Teaching Information for Faculty & Staff
Faculty Course Questionnaires
Faculty Course Questionnaires (FCQs) are the campus wide evaluation tool for Faculty. FCQs are administered during the second to last week of class. By default, FCQ’s are administered online through an e-mail link automatically sent to students. FCQ’s are one of several factors used in evaluating faculty, but are taken seriously. The CTD Program expects that all instructors receive above a 4.0 for “Course Overall” and “Instructor Overall” ratings.
You can view past FCQ results.
Recommended Practices for improving FCQ scores
Include a list of course objectives in your syllabus and go over these objectives the first day of class. Before administering the FCQ’s, review the course objectives so that the students can assess how well those goals were achieved. This practice can help to keep the evaluations objective.
Administer mid-term evaluations. These can be administered online using the free CU Survey System (this requires an Identikey account) or in paper format. These evaluations can include the traditional FCQ questions and additional questions that may be of benefit to you as the instructor. Reviewing the results with the class promotes transparency and can provide the opportunity to make improvements to the course. This also provides the instructor with the opportunity to explain the rationale behind course policies and practices.
Grading in creative disciplines can be difficult, and students often assume that grading is subjective. Do you very best to develop a structure and rubric that reflects a systematic and fair approach to grading and share this with your students early in the semester. For major projects, we encourage instructors to provide each student with at least a paragraph of explanation regarding the given grade, with specific deductions included (e.g. -1 for technical issues, -.5 for lack of concept, etc.). Encourage students to come speak with you if they are ever unclear about the rationale behind their grade.
Media Cabinet Access
If you need access to a Media Cabinet in your classroom, contact the ATLAS front desk: cuatlas@Colorado.edu
Faculty are required to use their Colorado.edu e-mail address for course and student correspondence. To manage student expectations, faculty are encourage to state in their syllabi a goal to respond to all e-mails within 24 hours during the weekdays and 48 hours on the weekend.
Course Rosters
Rosters for your courses are available under the teaching tab on myCuInfo.
Attendance Policy
Students are given three absences* after which their final grade will be reduced by 5% for each additional absence. Significant or repeated lateness may also be treated as an absence.
*All absences count toward the total (e.g. minor illnesses and injuries, oversleeping, vacations, job interviews, ski days, family obligations and situations, etc.) so it isn’t wise to use them all at the start of the semester. Exceptions will be made for religious holidays, severe illnesses and prolonged family emergencies.
Participation
Students are expected to attend class and participate. Avoid devoting a portion of a student's final grade to “participation.” Participation grades tend to be subjective, are difficult to measure and favor certain personality types (extroverts vs. introverts). If there are specific participatory aspects to your course that you would like to account for in the grading structure, please describe them in detail along with tangible forms of evaluation and measurement.