Engaging Students

Academic Council Guidance

“It is expected that non-WEB courses shall provide live engagement during the scheduled meeting times as defined by the Student Engagement Inventory for the course.”

“Live engagement can take many different forms… Whatever the mix, at least 50% of the live engagement should include planned and structured content delivery or discussion” and “instructors should be available to students during each scheduled class period.”

“Where appropriate and possible, instructors should create opportunities for student-student interaction.”

read more…

Teaching and the Election

By Laurel Bastian and Jason Schreiner Regardless of political ideology, many students, faculty, and staff in the UO community are experiencing increased levels of stress as we approach the 2020 election. Announcing a new US Crisis Monitor  project, Princeton’s Bridging Divides Initiative and the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) write, “Amid a rising tide of political...

Recent UO Survey on Academic Obstacles for Remote Learning

In June, the University of Oregon administered a SERU Survey focusing on the impact of COVID-19 on the student experience. Of surveyed undergraduates, we received 3,859 responses (22.8%). The survey highlights the differential impact of COVID-19 on students' experiences and their ability to adapt to remote instruction. Some students are adapting well while others are facing obstacles that make...

Connecting Students to Support

I have an academic concern about a student. Academic Advising is the first stop for a non-crisis referral—say, students don’t show up or login during the first week of class and are unresponsive to your outreach, or are not submitting work, or grades are dropping, etc. Use this form to request that an academic advisor reach out to the student [https://advising.uoregon.edu/facultystaff-resources]...

Reaching Out – Student Mental Health

Building a community of care for our UO students means every individual on campus has an important role in supporting the mental health and well-being of our students. For faculty, their role can often be a pivotal one in being one of the first on campus to recognize when a student is struggling and getting students the support they need. While some faculty may be cautious to provide such...

Making Flexible, Supportive End-of-Term Allowances in Canvas

by Pat Fellows Faculty may be considering how to enact end-of-term flexibility for students in keeping with Academic Council’s June 4, 2020 advice. UO Online and TEP are available to help you consider how to communicate changes to students and technically make allowances within Canvas.  Submit a support request here. Here are some suggestions: When students are excused from an assignment, enter...

Closing Class Amid National Rage, Sorrow

by Jason Schreiner and Lee Rumbarger In a recent TEP/UO Online workshop about closing this extraordinary term, taught at a distance during a pandemic, we discussed ways to bring into focus what students learned—especially the resilience they demonstrated and the urgency of their new knowledge and skills for building a different, better world. Now, with the May 25 killing of George Floyd in...

Call for Letters of Interest: Career Readiness CAIT

TEP, the UO Career Center, and the College of Arts and Sciences invite faculty from across UO’s schools and colleges to consider joining a new, stipended learning and leadership community about integrating career readiness skills into courses and curricula.  The National Association of Colleges and Employers identifies key career readiness skills that resonate across UO’s Core Education and...

Supporting Students’ Wellbeing

(Watch a recording of the TEP/UOOnline Workshop with the UO Counseling Center on Supporting Students' Wellbeing.) Working and taking classes remotely is imposing new stresses on everyone in the University of Oregon community. To name just a few, we may be having difficulty dividing “work” from “home” time, we miss in-person interactions with our co-workers and students, and the overall...

Spotlight on Creative Instruction: Teaching through Crisis (Part Two)

by Yvonne Braun and Natascha Reich The global pandemic that has driven the need for remote instruction creates or amplifies stresses and challenges during this extraordinary time. Teaching and learning through this crisis requires, more than ever, that we consider practices that demonstrate care for our students’ wellbeing and recognize how the challenges of the moment may affect the student...

Marking the Midpoint

With half of UO's remote spring behind us, now is the perfect time to take stock of the class and to clarify, even shift expectations, which Academic Council gives instructors wide latitude to do in its emergency guidance. Ways to "Mark the Midpoint" include: I. Talking about student survey results with the class  TEP often says that the best thing about a midway student survey is the class...