Office of the Provost

Dear Colleagues,

The halfway mark represents a significant milestone in any semester, but it feels especially momentous this fall, as we have all adjusted to a significantly more virtual world. I want to commend each of you on everything you have done to maintain stability and continuity this semester, as well as in the preceding months back to the spring. I understand in a pandemic it can feel like your efforts aren’t noticed but I want to share that across our campuses those efforts indeed are noticed by your students, colleagues, and our office.

The middle of the semester is always a good time to assess progress personally and for our students, and perhaps even more important this year given the different approaches we have all implemented in our courses. As such, I wanted to share a few resources for all instructors to utilize in their instructional plans, as an opportunity to review your and your students’ trajectory through the end of the semester.

Formative feedback
Mid-term formative feedback surveys can be a useful tool for instructors to hear anonymously from your students on course materials, lectures, assessments, and other elements of course design and delivery. We encourage all instructors to implement a mid-term formative feedback survey in their courses. These surveys can be a valuable resource to make adjustments to the second half of courses, as well as to build students’ engagement in the course and with instructors. The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness offer resources to develop and distribute formative feedback surveys. In all cases, these are designed to be private (for instructors’ personal use only, not to be shared with department heads or other administrators). With the help of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), we’ve tried to make this process as easy as possible for you to utilize. If you are interested in utilizing formative feedback, you can begin with a resource guide prepared by CETL at https://cetl.uconn.edu/mid-semester-formative-feedback. I appreciate the support of the Senate Executive Committee and leaders in the undergraduate and graduate student senates in pulling this opportunity together.

Mid-term grades
Sharing mid-term grades with your students is another important part of reviewing student progress that can have a positive impact on your students’ participation in your class. University Senate By-Laws state that by the end of the sixth week of the semester, instructors shall submit midterm grades for students in 1000- and 2000-level courses who have earned less than a C, or U, or N grade up to that point. However, I encourage all instructors to share mid-term grades with their students in all levels in this challenging time of already high levels of uncertainty. Students and instructors are all adapting to new modes of learning this semester, and this feedback on progress will help students make adjustments and access resources as necessary to stay on track academically.

Grades can be submitted into StudentAdmin individually, as an Excel file, or directly from HuskyCT. ITS and CETL have info guides available on submitting an Excel file at this link and for submitting from HuskyCT at this link. Mid-term grades may be submitted through today, Oct. 29.

Technology requirements
Technology is more important this semester than ever. In order to ensure your equipment meets minimum requirements to operate effectively, please consult the equipment recommendations guide from ITS at https://remotework.uconn.edu/equipment-recommendations/. It includes specifications for equipment, as well as information on obtaining equipment.

Let me say again – thank you for all you are doing. It’s been a challenge but a challenge we are tackling together.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs