LAS Teaching Excellence Resources
Develop Your Teaching Practice and Promote Student Success!
Top Priorities
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Build Build your Blackboard Site and Syllabus as Accessible Resources for your Students.
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Design Design Transparent Course Objectives, Learning Outcomes, and Assessments .
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Support Foster a Growth Mindset and Support your Students' Success.
Top Priorities
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Communicate Communicate Expectations and Build Strong Connections with your Students.
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Reinforce Reinforce the Competencies gained in your course and their relevance to Academic and Career Success.
LAS Syllabus Policies & Expectations
UIC requires that all courses, 0- 500 level, have a syllabus.
The resources below have been created to facilitate compliance.
Syllabus Checklist
UIC Syllabus Checklist
- Instructor and Course Details
- Course rubric, number, title, and credit hours
- Instructor name and contact information
- Student Drop-In (Office) hours and other instructor availability
- Course modality and schedule, including times, dates, and locations
- Course Information
- Course description and prerequisite statement
- Course goals and learning objectives
- For general education courses, include approved Gen Ed Learning Outcomes. Go to this Interactive Dashboard to search for the specific learning outcomes for your General Education course.
- Required and recommended course materials
- Course Policies and Classroom Expectations
- Grading policy and points breakdown, including a list of core assignments and assessments
- Policy for missed or late work, including acceptance of revised work, if applicable
- Attendance/Participation policy, including UIC Policy on religious holidays.
- Information about how to interpret midterm grades.
- Special policies for the course, if any (e.g., a policy that collaboration is permitted on take home work, a policy that calculators can be used on exams, penalties for late work, field work, etc.);
- Statement about academic integrity appropriate for the class and aligned with the UIC Student Disciplinary Policy (see Conduct Information for Students).
- Class Schedule – Weekly calendar of class topics, assignments, due dates, and deadlines. Must align with course level and contact/credit hour policies.
- Accommodations – Statement about disability services and letter of accomodation.
- Classroom Environment and Relevant Policies — Description of appropriate classroom behavior and consequences for inappropriate behavior. Some instructors, for instance, limit or prohibit cell phone usage, talking in class, eating in class, etc. Some instructors provide rules for classroom discussion or dress, etc. When necessary, a syllabus provides a reference for student disciplinary hearings. You may provide this information as a “Community Agreement” or “Classroom Conduct Policy.”
- Academic Integrity – Statement appropriate for the class and aligned with the UIC Student Disciplinary Policy (see Conduct Information for Students)Academic Grievance Policy and Procedure – Students may be directed to the UIC academic grievance procedure.
- Registration and Records Policies – Students may be directed to the Registrar’s website for a list of registration and records policies.
Templates
CATE has developed a fillable syllabus template that fully complies with the UIC Syllabus Policy. Additionally, as per the American Disabilities Act, all syllabi must be accessible for students with disabilities by Spring 2026.
The CATE template also includes optional sections and information that, while not required by the UIC Syllabus Policy, is highly recommended, leads to increased transparency, and results in a more inclusive syllabus and classroom environment.
Faculty is not required to utilize this template. Nevertheless, your syllabus must satisfy the UIC Syllabus Policy checklist above and be ADA-compliant.
LAS Competencies and Skills
LAS EPC-Endorsed Academic Competencies and Literacies
The document outlines transferable skills that we can reasonably assume UIC LAS students will have developed or mastered upon graduation, regardless of major.
Faculty should consider consistently presenting these competencies as part of their courses’ learning objectives and reinforce them throughout the semester.
Departments may consider using this resource when detailing the academic profile of their majors, minors, and certificates.
LAS Writing in the Discipline Major Requirement: Guidelines
Teaching a course designated as Writing in the Discipline for a major?
LAS Guidelines for Writing in the Discipline Courses
LAS Student Drop-In Hours Guide
LAS Student Drop-In Hours
Drop-In Hours (Office Hours) encourage and facilitate student communication with faculty. Research documents how quality interactions with faculty positively affect grades, persistence, and retention.
Tell me Your Story
Start a conversation, promote help-seeking behaviors, provide timely academic support, and encourage a growth mindset.
LAS General Education Resources Website
LAS General Education
Find additional resources relevant when teaching a general education course, including how to integrate the general education learning objectives approved for your course.
