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Instructional Resources for Faculty & Lecturers

Annual Course Offerings (Annual Build)

Each academic year during Fall Quarter (October-December), the department staff and faculty will work together to create the Annual Build. The Annual Build outlines the full course offerings for the next academic year and takes into consideration: faculty teaching preferences, curriculum needs, diversity of faculty/offerings, sabbatical/leave requests and faculty course loads. The general process:

  • faculty are prompted to submit their teaching preferences via Google Forms based on their teaching load for the upcoming academic year
  • department staff compile this and provide to faculty leadership
  • graduate courses and then undergradaute courses are staffed
  • visiting instructors are hired as needed

The current annual build for each academic year is posted online here for anyone to review once finalized. The upcoming Annual Build is kept internal to the department until finalized but can be provided by Katara Conroy to faculty upon request.

Questions? Here is who you should contact:

General Process: Katara Conroy, vis-grad@ucsd.edu 

Sabbatical Credits: Ashley Neal, vis-ap@ucsd.edu 

Course Finals

Per Academic Senate, courses that have a final time assigned DURING finals week cannot make a final assigned due prior to that date. Many of our courses do not have formal final times assigned. Typically this means that the final assignment will be presented/submitted during the final course meeting (Week 10) or submitted electronically prior to the end of the quarter (Week 10 or Finals Week). If you do not have an official final time scheduled then you CANNOT require that students attend a final/screening that is outside of class time.

Other final considerations:

  1. Religious Accommodations: It is the policy of the University to make reasonable efforts to accommodate students having bona fide religious conflicts with scheduled examinations by providing alternative times or methods to take such examinations. 

  2. Make-up Exams: allowing make-up exams is at the discretion of the faculty but must be fairly upheld. Supervising the exam is the instructor's responsibility (or the TA/Reader as applicable and within workload). The department can provide a classroom depending on availability.

  3. Grading: student grades should not be posted for other students to see. This includes setting papers or projects out for student pick-up that have the grade posted.

Course Financial Support

Effective for Academic Year 2023-24:

There are two types of course financial support: 1. courses that collect course material fees from students and 2. courses without specific funding support. 

  1. Courses that collect course material fees: These courses will charge all enrolled students a specific amount to take the course. This funding comes to the department and is used by department staff and/or the instructor of record to purchase what is necessary for the course. The final amount is based on week 3 enrollments and will not be confirmed until Week 4. At this point the CAO will reach out with information and instructions for spending. All purchases must be preapproved via the Reimbursement and Purchasing Request form on the Visual Arts website. No course material fees will be collected from students for courses that are meeting remotely.
  2. Courses that do not collect course material fees from their enrolled students may request up to $250 per undergradaute course. To request funds for materials, models, or other instructional expenses related to the undergraduate course(s) you are teaching, please submit for pre-approval via the  Reimbursement and Purchasing Request form on the Visual Arts website. Retroactive requests are not considered.

Grades

Grade Submissions

Grades are submitted via eGrades, a web based application that allows instructors to submit final grades for the students in their courses. View a full tutorial on submitting eGrades.

Incompletes

Students who experience an extenuating circumstance impacting their academic progress at the end of the quarter, and as a result are unable to complete their final coursework, may request an Incomplete to extend the completion of their final work by one quarter. Eligibility requirements to receive an Incomplete:

  • Student grade must be of passing quality at the time of the request (incompletes are not to allow an underperforming student additional time to catch-up)
  • Student must be experiencing a circumstance beyond their control that is preventing them from completing the course (requests early in the quarter do not qualify as the student has other options available to them via academic advising)
If awarding an incomplete, notify Katara Conroy at vis-ug@ucsd.edu and communicate clearly to the student the work remaining and set a clear deadline for the work to be completed. It is recommended that the deadline allows the student additional time needed but is not delayed more than necessary as many incompletes go unresolved and lapse into permanent F's automatically. Setting an achievable deadline allows the student the additional time needed but without allowing it to be forgotten about.

 

Grade Changes

  • All grades assigned except "I"(Incomplete) and "IP" (In-Progress) are considered final unless a submission error occurred.
  • No grade may be changed after one calendar year from the time the grade was recorded.
  • Students should not be permitted to alter or resubmit work after the quarter and posting of their final grade

Grade Appeals

Students have the ability to appeal their grades if they have concerns. There are two forms of appeals: those based on discrimination and those based on content disputes.

For students who think/have been discriminated, they will work with Katara Conroy to discuss their situation and follow steps provided to appeal. These appeals will be reviewed by the Department Chair, College Provost and Academic Senate.

The most common appeals from students are those that are related to content disputes. These are often when a student feels that their work deserved a higher grade, that there was a grading error made, concerns regarding the TA grading, etc. These students may appeal and ask that their work is reevaluated by the instructor. For students who had their grade originally assessed by the TA, they are reminded that this means a full reevaluation by the instructor and could result in: the grade being increased, decreased or no change.

