Documentation:Distance Learning Support/Before You Start

Instructor Orientation

Once you have been approved to teach your course (by your academic department head or department liaison), you should arrange for an orientation meeting with your instructional designer at the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology.

During this meeting, you will have an opportunity to discuss:

• Your role as instructor and resources available to you through the distance education staff and others on campus.
• The course design.
• Access to the course website and/or supplementary materials required for the course.
• Course enrolments.
• Other administrative and instructional issues related to the delivery of your course.

Not sure who that is? Contact Chris Crowley, Senior Manager, Instructional Design and Distance Education Course Operations, at chris.crowley@ubc.ca.

Faculty Service Centre

You must apply for access to the Faculty Service Centre. The FSC on the web, allows UBC instructors to:

• access current class lists in real time
• email students
• submit final grades

Course Support Liaison

The Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology’s Course Support Liaison provides the following support for you and your students:

• Orientation/welcome email to all students in your course prior to the start of each term. This email includes information about the course format, instructor contact information, course material requirements and process for ordering materials through the UBC Bookstore, and information about accessing academic support resources (including the Learner Support page).
• Liaison with the Bookstore to ensure adequate supply of course materials and for problem resolution related to materials delivery and other issues.
• Arrangements for teleconferences when integral to the course design.

If you have any questions about course delivery, please contact your instructional designer, and they will be able to make all of the appropriate requests.

Textbooks

Textbook orders for all distance education courses are managed by Susan Wong, Course Operations, in collaboration with the production coordinator at the UBC Bookstore. You do not need to order texts for your course.

Please contact your instructional designer well in advance about your textbook needs so that they can work with Susan and the UBC Bookstore to ensure that the texts are available to students at the beginning of term.

Library Access

Faculty with active UBC appointments are eligible for the UBCcard. This card functions as your library card and as your institutional identification. You will need to obtain your UBCcard in order to borrow library materials and use online library services.

Faculty can apply for the UBCcard at the UBC Carding Office located within the UBC Bookstore. Please bring with you your 7-digit UBC employee number and one piece of government-issued identification document (passport, driver's licence, or BC Identification Card). Faculty can also apply for the UBCcard online through the UBCcard website. Please visit the UBCcard website for more information.

Once you have your UBCcard and a Campus Wide Login (CWL), you will be able to access the Library's licensed databases, indexes, and e-journals from home using the EZproxy login service. For more information about EZproxy and connecting to library resources from home, visit the UBC Library website.

Accessing Your Class List

Instructors can view class lists via the Faculty Service Centre. This may be particularly useful during the add/drop period when UBC students are coming and going. This will give you a clearer picture of the registration activity in your course than a static class list can provide. You may want to download class lists in order to set up your grade tracking system. However, downloading should not be done until after the close of registration.

Should you need to view student address and contact information, simply click on the student name or student number from the FSC listing.

Appropriate Use of Technology Policy

General Responsibilities

Subscribers to courses supported by the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology have certain general responsibilities that they must agree to. These are outlined in the following two sections.

Appropriate Use Guidelines

The University of British Columbia is committed to ensuring a working and learning environment in which all persons treat others with humanity and respect.

The computing and communication facilities and services provided by CTLT are primarily intended for teaching, research, and administrative purposes. The use of these services is governed by all applicable University policies, including: the Human Rights, Sexual Harassment, Patents and Licensing and Student Discipline policies, as well as by all applicable Canadian federal, provincial and local laws and statutes, including the Criminal Code of Canada, the B.C. Civil Rights Protection Act and by the B.C. Human Rights Act. These are supplemented by the appropriate use policies and guidelines established by those networks to which UBC’s campus network is interconnected, i.e. the Internet, which includes, for example, Bcnet and CA*net.

The user bears the primary responsibility for the material that he or she chooses to access, send or display. The computer facilities may not be used in any manner that contravenes the above policies, laws or statutes. Those who do not adhere to these guidelines may be subject to suspension of computing privileges.

Abuse of these computing facilities should be reported to the Manager of Web Strategy and IT, Novak Rogic at 604-805-6120 or by email at novak.rogic@ubc.ca.

Use of CTLT computing services denotes that the applicant has read and understands the guidelines available on-line and also denotes acceptance of the above-stated terms of use.

Responsible Use of Information Technology Facilities and Services

Responsible use of computing and communications facilities and services requires that you:

1. respect the legal protection provided by copyright and license to programs and data 2. respect the rights of others by complying with all University policies regarding intellectual property 3. respect the rights of others by complying with all University policies regarding sexual, racial and other forms of harassment, and by preserving the privacy of personal data to which you have access. 4. respect the privacy of others by not tampering with their files, tapes, passwords, or accounts, or representing others when messaging or conferencing. 5. use only computer IDs or accounts and communication facilities which you are duly authorized to use, and use them for the purposes for which they were intended. 6. respect the integrity of computing systems and data; for example, by not intentionally developing programs or making use of already existing programs that harass other users, or infiltrate a computer or computing system, and/or damage or alter the software components of a computer or computing system, or gain unauthorized access to other facilities accessible via the network. 7. use computing and communications facilities in a manner which is consistent with the ethical principles set forth by the University and with accepted community standards. 8. respect and adhere to any local, provincial or federal law which may govern use of these computing and communication facilities in Canada. These include, but are not limited to, the Criminal Code of Canada, the B.C. Civil Rights Protection Act and the B.C. Human Rights Act.

Inappropriate Use

Certain activities are considered inappropriate use of computing facilities. These include electronic chain letters, pyramid schemes, mass-mailing of unsolicited e-mail, and “spamming”. Spamming refers to the mass posting of a single message to multiple Usenet newsgroups regardless of whether the message is relevant to each group’s topic.