LAS Become a Strategic Learner-Academic Skills Student Support
The Become a Strategic Learner Program provides students with access to a series of asynchronous modules designed to develop practical academic study skills. The modules feature step-by-step guides that highlight evidence-based strategies aligned with current research and best practices to maximize learning and impact. Each module concludes with a self-assessment tool that allows students to measure their level of attainment.
The asynchronous modules are found on the First-at-LAS Become a Strategic Learner website and are individually linked on the Faculty Quick Guide. We recommend that faculty promote the resource to their students in class and during Drop-In hours.
Faculty may also:
- Feature the program flyer on your LMS (Blackboard or Canvas) site.
- Include the link to the First-at-LAS Become a Strategic Learner site in their course syllabus or LMS (Blackboard or Canvas) site.
- Link to their Blackboard/Canvas page to specific modules that are most relevant to their courses.
- Recommend, ask, or require that students experiencing academic setbacks complete relevant, specific modules.
- Faculty Course Coordinators may establish a strategy with the instructors of course sections on using the modules, especially for students facing academic setbacks.
- Directors of Undergraduate Studies may promote the entire program or specific modules to their majors/minors through their listservs or major/minor webpages.
The ‘Become a Strategic Learner’ Program was launched with support from a generous grant from the Chicago Community Trust. The LAS Career Development & Internships Office created the career-related modules. All modules were developed in partnership with the UIC Design Studio. Thank you to our partners!
Campus Instructional Design and Technology Support Services
UIC provides numerous services to support course design, Title II Accessibility Requirements, the LMS transition to Canvas, the technologies required for on-campus, hybrid, and asynchronous online instruction, and the implementation of open education resources.
Instructor Resources for Accessibility Compliance
ADA Title II Compliance
By April 26, 2026, all course materials must be ADA-compliant. The following resources facilitate that transition
Learning Management System (LMS)
- LMS Transition from Blackboard to Canvas – Timelines, training opportunities, support documentation, and FAQs.
Canvas
- UIC Canvas Accessibility – Guides instructors in creating accessible Canvas courses, covering content creation, Canvas tools, and an introduction to YuJa Panorama.
- UIC Accessible Canvas Templates – Provides accessible course templates designed specifically for UIC faculty and instructors
Blackboard
- Digital Accessibility Ally Score Challenge – Guidance for instructors to practice improving accessibility in their courses.
- Accessibility Tools in Blackboard – Information on specific tools such as Ally, EquatIO, and Eye-Able.
YuJa Panorama
YuJa Panorama empowers instructors to create accessible course materials through real-time analysis and feedback. The platform provides an accessibility score—visible only to instructors—offering a clear snapshot of how well course content meets accessibility standards.
Beyond scoring, YuJa Panorama distinguishes itself as a more robust solution through its inline remediation capabilities, allowing instructors to address accessibility issues directly within their course materials. This hands-on, guided approach transforms accessibility from a one-time task into an ongoing, collaborative effort to enhance the learning experience for all students.
Resources for Instructors
Accessible Syllabus
- CATE Inclusive Syllabus Design Quick Guide – Offers practical tips for creating welcoming and accessible syllabi.
- CATE Syllabus Template – Ready-to-use Word template with instructions.
Accessible Documents
- Accessibility Guides by Software – Quick guides on Word, PowerPoint, PDF, and Panopto, etc.
- DRC Guide to Online Captioning – Explains Zoom auto-transcription and how to set up captioning for live sessions.
- Workshop on Microsoft Word Accessibility Best Practices.
Digital Accessibility Consultations
Accessibility consultation services are available for units and departments for 30 minutes. The consultation services cover UIC websites, web applications, electronic documents, and general IT accessibility.
Digital Accessibility Exception Request
Anyone adopting inaccessible technology must submit a request to initiate the Digital Accessibility Exception Process using the Accessibility Exception Request Form.
Report a Digital Accessibility Problem
The University of Illinois Chicago is committed to ensuring that our IT resources, such as websites, web applications, teaching and learning technologies, digital content, and other electronic platforms and communications, can be used by all community members.
Canvas
Below are some suggestions for you to consider regarding how to learn more about, and most effectively engage with, the LMS transition from Blackboard to Canvas.
