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Semester Cycle

UTTC Course Cycle

START OF SEMESTER

DURING THE SEMESTER

END OF SEMESTER

USING UTTC SERVICES

UTTC Course Cycle

START OF SEMESTER

Getting Started Communications
UTTC sends several types of communication to faculty members and students at the start of each semester. These have important information about preparing for online courses. Communications with faculty members include information about managing their UTTC account and email notifications of the opening of course evaluations. Students receive a postcard by mail that directs them to a Getting Started website. They receive three emails: one week before class start, the first day of class, and one week after class start. Student emails include links to the Get Started website, information on course login, a reminder of fee bills, how to find course materials/booklists, using services, and how to get help.

Configuration/Browser Checker
Make sure that your browser is configured correctly and that your computer and browser meet the minimum requirements to run Blackboard without trouble. You may notice changes with the performance of Blackboard when you purchase a new computer or when UTTC upgrades its installation (system requirements may change due to a change in the version of Blackboard). To check your browser and computer configuration, go to the technical Information area of the UTTC website. Then go to Computer Setup and follow all of the steps in order. Please contact our 24/7 Help Desk at 866-321-2988 for assistance.

Bookstores
UTTC provides links and telephone numbers to each UT campus bookstore. You do not have to report your required books and materials to UTTC. Students can look up course materials and textbook information by linking directly to the host campus bookstores through UTTC's website.

Student Access
A student’s access or withdrawal from UTTC courses in Blackboard (Bb) is based on the first day of class at the campus at which they are enrolled and their enrollment status in the TeleCampus Information System (TIS). Several times per day, the UT campuses send updated electronic rosters to the TIS with enrollment information, and every hour the TIS sends a file to Blackboard. Students can access their course in Blackboard at midnight the day the course begins (based on the campus calendar). If they have not been enrolled through UTTC previously, they cannot login to Blackboard until their course access begins. Students access courses in Blackboard using their UTTC login credentials, which they manage themselves in the TIS. Students and faculty members may contact the Help Desk at 866-321-2988 for login assistance.

Early Student Access
If you would like students to have early access to your course, please send an email UTTC. Early access should be no more than one week before the official start date. A request for early access can only be granted if the course has gone through final technical checks by UTTC’s Course Development. Because of the complexity of communicating with students at all UT System campuses, the schedule for sending out semester start emails cannot be adjusted for students who have early access to their course.

TA and Guest Access
Upon instructor request, teaching assistants and guests can be provided access to courses in Blackboard. Teaching assistants have access to the course control panel in Blackboard and their accounts allow them access to the same features as a faculty account, including the discussion board, the ability to create and manage groups, the grade book, and course tools. Guest users are given access to a course with the role of student, unless faculty access is requested by the instructor. It is important to remember that the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) laws apply to UTTC courses and faculty access for guests should be requested with the utmost consideration of students’ privacy. Requests for teaching assistants or guests should be emailed to UTTC’s Student and Faculty Services. Please include the TA or guest’s first name, last name and email address in your request. Guests will be given student access to courses, unless a different course role is requested by the instructor of the course.

Read the Blackboard Portal Frequently
UTTC uses the portal to communicate with students, faculty members and staff during the semester about important topics such as registration dates, service availability, outage announcements, and important reminders. To stay current with information please review the faculty announcements section of the portal each time you login. You also have access to the student portal. Feel free to check out what information is being posted for students.

Course Edits
As UTTC’s Course Development completes the final reviews of the current semester’s courses, soon thereafter they will begin copying courses for the next offering of your course. You may notice a new version of your course appearing in the “Courses” box in the faculty portal. The title should be updated so that you can easily tell the difference between the current and future offering of your course. When it comes time to make updates, pay close attention to the title to be sure that you are not updating the current course.

Manage Your Course List
Previous courses will continue to be included on your list of courses in the Blackboard portal until they are archived one year after being offered. If you’d like to manage the list of courses that appear in your list of courses you may do so by clicking on the pencil icon on the top of the “Courses” portal box. Deselect the “display course name” and “display announcements” boxes and “submit” the change. Any time you’d like to access a course you have removed from your portal view, return to this area of the portal and add a course back into the course listing.

Course Developers
While your courses are being developed, campus staff are given access to with a role of instructor. After final checks have been completed (immediately before the beginning of the semester) the role of these users is changed to course developer to limit access to the Gradebook and the discussion board to comply with FERPA regulations. If you need assistance from the campus course developer that would require them to have temporary access to your course, simply email UTTC to make that request.

DURING THE SEMESTER

Students Adding and Dropping Courses
During regular registration and the add-drop period, students may continually add registration requests in the TeleCampus Information System (TIS) unless a class is full. In order to request registration in a course that is closed, a student must have approval from both the instructor and the registrar’s office and then email Student & Faculty Services staff at the TeleCampus to submit a registration request.

If a student’s course request has not been approved at the host campus and wishes to drop it, he or she may delete the request in the TIS. However, at any time after final approval by the host campus or during a semester, a student must contact the host campus registration liaison to drop a course. (It is not possible to drop a course through the TIS.) Students should refer to the academic calendar at the host campus for important information regarding the dates and deadlines for drops and withdrawals, and how they might affect a student’s academic record or refund.

End of Semester

Grades and Transcripts
When course grades are posted in the campus student information system, students can see a copy of their grade in the TeleCampus Information System (TIS). Once grades are posted in the TIS, students will automatically lose course access in Blackboard. Students taking courses at campuses other than their home campus are not required to have their transcripts forwarded. The registrar’s office at the host campus will send students’ transcripts to their home campuses automatically within 30 days of the grade being posted in the campus’s student information system.