The best way to avoid grade appeals is to post grade updates during the quarter so students are aware of their progress and to specifically reach out to students via email who have low/non-passing grades

Major/Minor Lists

Faculty can pull undergradaute Major/Minor data to use for emailing, promotion of courses, events, etc. 

Majors-

go to blink.ucsd.edu

hover over 'Faculty & Instruction'

select 'Instruction Tools'

select 'Majors list'

select desired: quarter, major lists*, all colleges, all class levels

*major lists for undergrad are: VA26- Art History, VA27- Media, VA28- Studio, VA29- ICAM, VA30- Speculative Design. DO NOT go off title alone, be sure to use the exact codes provided above.

Minors-

go to blink.ucsd.edu

hover over 'Faculty & Instruction'

select 'Instruction Tools'

select 'Minors list'

select desired: quarter, minor lists*, all colleges, all class levels

*minor lists for undergrad are: M054- Photography, M071- Digital/Film Production, M072- History of Film/Video, VA26- Art History, VA28- Studio, VA29- ICAM, VA30- Speculative Design. DO NOT go off title alone, be sure to use the exact codes provided above.

Quarterly Teaching Schedule

For future quarterly scheduling, Katara Conroy creates the department quarterly schedule that is submitted to the Registrar's Office. The quarterly teaching schedule takes into consideration: faculty teaching preferences, graduate employment needs, course conflicts, enrollment needs, Department/Campus scheduling blocks and Campus scheduling policies/timelines.
Trouble using ISA?
  • system works best using a Desktop or Laptop with high operative capacity (not mobile friendly)
  • need to use Firefox or Chrome as other browsers have not been extensively tested with this system
  • most fields require a minimum number of submissions, if you dont meet this minimum you will receive error messages

Rosters

Faculty can access their class rosters via Canvas or Blink. Canvas is easier to navigate and can allow TA's to access their rosters. Blink has more options for viewing the roster, including options to view the waitlist and see student photos.

Canvas-

Log in to canvas.ucsd.edu

select 'People'

can see a list of students enrolled and contact information

Blink-

go to blink.ucsd.edu

hover over 'Faculty & Instruction'

select 'Instruction Tools'

select 'classlist'

select: quarter, subject code Visual Arts, enter course number

Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities may be granted a variety of accommodations that the University is required by law to provide. These accommodations will be outlined via email by the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) and have been assigned based on significant medical documentation and in connection with a staff disability specialist. The most frequent requests include: classroom accommodations and exam accommodations. Please review each student's accommodations very closely and determine if these are appropriate and achievable. If there are concerns, reach out to Katara Conroy immediately at vis-ug@ucsd.edu. We are required to provide accommodations as long as they do not fundamentally alter the course. Because the accommodations are generic and not created for our discipline, sometimes these would fundamentaly alter the course and therefore cannot be met within an arts/art history curriculum.

Syllabi

A PDF copy of your syllabus must be sent to visualarts@ucsd.edu at the start of each quarter. This will be maintained in the department archive and is a requirement of Academic Senate. Past syllabi are also used in faculty files, merit increases and to help guide new/visiting faculty so that curriculum content is maintained across instructors.

It is strongly recommended to include policies regarding: grading, course expectations, attendance/participation, examinations/evaluations, make-ups, assignment due dates, OSD and academic integrity.

Technology

Educational Technology Services

Educational Technology Services (ETS), provides tools, services and facilities to help manage and/or enhance your courses.

  • Canvas - provide content to students, track grades, access rosters, connect TAs to students, etc
  • Zoom - teach remotely via video, give presentations, meetings
  • Turnitin - software for checking the originality of written assignments
  • Classroom Details - find information regarding every classroom and lecture hall (technology, media, seating capacity, lighting, and more)
  • Podcasting - audio and video podcast services to record your lectures in campus lecture halls
  • Computer labs and software - access to campus labs with licenses for lots of popular software
  • Video production assistance - contact the Media Teaching Lab to coordinate video production resources for your course
  • Virtual Computing Labs - access to specialty software from a personal computer, tablet, or smartphone
  • Ed Tech - Instructional Technology Support for UCSD Faculty (Canvas, Zoom, Podcasts, etc.)
  • CINFO - Instructional Technology Request for Computer Labs (please submit before each quarter you are teaching)
  • The Learning and Teaching Commons - Instructional Development for Educators and Student Academic Support

Textbooks

Textbook Orders

If textbooks will be required for students, you will notify the bookstore of this directly using VERBA. The bookstore staff will make copies available on campus for student purchase and will post the required texts online for students who want to order from another source.

Course Book Loans - TAs/Readers

If you are requiring textbooks and have TAs/Readers, please send notification to vis-ug@ucsd.edu so that department staff can be sure we have copies available to them.These books are strictly on loan and students will be asked to return the books at the end of the quarter.

Library Course Reserves

Course-related materials can be made available for students through the UCSD Libraries. Place items "on reserve" for a class such as: textbooks, journal articles, videos, book chapters, practice exams etc.