Please note that additional information is available on the learning management system transition website.
- Become an early adopter: If you’re ready to make the move from Blackboard, you can begin transitioning your courses to Canvas now. This is an excellent opportunity to explore the platform and shape its implementation.
- Join a workshop: Learning Technology Solutions is offering a variety of workshops designed to support you throughout the transition. These sessions provide hands-on guidance and best practices to help you maximize the benefits of Canvas. A complete schedule of workshops, and other events hosted by Learning Technology Solutions, can be found on the LTS Events webpage.
- Collaborate with support teams: Once contacted, you can work directly with your college’s Instructional Designer or the Learning Technology Solutions’ Learning Design Team. Together, you will receive personalized support to restructure your courses and ensure they meet accessibility standards.
ONGOING INFORMATION
For frequently asked questions on the migration from Blackboard to Canvas: Go Here
What will happen to my courses in Blackboard?
Blackboard courses will be transferred to Canvas, while all other courses will be archived for four years. If you need access to an archived course, you can request it by submitting a ticket through TDX. Student data from Blackboard will be archived as well.
What can I work on to prepare for the transition?
- Review your courses taught in Blackboard Original and Ultra and delete or download and archive any unused content. For step-by-step instructions, consult this quick guide: Downloading and Deleting Files from Blackboard Original Courses or view this video: Downloading or Deleting Files from Blackboard Original Courses.
- Download content specific to your course or section to personalize the master version of the course.
- Remediate any content in your courses if you have time to do this work over the summer.
What if I am creating a new course?
Courses in the fall will be taught in Blackboard Original or Blackboard Ultra. However, we recommend contacting LTS if you want help organizing your course in Blackboard so that it can be copied over easily to Canvas.
Who do I contact to become an early adopter, or have specific questions or concerns that I want answered?
You can submit a ticket at https://learning.uic.edu/about/contact/. Please provide as much information as possible, and someone will respond with the next steps.
Generative Artificial Intellingence
UPCOMING CATE SHORT COURSE: “Refreshing Your Assignments for the Age of AI”
Spring 2026 Short Course
The Generative AI landscape is rapidly changing and becoming ubiquitous in higher education and the professions.
Short Course Objectives
After participating in this short course, you will be able to:
- Evaluate existing assignments for vulnerabilities and opportunities related to generative AI.
- Revise assignments to measure authentic student learning and promote academic integrity in an AI-saturated environment.
- Collaborate with colleagues to share and refine effective teaching and course design practices for an AI-saturated environment.
Wednesday group meetings: 2/18, 2/25, 3/4; 3:00 – 4:00 PM on Zoom
Thursday group Meetings: 2/19, 2/26, 3/5; 3:30 – 4:30 PM on Zoom
If you have any questions about the short course, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the event lead, Patrick Horton
UIC Resources
UIC Technology Solutions manages and makes available these AI Resources for all faculty and students.
CATE also offers the Enhancing Teaching and Learning with Generative AI Tools (Workshop Slides).
Use Guidelines
CATE and the U of I System offer the following resources to help guide faculty and students on best practices and potential risks.
ChatGPT: Perspectives and Strategies for Prohibiting, Reducing, or Embracing it in Your Curriculum
UIC Information Technology: Statement on Responsible and Acceptable Use of AI
Generative AI Guidance for Instructors
Generative AI Guidance for Students
External Resources:
University of Michigan
Getting Started with Generative Artificial Intelligence: Instructor Guide.
American Association of Colleges and Universities:
2025 Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence
AI
UPCOMING CATE SHORT COURSE
Refreshing Your Assignments for the Age of AI
Spring 2026 Short Course
The Generative AI landscape is rapidly changing and becoming ubiquitous in higher education and the professions.
Short Course Objectives
After participating in this short course, you will be able to:
- Evaluate existing assignments for vulnerabilities and opportunities related to generative AI.
- Revise assignments to measure authentic student learning and promote academic integrity in an AI-saturated environment.
- Collaborate with colleagues to share and refine effective teaching and course design practices for an AI-saturated environment.
