeavor to learn more about AI benefits and risks and integrate awareness into your teaching:

ATLAS

As a first step, we highly recommend that you consider including a syllabus policy on if/how students can use AI tools in your course. Start with our College’s AI Use Policy Guidance & Template (ATLAS), which also has a Fillable AI Use Policy Template for Course Syllabi (LAS) that you can use to develop your own policy.

CITL (Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning)

CITL’s Teaching with AI is a great reference as you set up your syllabus and plan your major assignments with Ethical Considerations for Responsible AI Use and Gen AI Support for Course Design.

Enterprise AI (Office of the CIO)

AI Apps (Enterprise AI, CIO) provides a list of applications/tools that are vetted and approved for use with university solutions and devices. There are many privacy concerns depending on the tools that you use, so faculty and students are encouraged to use education-licensed tools that have data protection (e.g., Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini with data protection are free with your Illinois NetID; Illinois ChatGPT EDU is available for subscription)  They also provide an overview of broad considerations for Best Practices in Teaching and Learning (Enterprise AI, CIO). As you’re getting started, the sections for Notify Learners of Expectations for Using Generative AI to Support Learning and Acknowledge AI Use and Cite AI-Generated Content may be particularly helpful.

University Library

AI Course Policies (University Library) provides a Canvas module called AI in This Course: a module that you can import into your own Canvas site and customize to your preference to support you in guiding your students to how you want them to use AI in your course.

If you don’t know much about AI yet in general, you might bookmark CITL’s AI Fluency Modules or consider enrolling in an Illinois Coursera course (free for Illinois faculty, staff, and students) on an Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (Coursera).

Be sure to subscribe to the LAS Educational Excellence email list to keep up with our events and resources throughout the year!

The campus Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL) also has a bi-weekly newsletter for their resources and events: Subscribe to the CITL Newsletter.