Students should either call you Dr. (if earned doctorate) or Prof. (if not). This is of course is not a rule, but early career faculty sometimes regret being on a first name basis with students when matters of academic dishonesty come up, for example. The formality can aid in establishing a professional boundary.
Two weeks should be a reasonable turnaround time for an assignment in most classes. Assuming grades can help students understand their progress in class it follows returned grades should be handed out prior to requesting additional assignments.
You should have at least one major assignment graded before the midterm, preferably one major assignment along with perhaps a smaller assignment and/or a couple of quizzes.
Yes. Students may not be penalized for any absence approved by the registrar’s office. That said, it is the responsibility of the student to notify the professor of the absence, to arrange make-up work, and submit missed assignments and/or exams.
Your department chair may have an instructor’s copy of the texts, if not you should contact the publisher to get a free copy of the book. If for some reason you are not able to obtain a free copy please check with your department chair for purchasing options.
All materials for a course must be submitted to your department administrative assistant prior to student registration opening. This is typically February for fall courses and typically September for spring courses. Due to federal guidelines we are not permitted to alter the course material selection unless the alteration is the same price or less than the original material and only before July 15 for fall courses.
Yes. Faculty are expected to provide a course syllabus to the students in each of their classes at the first day of class. An electronic version of each syllabus is also to be submitted to the department staff assistant within the first week of each semester. The syllabus is essentially a contract between you and the students and lays out your expectations for them about important matters such as, learning objectives, academic integrity, attendance, and more. The syllabus acts as a guide for students to plan and organize the multiple courses they are responsible for during the semester.
Yes. A syllabus needs to include the following:
Your department chair should be able to supply you with a sample syllabus for each of the classes you are teaching.
Yes. Each faculty is permitted to set boundaries for their classroom on the use of phones/laptops/tablets etc. It may be relevant, however, to consider the use of laptops given their utility for taking notes.
Introduce yourself, to the degree you feel comfortable. Asbury is a teaching institution and the opportunity to form meaningful relationships with our students is a significant part of the student experience.
Create the right expectations for your students as to how your class will be conducted. Collegiate classes can carry a very different flavor than high school classes. Students need to know your methods – especially if you feel they are different from standard methods.
Take the opportunity at the very beginning of the semester to help students see the importance of the integration of Christian faith into the subject matter. Of course integration occurs on many levels – all the way from the formal practices of prayer to start a class, to the moral dimensions of the subject matter, the assumptions that undergird the field, to the very way a person chooses to simply live their life – and this integration is very central to why we as an institution exist.
Consider rearranging the space with everyone sitting in a circle and having students report back out to the larger group from discussion questions provided by you ahead of assigned readings. Be patient. Don't talk too soon, even if it feels awkward.
Sign in to your Faculty Portal Home Page. At the bottom of this page you will find a section called “Class Center”. This section shows you a list of your courses for the current term. Select the course for which you would like to enter grades by clicking on the appropriate course code.
Instructors are required to post attendance the first two weeks of every class in order to ensure financial aid disbursement for all students. Sign in to your Faculty Portal Home Page. At the bottom of this page you will find a section called “Class Center”. This section shows you a list of your courses for the current term. Select the course for which you would like to enter attendance by clicking on the appropriate course code.
Each fall semester, the Department Chair or designee (in consultation with the Dean of the school or college) will observe at least one class session per semester that the faculty member is teaching.
Discovery is the Learning Management System, utilized mainly to deliver our online courses but available to faculty for all courses. Some faculty utilize Discovery to augment their on-campus courses by posting resources for students or arranging group facilitation in Discovery.
The Faculty Portal is the course management system that interfaces with our student information system database campus-wide. Faculty members use the Faculty Portal to view their class schedules and related details (such as classroom, day, time), to enter the required census day attendance, and to enter (and view) both mid-term and final grades. In the Faculty Portal student registration changes are live, so it is the best place for faculty members to validate class enrollment. If faculty members face challenges accessing the Faculty Portal, please contact the HelpDesk.
Business Professional Dress is expected during the regular workweek and where appropriate when representing the institution. As appropriate, individual departments may request employees to dress in a prescribed form of Business Professional Dress (See Employee Handbook for more details).
Media can be used to enhance the value of a course and should focus on the interests and issues of a specific course. Care should be taken in selecting media that could compromise the academic and spiritual integrity of the University. If the faculty member believes the presentation could be offensive to some students in the class, the media content should be discussed with the class before it is shown. In some cases, the faculty member may want to give students the option of not viewing the selected resource.
Each faculty member is to attend Faculty Retreat, Faculty Assembly, committee assignments, and departmental meetings. Though optional, other opportunities for collegial community include, Brown Bags (scheduled), Faculty Forums (scheduled), and Faculty Prayer (Thursday’s).
Yes. Asbury University has a formal mentoring program in year two for all new faculty and is run by the Faculty Development Committee. Each faculty member is paired up with a colleague with whom they meet bi-weekly to discuss aspects of managing your academic career at Asbury University. This program is an extension of the first year program, which aims to familiarize new faculty to the university through a series of discussions over a provided lunch.
The Committee on Committees will monitor the overall committee structure and functions, and nominate faculty for committee positions. All first-year full-time faculty do not participate in committees during their first year.
It is expected that faculty members will be available to meet with advisees and students enrolled in their classes, to interact with colleagues, and to meet other assigned obligations such as committee meetings. The general expectation is that faculty should be available for on-campus responsibilities four days a week. Most faculty keep liberal office hours, but for some, advising responsibilities are met with a minimum of eight hours per week with at least six of those hours posted and spread over three days, plus two additional hours by appointment. Faculty office hours are to be announced to each class, included in each course syllabus, posted on the faculty member’s door, and reported at the beginning of each semester to the Department Chair and the Dean.
Zero (usually). The university does not assign new faculty advisees for the first academic year.