Wednesday group meetings: 2/18, 2/25, 3/4; 3:00 – 4:00 PM on Zoom
Thursday group Meetings: 2/19, 2/26, 3/5; 3:30 – 4:30 PM on Zoom
If you have any questions about the short course, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the event lead, Patrick Horton
The potential of AI writing tools to modify and augment education is difficult to dismiss. Nevertheless, because these tools are still relatively new, instructors and students should carefully consider how, why, and whether to incorporate them into their personal and professional communication.
For more information and ideas on how to incorporate and limit the unethical use of AI in writing assignments, go to the CATE AI Writing Tools resource website.
CATE also offers the Enhancing Teaching and Learning with Generative AI Tools Workshop (See the Workshop Slides).
Digital Learning: Micro-Videos and EdTech Tools
Micro-Lesson Videos Resource Guide
Micro-lesson videos are short instructional videos (typically three to eight minutes long) designed to support online asynchronous courses or to supplement instruction in other course modalities (e.g., on-campus, synchronous distributed, hybrid, or online synchronous courses).
EdTech Tools for Student Assignments
Building students’ digital literacy skills is fundamental in today’s educational climate, which encourages instructors to design assignments where students use educational technology (EdTech) tools to demonstrate and enhance their learning.
EdTech tools – including educational software, web applications, and mobile apps – can augment traditional paper-writing, problem-set, and exam-based assignments, or can support authentic assessments, including podcasts, video essays, websites, and more.
Instructional Design Services
Instructional designers use educational research and innovative instructional practices to help instructors enhance student engagement, satisfaction, and learning outcomes.
Course Design & Reviews
If you would like to partner with the instructional design team for a course design or course review project, please contact us, and the senior instructional designer will set up a meeting to discuss your course needs.
Designing & Teaching an Online Course
CATE has designed a course to share best practices, resources, templates, and technologies to create a quality online course. This course has been developed as an online course to help model best practices and research on online learning. The online asynchronous course contains the following modules:
- Module 01 – What makes a good online course?
- Module 02 – How do I begin planning my online course?
- Module 03 – What does good online teaching and facilitation look like?
- Module 04 – How do I build an online course site?
If you are interested in being enrolled in the Designing & Teaching an Online Course, please complete this Google Form to be enrolled. Each module contains guidance and advice that you can use to design your online course by yourself or with the help of an instructional designer.
If you would like to partner with the instructional design and media production studio, please schedule a 25-minute or 50-minute consultation with an instructional designer to discuss your course design needs.
Learning Technology Solutions
LTS’s core mission is to facilitate the meaningful use of new technologies to improve teaching, learning, and research outcomes. Collaborating with colleges, departments, faculty, and staff, LTS will now provide consulting, design, and training for specialized educational technologies. We will also support active learning spaces and offer general assistance with all teaching and learning applications.
For more information on the services the LTS Support Team offers, go here.
Media Production Services
The Studio assists in multimedia production, including general consultations about multimedia use for instruction, graphic design, media conversion, closed captioning, and video production.
Media Production Services:
- Lightboard Studio
- Video Production
- Closed Captioning
- Media Conversion
- Media Software (E.g., Camtasia, Panopto, Adobe Premiere, etc.)
For more information, go here.
OER
UIC’s Open Educational Resources Program
“Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are freely available online for everyone to use, whether you are an instructor, student, or self-learner. Examples of OER include: full courses, course modules, syllabi, lectures, homework assignments, quizzes, lab and classroom activities, pedagogical materials, and many more resources contained in digital media collections from around the world.” – OER Commons
Online Learning Readiness Training for Students
To help students assess their online readiness and increase their readiness before taking an online course, the Studio has developed an Online Learning Readiness Training for Students. This training module is designed for online students who are enrolled in one of the following course modalities: online asynchronous, online synchronous, hybrid, and synchronous distributed.
You can utilize this training module in two ways:
Send an email to your students before the term starts with a link to the Online Learning Readiness Training for Students: Email Template to Send Students a Link to the Training.
Or place the shareable link in your course site: Shareable Link to Online Learning Readiness Training for Students.
CATE Teaching Guides
On-demand resources provide an overview of evidence-based teaching practices and curricular strategies tailored for our UIC community.
Additional Teaching Guides
Resources that offer further teaching guidance, focusing on cognitive and non-cognitive student academic success strategies.
Learning Matrix
The Science of Learning Research Center has developed a Higher Education Learning Framework Matrix Handbook. The focus is on how students learn to learn.
