Section 2: Syllabus

Rationale: Course objectives and competencies communicate what a student can expect to gain from a course; it is therefore important to them they understand these expected gains beforehand. The benefits of TIL have been discussed in the Expanded Explanations of Section 1.2.

Rationale: Student success in the classroom depends on their ability to participate in course lessons. Necessary materials and tools must be communicated to students prior to the scheduled class period to give them sufficient time to acquire or experience them as necessary. The benefits of TIL have been discussed in the Expanded Explanations of Section 1.2.

Instructional materials: Instructors must make clear whether the materials or tools will be used online, face-to-face, or for both sections.

1. If optional instructional materials are provided and their use is recommended in the course, the materials are labeled as optional. Their relevance to learning activities must still be explained.
2. Examples of materials: Textbooks, Open Educational Resources, publisher- or instructor-created materials, slide presentations and interactive content (such as simulations), expert lectures, videos, images, diagrams, and websites.

Rationale: Student services are essential to student success. Providing clear access to the services is often a requirement from the department, university, or even local and federal laws. Students connected to the right support services are more likely to succeed in their courses, increasing retention and graduation rates [SOURCE].

Reminder: The purpose of pointing out these services to students is to give them access as needed, not to review their adequacy.

Possible services to list: Academic support services, technical support for learners (e.g. Helpdesk, IT, eLearning), links to tutorials for classroom tools, Disability services office, Access to library resources, links to online orientations or demo courses.

Rationale: Students online need to be careful with the online identities, and FERPA compliance means that we need to be secure when transmitting sensitive information about students. Although it may sound strange to say, plagiarism is a violation of student data protection and privacy. When a student submits an assignment, they have a reasonable expectation that that assignment, and their association with it, won’t be duplicated or shared unless otherwise specified.

Helpful tips: While the LMS (for MSUB that’s D2L) provides ample data security and privacy with its built-in features, instructors can bypass these securities, intentionally or not. For this reason, there are some recommended practices instructors follow.

1. All official communication which might touch upon FERPA-related material including grades, assignment submissions, and otherwise must happen through university-sanctioned programs and technologies. This means using official university email addresses, not personal ones, as a bare-minimum expectation outside the LMS.
2. If students are required to register for websites or services outside of the university which are not integrated into the LMS, they should be linked to that service’s specific privacy policies, and offered alternatives if the service’s policies are not reasonably sufficient in protecting their data.
   1. Integrated services are already monitored and approved by the university for their compliance with existing student privacy and data protection. These are services which have unique appearance and usage inside the LMS, or are connected to the LMS through specific registrations. Some examples of possible integrations include Pearson, McGraw-Hill, and Panopto.
3. Contact eLearning or IT if you would like to use a new tool or service in your course which requires registration.

Plagiarism Detection: Most universities subscribe to some form of automatic plagiarism detector (e.g. TurnItIn). While these services are helpful, and can quickly help an instructor identify potential problems, the word “potential” must be kept in mind. A high percentage match might, for example, occur because of an accidental submission in another course, or because of a “draft check” folder in the same course if not set up properly.