Penn CHIPS Faculty Resources

Below you will find resources curated for you as a CHIPS Course Director.

Using Canvas
Zoom
Grades, Evaluations, and Your Students
Syllabi
Additional Resources

Using Canvas

Below is a basic guide to getting started in Canvas. Please visit the Canvas Instructor Guide Table of Contents for more guides, including analytics and announcements.

You or the CHIPS administrative staff will need to request a course shell via the online Canvas Course Request Form before the semester begins.

You will then receive an invitation for your Canvas course. On your Canvas dashboard, scroll to the bottom to find your unpublished courses. Don’t see it here? Click on your “courses” icon on the left, scroll down and click “All Courses”.

Go to “Canvas At Penn” and click “Course Request Form” on the top right.

If you have taken and/or taught many classes in the past, you may want to organize your Canvas dashboard. Go to “All Courses” and click the star icon next to any of your current courses that you want to appear on your dashboard.

If you have never built a course in Canvas before and will not be copying over content from a previous course, and are not sure how you would like your course setup, reach out to Karen Shala (kshala@pennmedicine.upenn.edu) in CHIPS to discuss options for how to proceed.

If you would like to use the content from a previous semester’s course, follow the steps for Importing Existing Content or reach out to Stacey Riley (Stacey.riley@pennmedicine.upenn.edu) to request the content to be copied over.

Go to “Pages”

Click “+Page” on the top right.

Add your page content and click “Save & Publish”
Homepage content may include a banner picture, course instructors (headshots, contact info), important course information and dates, expectations, links to a syllabus or modules, etc.

On your “Pages” page, click the three dots next to the page you would like to make the home page. Choose “Use as Front Page”.

From the home page of your course, click “Choose Home Page” on the right hand side and choose the page that you just labeled as the front page. Click “Save”.

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-create-a-discussion-as-an-instructor/ta-p/1029

If you have a large course, think about if you would like your students setup in groups. This allows for smaller, more intimate, discussion boards. First, setup groups under the “People” page. Then edit your discussion board to allow for groups.
How to add my student into groups: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-manually-create-groups-in-a-group-set/ta-p/700
How to setup discussion board groups: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-create-a-group-discussion-in-a-course/ta-p/911

Yes, you can setup your BlueJeans, Penn Medicine Zoom account (for PSOM Faculty) or UPenn Zoom account (for all other faculty) and integrate into Canvas.
Zoom and Canvas: https://infocanvas.upenn.edu/guides/zoom/zoom-for-faculty-staff-tas/#zoomcanvas
When scheduling your meeting, you must choose to Record to the Cloud. Those with Penn Medicine accounts must complete an attestation form that you will not be sharing patient data. When scheduled correctly, your Zoom sessions will automatically upload to the “Class Recordings” section of your Canvas course.
BlueJeans and Canvas:
https://infocanvas.upenn.edu/guides/blue-jeans/#bluejeanscanvas

Panopto is an application that is integrated with Canvas and allows you to easily record and embed a video right in the course while storing the files in Canvas. You can upload your Zoom or BlueJeans recording to the Panopto application as well.
Additional Features:
Adding Quizzes
Adding Discussion boards or notes to the video*
Combining audio/video with slides
Cutting/editing your video

*Students will need to know to click the arrow at the bottom of the screen to view/share notes and discussions.

Access Panopto: https://upenn.hosted.panopto.com/
Your Panopto videos will automatic populate in the folder you have chosen in your Canvas Class Recordings.

Enable Class Recordings in your Canvas Course to access your Panopto in your course:
Click Settings on your course navigation menu.

Click the Navigation tab, which is near the top of the page.

Scroll down, click the Class Recordings button, and drag them above the line that reads “Drag items here to hide them from students.” Alternatively, you can click the three-vertical dots on the right of the Class Recordings button > Enable.

Scroll down again and click Save.

More Panopto information: https://infocanvas.upenn.edu/guides/panopto/

You can see what the students will see in the Student View feature. Click here to learn how to manage the navigation links.

Students who are registered to your course will be automatically added. However, if you would like to manually add someone who is not receiving credit for the course, follow the steps below.

