Fall 2020 academic planning updates

Launch of Website for the new Center for Teaching Excellence
On Friday, Aug. 14, the website for the new UIC Center for Teaching Excellence will launch, under the guidance of Dr. Erin O’Leary, the executive director.

Fall 2020 Online Assessment Report
The Provost’s Fall 2020 Academic Planning Task Force commissioned an ad hoc committee to draft a report with guidelines for faculty and departments to consider in supporting effective, rigorous and equitable online assessment of student learning. The report is available here. It will also be available on the new website of the Center for Teaching Excellence. 

Fall 2020 Syllabus Information for On-campus, Synchronous & Asynchronous Classes
Last week, this column included some suggested syllabus language for on-campus and online classes. By the end of the week, more resources and proposed syllabus language for on-campus, synchronous and asynchronous classes will be available on the new website of the Center for Teaching Excellence. 

Spring 2021 Classes
We have begun the planning process for the 2021 spring semester. Anticipating that Chicago will not yet be in Phase 5 of the Restore Illinois Plan at that time, we will again designate as online all classes with 50 or more students enrolled. Faculty will decide whether to teach their online classes synchronously or asynchronously. We are hoping to be able to offer the same or similar resources to faculty teaching asynchronous classes for the first time in spring 2021 as we did for faculty teaching in fall 2020. Faculty who want to take advantage of these resources, including the ION course and assignment of a GA course builder to assist with the technical aspects of building an asynchronous course, will have to make the decision to teach asynchronously by Oct. 1, 2020.

Fall Teaching Resources for Online Classes
This is a reminder that many resources for online teaching, FAQs, faculty mentors, and other information about fall planning, are available at https://provost.uic.edu/faculty-instruction-resources-fall-2020-2/ and https://accc.uic.edu/news-stories/your-guide-to-online-teaching-learning/

REMINDER: All faculty who are teaching on-campus this fall must have a well-developed plan for pivoting to fully online teaching in the event that the university must cease teaching on campus.