This message is sent from the Office of the Provost to all UHD faculty.
Dear UHD Instructors:
I hope you all had a restful summer break and are looking forward to the upcoming
fall semester. It was great to see so many instructors at Tuesday's Gear Up workshops
and Wednesday's Faculty Retreat. I always appreciate hearing your feedback and learning
how we can improve our processes and enhance the delivery of instruction for UHD students.
Below are a few reminders and updates to help you prepare for the start of the semester.
Best wishes,
David
David Ryden
AVP for Programming and Curriculum
University Calendar, Dates, and Times
All dates concerning the Regular Fall Session and the part-of-term sessions are posted. Please consult for holidays, withdrawal
dates, etc. Monday, August 17, 2026 is the first day of classes and the last day of classes for the Regular Fall Session
is Tuesday, November 24, 2026 with Reading Day on Monday, November 30 after the Thanksgiving holiday.
The finals period, December 1-7, must be used in synchronous courses (including online synchronous) to align our contact
time with both policy and state requirements. Please note that we are still working
on the Final Exam Schedule and will have it posted ASAP.
New Course Evaluation System
Based on the feedback from the faculty who participated in the Summer 5W2 pilot of
the Watermark Course Evaluation system (and from those who participated in Tuesday’s
Gear Up programming and Wednesday’s Faculty Retreat), we will extend the “pilot” of
the Watermark Course Evaluation system into the Fall Term sessions for all sections
and all faculty. We will be soliciting more input from both students and instructors
before the hard launch during the Winter Mini session.
NOTE: Faculty should download all IDEA student feedback data from previous terms for their promotion files. UHD faculty and staff will no longer
have access to these data after December 31, 2026.
Canvas: Auto Opening of Course Shells
All course shells will open to students automatically between midnight and 8:00 a.m.
on Monday, August 17. You are welcome, and encouraged, to open (publish) your course
shells before that date. Please note that if you manually publish a course and then
unpublish it, you will need to manually republish it on Monday, as the auto-publish
feature skips sections that have been manually unpublished.
Regardless of modality, you will need to update the basic information on the default
Canvas course homepage, including the course name, syllabus, and your contact information.
Please complete these updates before the course shells open automatically.
Canvas: Required Posting of Grades and Assignments
All faculty must post major grades and assignment requirements in Canvas, regardless
of course modality. If you do not actually collect the assignment via Canvas, you
will need to build a “No Submission” or “On-Paper” assignment to create a gradebook column. Please be very clear with students that their semester
grade is based on the weights described in the syllabus.
Canvas: Required Syllabus
Syllabi, in both Face-to-Face as well as online courses, must be posted inside Canvas,
using Simple Syllabus, which prepopulates many of the required components, demanded
by both HB 2504 and by UHD’s PS 03.A.29. Note that publishing a syllabus in the Canvas-integrated
Simple Syllabus platform will make the syllabus viewable both inside Canvas and to
the general public, on UHD’s searchable Simple Syllabus website. To learn more about the Simple Syllabus, point your browser to this FAQs landing page, which contains informational hyperlinks, a brief video overview, and a link to the
public facing UHD Simple Syllabus website. All sections must present their syllabi in the Simple Syllabus platform (Simple
Syllabus’s publicly facing feature fulfills compliance with Texas Education Code,
Section 51.974 (TEC § 51.974) - Internet Access to Course Information and serves as an important archive for your College and academic Department).
Canvas: Accessibility and Ally Scores
We have seen impressive aggregate Canvas accessibility scores across the colleges.
Thank you for your continued focus on your Ally Scores, as you add content to your
Canvas shells.
Canvas: Student Resources
We have extensive student resources on most topics, including how to use discussion thread, how to make and post a Panopto video, how
to use VoiceThread, and how to use Respondus Lockdown browser.
On the Blue Navigation Bar on the left inside Canvas, there is a button that lists
all the Canvas Help Resources, including our 24/7 hotline: +1 (833) 531-9763.
Canvas: Faculty Resources
The TTLC and CTLE have put together helpful online resources regarding Canvas:
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- TTLC: The Faculty Resource page.
- CTLE: Canvas Design Best Practices and check out the UHD templates in the Canvas Commons (inside Canvas).
- Note the Canvas 24/7 hotline for faculty as well via the help button in the navigation bar: +1 (833) 531-9763.
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Canvas: GTAP, OER, Follett Textbook and Miscellaneous Materials/Student Costs
Please be sure to check in the “my materials” area that your Follett Book Order materials
are present.
If you require students to purchase any additional materials, such as art supplies,
or a third-party proctoring system (Proctor U), please be sure to disclose the cost
in the syllabus. If you are using Proctor U (or something along these lines), be sure
that the scheduler included this in the course schedule notes, per SACSCOC.
On the other hand, if you are running an OER course, you will want to flag this information
to your students: they have until September 1, the day of record, to “opt out” of
the GTAP program.
HB2504 and 03A29: Requirements for Public Posting of CVs
Your CV must be publicly posted syllabi via UHD’s Self Service portal.
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myUHD>Faculty and Staff> UHD Self Service>Faculty CenterCenter>Upload CV
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For more detailed information on posting your eCV, visit eCV Instructions
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