Click “People” on the left hand side
Click “+People” on the right hand side
Enter the student’s PennKey and choose “Next”
Click “Add Users”

What if you do not know someone’s PennKey? Either reach out to the student or go to UPenn Secure Share, search for the individual and their PennKey and PennID will show up. Copy the PennKey an close Secure Share.

  1. Make sure everything that you want visible to students, is published (pages, discussion boards, etc.). The button to publish the course, pages and modules is typically on the top right.
  2. Check all due dates + open/close dates (discussion boards, assignments, modules, quizzes)
  3. Go through your course from the Student View.

Zoom

If your course is online or hybrid, we suggest that you use Zoom for your course meetings. You may also record your course session through Zoom and upload to your Canvas course site.
BlueJeans is being phased out by Penn Medicine.

How to setup access to your Penn Medicine Zoom Account:
https://www.med.upenn.edu/dart/ZoomAccountSetup.html

Setting Up a Poll in Zoom:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/213756303-Polling-for-meetings

Setting up Breakout Rooms in Zoom:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/206476313
Zoom now has a feature where students can self-select a breakout room. This can make it logistically easier for you if your students know which group to join. When you setup rooms, choose “Let Participants choose room”

Grades, Evaluations, and Your Students

You are responsible for entering grades to Courses@Penn by the posted deadline each semester. In general, grades are due from faculty based on this schedule.

Fall Term                           Due the first working day in January after the winter break

Spring Term                      Due by 12 noon three days after the last day of final exams

Summer Sessions             Due by 12 noon three days after the last day of classes.

  • You can access Courses@Penn via U@Penn.
  • Helpful tip: Please be sure to hit the “submit” button

The mark of I is used to designate “incomplete.” A student who fails to complete a course and does not withdraw or change his/her status to auditor within the prescribed period shall receive at the instructor’s discretion either a grade of I (incomplete) or F (failure).  It is expected, in general, that a student shall complete the work of a course during the term in which that course is taken. The instructor may permit an extension of time up to one year for the completion of the course. In such cases, any course which is still incomplete after one calendar year from its official ending must remain as “incomplete” on the student’s record and shall not be credited toward a degree.

If you are permitting an extension to allow for a grade change, please notify Stacey Riley with the expected grade change date. You will be expected to enter the grade change in Courses in Touch by this date.

The HQS degree programs have specific academic standards that are expected of all students. If a student fails to obtain a passing grade for a required course they may be placed on academic probation. Students may continue to enroll in other courses while on probation with the permission of the HQS Program Director and input from the course director, as needed.  The student must make arrangements with the course director to remediate any grades lower than a B- and these arrangements must be approved by the program director with input from the MHQS Curriculum Committee as needed.

Auditing course work is discouraged, as full tuition is charged but no credit is earned toward the MHQS degree.  If a student wishes to change a course status from credit to audit, s/he must obtain permission from the course instructor before the “drop/add” period ends.  The audited course will appear on the transcript with the grade of “AUD” and no credit will be earned toward graduation.  Students are not permitted to change the course status from graded to audit after the course has ended.

“Sitting In” on a Course
On occasion, you may have a student that is interested in participating in your course but does not have the funds to register. We generally discourage this practice as it can create an unfair dynamic between the students who are formally enrolled in the course and those who are not. Therefore, this practice should be done for exceptional circumstances and cases. You are encouraged you to reach out to the MHQS director for more guidance. Please note that the instructor will have to manually add this student to the Canvas Course and that tuition is not paid.

In both cases, please consider your course cap and how much space you may have in a classroom.

The University collects course and lecturer information from each program every semester and distributes evaluations to all students.

CHIPS administrative office will request your data about 3 weeks into fall and spring semester and a month before the summer semester.

Standard Course Evaluation Questions (cannot  be edited/removed)
1. Clarity of course goals, objectives and expectations
2. Overall course organization and coherency
3. Commitment of the course director(s)
4. Educational value/amount learned
5. How well the course achieved stated goals
6. Professionalism of faculty involved with the course
7. Understanding of how you would be evaluated
8. Usefulness of feedback
9. How well the workload challenged you/level of material appropriate
10. Overall rating/quality of course
11. Comments (Please write about Strengths, Weaknesses and Areas for Improvement)

If you would like to add supplemental questions, please email Karen Shala at kshala@pennmedicine.upenn.edu to request the additions.

All registered students will be listed in the “People” section in Canvas and in Courses@Penn. You can find a guide to pull a student class list report here.

You may contact your students via Outlook email (email addresses are in Courses@Penn – see above) or through Canvas.
Emailing Students (individuals or group) through canvas: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-send-a-message-to-all-course-users-in-the-Inbox-as-an/ta-p/600
You may also send announcements to the class: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-add-an-announcement-in-a-course/ta-p/1194

If you would like to encourage your students to turn their Canvas notifications on, you may share this link: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Student-Guide/How-do-I-set-my-Canvas-notification-preferences-as-a-student/ta-p/434#:~:text=Each%20notification%20is%20set%20to,Notify%20immediately%20option%20%5B2%5D

Syllabi

A well thought-out syllabus will convey expectations for your course.  Here are some basics to include:

  • Course title, number and CUs
  • Contact information for the instructor(s)
  • Prerequisites
  • Course catalogue description
  • List of required or recommended readings/texts or other resources students may need
  • List of objectives
  • Course welcome and diversity and inclusion statement – examples
  • Schedule of lectures (including times and location) – consult the Penn Academic Calendar for importance dates (e.g., first day of classes, last day of classes, final exam period, University observed holidays and breaks when no classes are held)
  • Percentage of breakdown of how different assignments will contribute to the final grade (evaluation methods)
  • Description of major assignments
  • Class participation expectations – examples
  • Attendance policy – examples
  • Penn’s Academic Integrity Policy

 

Please send your syllabus to the CHIPS administrative staff at least two weeks prior to the start of the semester.

You can access the CHIPS logos for your syllabus here.

You can access the CHIPS syllabus template here and use as a guide but it is not mandatory.

 

Additional Resources

Penn’s Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL) offers programs to help all instructors excel in their teaching. CTL events bring instructors together to gain insight from colleagues through open discussions of teaching topics. Many of these are faculty-guided conversations; others are structured teaching workshops led by CTL staff. Additionally, CTL staff are available to consult individually with instructors across Penn about any aspect of teaching. Instructors at all levels of experience and expertise —from senior faculty to new teaching assistants, from acclaimed and ambitious teachers to those facing particular challenges —participate in CTL programs.

Programs and Services for Faculty include:

  • Faculty-Faculty Discussions
  • Teaching Seminars
  • Teaching with Technology
  • New Faculty
  • Consultation and Observation

Resources for Teaching at Penn include:

CTL offers a 3-day course development program that is well suited to faculty creating their first Penn courses.CTL has also curated a list of research based texts that may help faculty consider effective teaching practices.If you have questions about teaching at Penn, you are welcome to consult with the staff at the Center for Teaching and Learning at any time. CTL also organizes a variety of faculty programs, providing faculty with structured opportunities to discuss their teaching with colleagues.

 

Contact:
Penn’s Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL)
First floor Van Pelt-Dietrich Library
3420 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
Phone: (215) 746-3613

Email: ctl-help@lists.upenn.edu

 

General course information and deadlines Stacey Riley, Stacey.Riley@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Building your Canvas course Karen Shala, kshala@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Technical Issues with your Canvas Course canvas@pobox.upenn.edu
University or CHIPS Policies Karen Shala, kshala@pennmedicine.upen.edu
Zoom Penn Medicine https://www.med.upenn.edu/dart/zoom/
Zoom UPenn https://infocanvas.upenn.edu/guides/zoom/zoom-for-faculty-staff-tas/
BlueJeans for PSOM Joseph Lavin, lavinjo@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

What is Poll Everywhere?
Poll Everywhere is an online audience response tool.

UPenn faculty and staff have access to a free Poll Everywhere account. You can use this account on its own or integrate the tool with your Canvas course.

To setup your free account, email canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.

Read more about the tool and the benefits on Penn’s website here.