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This site will provide you with answers to a
few important questions about teaching that new faculty often
have during the early months of their careers at UMass Amherst.
These include:
What resources on campus can help me
develop as a teacher?
The Center for Teaching
(“CFT”)
UMass Amherst is committed to supporting its
new faculty in their teaching, whether in the classroom or as
one-on-one advisors. We are fortunate to have an award-winning
Center for Teaching that provides resources, workshops and
consultations on all aspects of teaching.
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As a new instructor on campus, you’ll
receive an invitation from the CFT early in the fall semester
to participate in the
Midterm Assessment Process
(“MAP”) . This service will help you collect and review
student feedback on your course while the course is still in
progress. The MAP service is voluntary, confidential, and
formative (rather than evaluative).
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For guidance on such issues as managing
your role as an instructor, creating inclusive classrooms,
course design and preparation, approaches to teaching, and
grading and evaluation, we encourage you to review the
CFT’s Handbook for New Instructors.
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The Center for Teaching also offers the
Lilly Teaching
Fellowship, a competitive award program established in 1986
that enables promising junior faculty to cultivate teaching
excellence in a special year-long collaboration. Each year,
eight to ten teaching fellows are selected to work closely
with the CFT on individual projects which typically involve
developing or redesigning a course. The Fellows' home
departments receive stipends to defray the costs of release
time for one course equivalent each semester.
The
Office of Academic Planning and
Assessment (“OAPA”) offers an end-of-semester
student evaluation of teaching form,
Student Response to Instruction
(“SRTI”), which is used by most departments. Instructions
for administering and interpreting SRTI results are available
on-line. What resources
are available on campus to help my students with their learning?
The
Faculty Guide from the Provost’s Office
contains detailed information on all learning support services
on campus. Two areas, in particular, that support a large number
of students are:
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The Learning Resource Center
provides peer tutoring in both study skills and academic
subjects.
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The Learning Commons
is a space on the lower level of the W.E.B Du Bois Main
Library that brings together academic, technology, and library
support.
If I want to use
multimedia in my teaching, what resources exist across
campus?
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Instructional technology services
are provided by several units on campus, including the
following units that may be of immediate interest to new
faculty.
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Academic Computing
offers a variety of resources, including:
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Academic Course Web Sites. Many faculty
use web sites to complement their in-class teaching. UMass
Amherst supplies the SPARK interface for this purpose.
Information on building your course
website with SPARK is available
online.
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Instructional Media Lab.
The lab provides consultants who will help you
utilize web technologies in your teaching, including
scanning pictures/slides, using image files, and creating
PDF files.
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Faculty Video Lab.
This facility gives access to and training with video
editing software and hardware, which is useful for faculty
who want to put video on the web or on DVD’s.
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Information
on the instructional technology available in classrooms across
campus can be found online. In addition, there
are 11 computer classrooms. You can reserve one of these
classrooms for a single session or a semester. Classrooms get
filled far in advance, so make your
reservations
early.
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Academic Media Instructional Services
(“AIMS”) allows you to select, schedule, or use films,
videotapes and instructional equipment in your classroom.
Available equipment includes: data projectors, 16 mm and 8 mm
projectors, 35 mm slide projectors, projection screens, tape
recorders, record players, VHS players, extension cords, films
and videotapes on a wide variety of subjects. Preview/reserve
a week ahead of time.
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The Personal Response System (“PRS”) is an
audience response system that allows you to electronically
test, poll, and survey students in your class.
Information on using the Personal
Response System is available online.
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UMass Amherst also provides an
Online Web-based Learning homework
system (“OWL”).
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Both the
Center for Teaching
and
Academic Computing
through the
Office of Information Technology
offer workshops and one-on-one consulting to support your
instructional technology needs.
How do I manage my
course(s), e.g. roster, schedules, grades, etc.?
The SPIRE system allows you to undertake all
of the activities related to managing your courses each
semester. You will receive a SPIRE login through your
department. If you do not, you can generate a SPIRE login by
using the “Forgot My Password” function on the
SPIRE logon page.
There is also a useful
SPIRE help guide for instructors.
SPIRE allows you to:
How do I put course material on
reserve?
You can take advantage of either of the two
systems below for reserving reference materials for your
students:
How and when can I put together a course
pack for my class?
The University’s Textbook Annex, CopyCat
Print Shop, and Collective Copies provide course pack
reproduction services. In order to have your pack ready in a
timely manner, the Textbook Annex suggests that you allow 4-9
weeks to ensure full copyright approval and sufficient copy
time. CopyCat and Collective Copies suggest that you allow a
minimum of 3 weeks. Submit 1) a printed, single-sided copy of
your course material and 2) a complete bibliography including
the name, title, publisher, date of publication, and page
numbers to obtain copyright approval (the copy center will do
this for you). You may also be asked to sign an indemnification
form to assume responsibility for reproducing non-copyrighted
material.
Copyright fees are determined by the
publisher, and the copyright charge is included in the total
price of the course pack. When considering which material to
include in your pack, keep in mind that copyright approval
typically will not be given if you plan to copy more than 15% of
a source. In some cases, publishers rarely allow reproduction of
a certain text and/or charge a prohibitively high copyright fee.
Contact information for each service
provider is listed below.
Collective Copies
71 South Pleasant
St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Phone:
413-256-6425
CopyCat Print Shop
37 E. Pleasant St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Phone: 413-549-2854
University of Massachusetts Textbook Annex
360 Campus Center Way
Amherst, MA 01003
Tel: (413) 545-3570
How do I establish a text
for my course? What are the best book stores?
In order to establish a text for your
course, submit the title, author, publisher and edition to one
of the bookstores below as soon as possible to avoid a book
shortage. Requests made at least one month prior to the
beginning of classes allow the bookstore to acquire more used
copies. Typically, book stores are able to acquire free or
loaned copies for the Professor, TAs, and to place on reserve.
These are sent directly to you.
In choosing where to order your texts, it’s
important to seek out the advice of colleagues in your
department who teach classes at a similar level (i.e., graduate
or undergraduate) and find out where they make their
arrangements. “Culturally speaking,” graduate students may not
be accustomed to purchasing texts from a particular location,
while undergrads may not be accustomed to another.
Contact information for local (on and
off-campus) bookstores is listed below.
Amherst Books
8 Main Street
Amherst, MA 01002
Tel: 413.256.1547
Tel: 800.503.5865
Food For Thought Books
106 N.Pleasant Street
Amherst, MA 01002
Tel: 413-253-5432
Jeffery Amherst College Store
26 South Prospect Street
Amherst, MA 01002
Tel: (413) 253-3870
University of Massachusetts Textbook
Annex*
360 Campus Center Way
Amherst, MA 01003
Tel: (413) 545-3570
*Also submit course number and ISBN code
What is the University’s policy on
academic dishonesty? What are my options if I suspect a student
has cheated?
If you suspect a student of academic
dishonesty, contact the
University Ombuds Office
at 545-0867 and request a copy of the pamphlet entitled,
“What to Do If You Suspect Academic Dishonesty: A Guide for
Faculty and Instructors.”
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