Documentation of Student Class Participation
In consultation with the CSN Faculty Senate throughout the Spring 2024 semester, CSN put into place a policy modification that requires students to participate in their classes during the first week of instruction and requires faculty to document whether a student participated at the end of the first week of instruction. This documentation will be systemically shared with the Office of the Registrar and the Office of Financial Aid where the appropriate next steps will be taken to ensure 1.) only real students who intend to be in your classes remain in your classes and 2.) the appropriate amount of financial aid (if applicable) is disbursed.

For any classes that begin on August 26 participation documentation rosters for faculty will be open for submission from 12:01am September 2nd until 11:59pm on September 4th. It is imperative that you complete this documentation effort during this prescribed window of time and to do so accurately. Classes that begin later in the semester will have documentation rosters generated and open for submission at the appropriate time. Moving forward each semester, this participation documentation exercise will be a regular occurrence.

read email here: Documentation of Student Participation
read policy here: 2024.05-Course-Registration-and-Withdrawal-Policy.pdf (csn.edu)

Participation Roster will be found on the "Login" screen, where your MyCSN, Canvas, and numerous other tiles are now.


Academic Integrity Statement
The syllabus has been updated with a new Academic Integrity Statement. Due to the rise of A.I. / ChatGPT / MidJourney / etc, students are using artificial intelligence to generate assignments. This is simply plagiarism. Make sure your syllabus has a mention of it, make sure you speak/write about it in class, and make yourself aware of what artificially generated assignments can look like.

  • "Taking the words, work, or presenting the ideas of others, including those generated by artificial intelligence, as your own not only limits your academic research skills, it also violates the CSN’s Student Academic Integrity Policy. Cheating on exams or other coursework also violates the CSN Student Academic Integrity Policy. You can find more information about CSN’s Academic Integrity Policy at Academic Integrity Policy (csn.edu). The minimum penalty for such offenses in this course is to fail the assignment. Failing the course will also be considered as an option. Infractions of the CSN Student Academic Integrity Policy may lead to suspensions, expulsion, transcript notations or other sanctions."


CSN Disability Resource Center - AIM Information
As of Fall 2023, the Disability Resource Center has changed their methods of communicating student accommodations with instructors. You likely received numerous emails from Elizabeth.Paige@csn.edu about this. Please read those emails. In short, there's a new online portal where instructors can see which students in their courses have DRC accommodations, and exactly what those accommodations are. Basically, this is an online tracking system for DRC issues. Please read the emails, this will pertain to you, and there are new and additional steps you must take to accommodate these students.

​Online Classes
​If your class is listed as WEB-ONLINE, then by definition it does not have a standard meeting pattern of days and times. ​Here is the official definition - Instruction Methods (Academic Courses) (csn.edu)

A course section conducted over the internet using a learning management system (e.g. Canvas) that requires:

  • NO virtual or in-person/on-campus class meetings on predefined days and times.

  • MAY require an on-campus activity (e.g. tests, exams, lab work, etc.) at some point during the semester.

    Different course sections have different course features for learning and instruction – some are self-paced while others follow a set schedule – organized according to the course syllabus. This type of course is known as asynchronous online instruction.

Please be aware of this if you schedule live videos. Based on this definition, you cannot REQUIRE or GRADE students on meetings conducted online (or in-person) at a specific time.

Course Outcomes
Teach to the official outcomes of the class you were hired to teach. Course outcomes can be found here. Additionally, please try to stress those course outcomes and their importance during the semester, and tie assignments directly to them.

Student who are ART majors
Only a small fraction of our students are actually majoring in ART and pursuing our degree. If you log into MyCSN and look at your roster you can see students' major. You are encouraged to remind ART major students to KEEP their artwork and STORE it properly. The final class they take, Art 298 Portfolio Emphasis, has the students document, build a portfolio, and have an exhibit possibly using artwork they made as your students. Quite often, students taking Art 298 claim they didn't know and have thrown away their previous artwork. Additionally, please remind all students to save especially great artwork for the Juried Student show, which takes place every spring semester.

Canvas Commons
We've begun sharing courses for anyone to use in Canvas Commons. Log in to Canvas, click the Commons link on the side, and then search for "CSN Art Program Courses". You'll see some classes that you could preview, look through, or even import into your own Canvas shell.

Make Sure Your Syllabus is Bulletproof!
Here's a syllabus template that contains all known ancillary information the college requests that we add. Write your own class policies for attendance, late work, medical excuses, etc. Make sure that all of the different items that you require students to complete, add up to the total course grade. For example, if you say that attendance is graded, but have a class with four tests, each worth 25% of the final grade, students will ignore the attendance and say that it should not be computed in the final grading.

Unlabeled Chemicals
Over Summer - Fall 2023 the college health and safety officers (kinda like OSHA) looked through all of our facilities - every room on every campus, in every cabinet, drawer, box, closet, etc. Generally, we performed extremely well, and aside from a few items, passed their examination. As instructors, in addition to the safety protocols you have been following, try to make sure that if you bring a chemical into a classroom for use, that it is labeled. There was numerous unlabeled mystery chemicals found (most of which were very old). Just label your chemicals.

Check your CSN email
All college related correspondence will be conducted through your CSN email. If Kayla, myself, or others need to contact you, we will do so through your CSN email. Additionally, the college may be contacting you regarding your contracts, required training, or various other important business. Please check your CSN email often.

Contracts
All contracts are completed through Workday. When your contract is ready you will get an email telling you to login to Workday and approve your contract in your inbox. See the document below for instructions on how to do this. Kayla does not print out or have you sign contracts anymore. It’s all done through Workday.

CSN + UNLV/NSU or other NSHE
Let Sean know if you are also teaching at UNLV/NSU or any other NSHE institution sooner rather than later. STATE labor laws apply, and you cannot work over a certain number of hours.

Spring 2025 Schedule?
The scheduling people just roll the schedules Fall -> Fall and Spring -> Spring. Email Sean if there's changes needed.

Canvas Teacher Mobile App
If you want to be able to use Canvas to grade assignments and send messages on your phone or tablet, check out the Canvas Teacher App
Google Android | iOS
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Software for Faculty
Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Cloud, free - just log in with your CSN user/pass
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Art Gallery News
As usual, please make use of the Art Gallery in any and all of your classes. Jeff sends emails throughout the semester containing news, dates, events, etc relating to the gallery, or you can check out the website here - https://www.csn.edu/student-life/discover-csn/artgallery
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Promote your events
If you are a part of anything art related and would like to promote it on Facebook, please contact either Jeff or myself. Our Facebook page is up to nearly 1800 followers and is followed by some of the higher-ups at the college. Promoting the cultural events and activities of our staff does wonders to ensure that the college administration sees the strength of our program. Here’s the page - https://www.facebook.com/CSN.Department.of.Fine.Arts/
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MATERIALS ORDERING – Check out this file for materials ordering details:
​​materials_ordering_procedures.pdf

WHOM DO I CONTACT?


​Any questions? Have a great semester!

No formal part time meeting for Fall 24.
Check email in August for Happy Hour info :)

New info in PURPLE