Teaching

Current and future calendars are kept by the Office of the Registrar

As outlined in the College of Charleston's Policy on Course Syllabi (7.6.10), all syllabi must include the 13 components as listed under Section 3.0 “Mandatory Syllabus Content” which begins on page 2. For Section 4.0 “Recommended Syllabus Content” on pages 3 and 4, you may consider the 14 components listed.

Remember that syllabi “must be created and distributed at the beginning of the enrollment term for every course section at the College of Charleston.” 

Please submit your textbook orders, including the International Standard Book Number (ISBN), as quickly as possible through the Adoption and Insights Portal for Barnes & Noble at the College of Charleston. At the College, students are automatically enrolled in our course-material program, called Cougar Complete, upon registering for classes. (They can opt out until Drop/Add.) This program offers all required materials as rentals for $22 per credit hour versus paying by the book. By submitting your orders on time, the CofC bookstore can ensure it has everything students need before the first day of class, and students can make an informed decision about the most cost-effective way for them to get course materials. To determine your textbook list, you may visit their textbook search to get a list of the books students will need for their courses. For assistance, contact your department chair or Emilee Opoien, the College's textbook manager, at opoienep@coc.edu.

Regulations governing federal financial aid require accurate attendance data. Students are not eligible for federal financial aid if they are not enrolled and attending classes. The institution is subject to regular audits by Federal regulators, and if the information is not recorded at the institutional level, auditors will require it from individual faculty. When faculty do not keep accurate records of attendance, the College must return a significant amount of money to the federal government. In addition, the returned money becomes a past-due balance on the student’s bill, resulting in registration holds and, in some cases, the involvement of a collection agency.

In lieu of the College requiring all faculty to record and report attendance daily, faculty are asked to provide information at the following three points during the term listed below and on the Academic Calendar.

Beginning of Term - Verify Attendance

• All faculty must verify “attending” or “never attended” during the two weeks following Drop/Add by taking regular attendance. This is intended to identify and remove from the roll any student who has never once attended your course. Please do not record as “never attended” those students in quarantine or isolation due to Covid-19.
• In the past, you were required to download and submit a paper “deletion from the grade roll” form. Now you can do this electronically through MyPortal by choosing the Faculty Grade Entry link in the Faculty Dashboard menu. You will have one week to enter this information. For faculty not in the habit of taking attendance, you may elect to use a sign-in sheet, any one of several apps for attendance, the attendance function in OAKS, or any other method you think has a reasonable chance of identifying students who have never once attended. Opening and closing dates for attendance verification are found on the Academic Calendar by term.

• Midterm grade submission is required for all undergraduate courses (excluding individual enrollments). Midterm grades are advisory and not permanently recorded in the student’s record. The deadline for midterm grades is positioned 7 days in advance of the last day for students to withdraw. Although there are many good reasons for submitting midterm grades, doing so is essential to the attendance verification process because it provides a second institutional data point one week prior to the 60% point in the semester. After 60%, the student has earned the entire federal financial award and no return is deemed necessary. Grade deadlines are found on the Academic Calendar by term.

• When final grades are entered, a grade of F requires that you enter the last date of attendance or “academic activity” (a quiz, an exam, work submitted, in-class work). If a student has attended all semester but performed poorly and received the grade F, simply enter the last day of class or the day of the final exam (if you gave one). Grade deadlines are found on the Academic Calendar by term.

Course surveys are an important tool for students to provide anonymous feedback at the end of a course about their instructors, course content, and their overall experience. Students are asked to complete questionnaires online. At the College of Charleston, in-class administration is mandatory. Administration dates are listed on the Academic Calendar. Administration typically starts two weeks before the last day of class and stays open until the last day of exams for each term. Results are not available to faculty until after the final grading deadline.

The College's policy requires that faculty members set aside 15-20 minutes to administer course surveys in class.

You can view your Course | Instructor Evaluations at the link below, or through Oaks and MyPortal

TLT is here to help you! Your instructional technologist is highly trained in the latest instructional technology to help accomplish your pedagogical goals.

Librarians and archivists are available to provide information literacy instruction synchronously via Zoom or asynchronously via video tutorial.

Library subject liaisons can also create instructional course guides which can be posted in OAKS.