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Preparing for the Start of the Semester

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13Jan’25

Feature Stories, News & Features, Spotlights

January 13, 2025

CETLI has gathered several relevant resources to help instructors and graduate student instructors prepare for the semester ahead. If you would like one-on-one support for your teaching needs, CETLI staff are available to consult with you at any point in the semester.   

Setting Expectations for the Semester

  • General Syllabus Guidelines - This page includes syllabus design considerations and specific syllabus examples from Penn faculty to help you communicate your policies on attendance, promote student wellness, and set a welcoming tone.  
  • AI Policy Ideas - CETLI has collected examples to help you develop and communicate an AI course policy that reflects your course learning goals and clarifies acceptable and unacceptable use for student. 
  • Using AI to Make Teaching More Efficient - For instructors who want to use AI in their teaching, this page includes ways to construct prompts that effectively save time and produce better results.
  • Using AI to Create Assessments - This page discusses ways instructors might use AI tools to help create assessments.
  • Combining Structure & Flexibility in Your Course - It can be helpful to remember that combining structure and flexibility does not mean no deadlines. Instead, you might consider how you will provide consistent structure—especially around grading. Then, prepare a plan for aspects of the course you can make more flexible to help students continue to learn when their coursework is disrupted. 

Building Your Canvas Site

  • Weingarten Canvas Resources Page - The Weingarten Center has created Canvas pages (one for graduate students and another for undergraduate students) detailing Weingarten's services. You can import the page directly into your site.

Preparing Graduate Students for the Future

  •  CETLI Teaching and Job Market Resources for Graduate Students – Whether you are a faculty member interested in providing more resources to your graduate student mentees or a graduate student preparing for the job market, consider this compendium of CETLI’s resources for graduate students. These include the teaching certificate to help graduate students develop their teaching at Penn and consultations to help graduate students prepare for the job market and roles as future faculty.

Resources for Teaching Online

  • Creating Community in Your Online Course - To encourage students to thrive in online courses, CETLI has gathered some common considerations and potentially useful tools to foster connection between instructors and students.  

News & Features

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