They also provide a very useful Summated Matrix, including teaching, student, and assessment perspectives for each topic.
Topics include:
1. Learning as becoming
2. Contextual learning
3. Emotions and learning
4. Interactive learning
5. Learning to learn and higher order thinking
6. Learning challenge and difficulty
7. Deep and meaningful learning
RIT
Research-informed teaching (RIT) can take different forms:
- research-led -where students are taught research findings in their field of study.
- research-oriented -where students learn research processes and methodologies.
- research-tutored -where students learn through critique and discussion between themselves and faculty.
- research-based learning -where students learn as researchers.
For more information on RIT best practices and considerations, see the following:
SMART
What’s SMART?
A SMART goal functions as a driver toward a larger achievement and has five components. The goal must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based.
Overarching goals such as “I want an A in this class” do not fit this framework. Examples would be “I will visit the Math and Science Tutoring Center once every week;” or “I will visit my professor’s Student Drop-In Hours with questions four times this semester;” or “I will visit the Writing Center with a draft of my work each time I have a writing assignment.” Faculty who work with their students to establish individual or community SMART goals have found a notable improvement in student success in the course.
SMART Goals Template for Students
growth mindset
People who have a growth mindset believe that ability/skills/knowlege can be changed and developed and that performance can be improved with effort, helpful feedback, normalizing of mistakes or failures, and using effective strategies for learning. In contrast, people who have a fixed mindset about ability believe that people either have ability or do not have ability and nothing can be done to change it (Dweck, 2006).
Research demonstrates that when students have a growth mindset about their ability to grow and develop new skills and expertise, they are better able to persist through setbacks and are more likely to embrace challenges as opportunities for growth.
The following resources guide faculty to integrate a growth mindset framework in their coursework in the syllabus, classroom, and Student Drop-In Hours.
Growth Mindset Framing and Feedback Tools
Growth Mindset Culture Practice Categories
A pivotal time to encourage students to adopt a growth mindset is right before and right after the two first substantial assessments in your course.
This resource offers concrete language for “psychologically attuned assessment wrappers” with specific sections for pre-assessment AND post-assessment messaging.
assignment calculator
Many universities make an “Assignment Calculator” available to students, which helps address time management and organizational issues.
Assignment Calculators break down projects into manageable steps based on due dates. Each step includes helpful hints and “how-to” links.
Any interim due dates provided by the professor (for working thesis, bibliography, first draft, etc.) take precedence over dates suggested by the Assignment Calculator.
The link to an Assignment Calculator may be included on your Blackboard page. Students may be encouraged to use this tool as the semester’s work starts to build up.
These are two examples of Assignment Calculators:
Stanford Learning Lab Assignment Calculator
Boise State Assignment Calculator
VALUE Rubrics
American Association of Colleges and Universities: Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE)
VALUE is an authentic approach to assessment designed to articulate and measure the skills, abilities, and dispositions that students need and that parents, policymakers, and employers demand.
VALUE rubrics are open educational resources (OER) that enable educators to assess students’ original work. AAC&U offers a proven methodology for applying the VALUE rubrics to evaluate student performance reliably and verifiably across sixteen broad, cross-cutting learning outcomes.
STEM DFW
The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Cluster examined student STEM course data and the practices and policies affecting success rates in entry-level courses, emphasizing closing achievement gaps for historically underserved student populations.
The following learning memo highlights the cluster’s work to examine how an analysis of DFW rates reveals equity gaps and understand how these grade markers correlate with student retention and graduation outcomes.
Campus Teaching-Related Policies
U of I Mental Health Training Modules for Instructors and Students
A series of mental health trainings to meet several of the requirements in the Mental Health Early Action on Campus (MHEAC) Act. These training courses provide education on identifying and addressing mental health concerns, common mental health conditions, the ADA and Rehabilitation Act, and available resources both on campus and within the community.
Concerned about a Student's Mental Health?
Faculty, staff, friends, and loved ones are usually the first people that students will turn to for support with their mental health concerns. We’re grateful that you want to provide that support to a student, and want to assist you in helping them.
Dean of Students: Services and Forms
Other Student Support Resources
Students often need support. UIC has ample mechanisms, services, and centers to support academic success and wellbeing. LAS has curated some of the most important categories and sites for you.