Archiving Student Materials
UTTC courses in Blackboard must be periodically removed to free-up server space. This also reduces the number of courses that users (UTTC staff, instructors and course developers) have to navigate to perform routine activities in Blackboard. However, the content of the courses, including the course instance-specific data (student grades, communications, etc.) must be able to be retrieved at the request of an appropriate party. Based on a Pennsylvania State University research study, UTTC has set a policy that requires archiving at the end of one year plus one semester for all academic Blackboard courses. If you need access to a course that has been archived, please send an email request with the course code and number, the semester, and why the course needs to be retrieved from the archives.

Incompletes
If you have students who received an incomplete last semester, you will need to request extended course access for these students. You will have the choice of leaving them in the course in which they were enrolled or, (depending on the work that needs to be completed) you may request that they be placed in the current offering of your course. Please email UTTC with the course code and number, the version you’d like them in, the student’s name, and the date that UTTC should remove the student from the course.

USING UTTC SERVICES

Faculty Member Survey
At the end of every fall and spring semester, UTTC asks faculty members to complete a short survey. This anonymous survey includes questions on support, training, technology and other related areas and is made available for two weeks at the end of every spring semester. Faculty will receive email notification when the survey is available with directions on how to complete.

Student Surveys
In October of each fall semester, UTTC asks enrolled students to complete an anonymous survey by logging in to the TeleCampus Information System (TIS). This survey seeks feedback on a student’s online experience with the TeleCampus and the services it provides.

Course Evaluations
Course evaluations are made available to students through the TeleCampus Information System (TIS) for two weeks at the end of each semester (one week for short summer sessions) to provide feedback to faculty members and campus administrators. The purpose of the UT TeleCampus Online Evaluation System is to make it easier for institutions, faculty members to gather information needed to evaluate instruction and improve services. Students and faculty members are notified by email when evaluations open and close by UT campus. Faculty members can track the percentage of return from students. Results are downloaded and made available through a campus administrator. The contact information for each campus administrator is sent out to all faculty at the end of the semester.

24x7 Help Desk
The TeleCampus toll-free Help Desk provides immediate support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year at 1-866-321-2988. Students, faculty members, and campus staff can get immediate assistance for login inquiries, computer requirements, browser configurations, and technical support. If the help desk is unable to assist with an issue, they will notify UTTC for follow up.

Wimba Classroom
Wimba Classroom is a Blackboard interactivity tool that incorporates audio and/or video, text chat, content presentation (supported formats include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, HTML, web pages, images, movie clips, Flash and more), whiteboard, polls, application sharing, and archival sessions. This tool can be used for synchronous discussion, presentations, office hours, guest lectures and webcasts. A faculty presenter guide and student participation guide is available.

UTTC faculty members and students can have two-way communications via audio, video, or text chat; or, faculty members can speak and students can respond via chat. Link to a quick demo and review a list of recommended equipment.

SafeAssign
SafeAssign is a Blackboard plagiarism detection service made available to students by faculty members. The TeleCampus encourages faculty members to use this tool as a mechanism to help students improve writing skills and increase awareness of intellectual property and plagiarism issues. Faculty members can use SafeAssign in the grading of papers and may require students to use SafeAssign when submitting an assignment. Once a paper is submitted within a course, it will automatically be scanned to check for plagiarism. Go here for information on how to interpret reports and scores.

Library
The UTTC Digital Library supports students and faculty members through remote access to more than 60 electronic database and resources including over 25,000 unique title full-text electronic journals and nearly 55,000 ebooks. The UTTC Librarian provides reference and research assistance, issues TexShare cards for borrowing privileges at participating academic and public libraries in Texas, and offers a document delivery service with return postage prepaid for materials not available online.

More importantly to faculty members designing their course, UTTC recognizes the value of integrating library resources into online courses, and can work with faculty members to position resources and assistance within courses for just-in-time availability to students. The Ask-A-UT System-Librarian Chat Service is available Sunday from 6 p.m. until midnight, from noon until midnight Monday through Thursday, and Friday from noon until 6 p.m. Central Time. Additionally, the UTTC Library offers information on how to contact librarians at the campuses to which students are enrolled for assistance with available campus resources. Contact the UTTC librarian during business hours.

Assignment Calculator
The Assignment Calculator is a web-based tool that assembles many of the resources available to students to aid them in performing research and writing papers into a logical order in which them might need them as they complete an assignment. Students are prompted to enter the date by which their assignment is due, and the calculator offers a suggested timeline by which they should complete each step.

Instructional Resources Organization (IRO)
The Instructional Resources organization, found in the faculty portal in Bb, is a resource for faculty and staff members that provide an introduction to some of the many instructional support services offered by the UT TeleCampus. The purpose of this organization is to provide a centralized space within Blackboard for faculty and staff member to access information about UTTC's instructional support services. Some of the resources/services described in the IRO are for your students to use; others are for course integration. These services are available for you to use/offer to your students in a just-in-time fashion with no additional cost to your students.

This Blackboard organization is also a place for faculty community discussion where you may share ideas, experiences, and lessons learned in online teaching. Add another sentence here encouraging participation.

Learning Resources Organization
Available to all currently enrolled UTTC students in the Student Portal in Blackboard, the Learning Resources (LRO) organization provides an introduction to college-level learning focusing on areas in which many students often need to build skills, such as study methods, time management, and communication. The modules help students prepare for the work that lie ahead of them, both academically and on the job.

Featuring a variety of content developed by the UT TeleCampus and by external sources, the learning resources found here are available to UTTC students for independent study and self-improvement, or they may be assigned as a part of coursework and can greatly enrich the learning experience.

For information on how to login to the LRO, click on the Learning Resources link in the Instructional Resources Organization. There you will find the login information to access the organization.