September 30, 2021

This message is distributed to All-Instructors, Academic-Assistant-Deans, and Academic-Department-Managers. (Click here to view description of distribution groups.)

The following is being sent on behalf of the Instructional Support Team

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The IS Team hopes that Fall is off to a good start. A few updates and opportunities:

General Assignment Classrooms: Thank you for your patience as the Instructional Development Staff work through some of the issues with the high demand and usage of the General Assignment Classrooms. Widespread supply chain issues last spring and over the summer led to significant delays in our classroom upgrades. If you have a problem please work with the Hall Manager if your class is in Campbell Hall, Buchanan Hall, IV Theaters, or Embarcadero Hall. If you are teaching in one of the unstaffed halls, please contact Media Equipment (805-893-3549 or help@id.ucsb.edu) for assistance. We will do everything in our power to ensure that your class can run successfully. We know that this quarter may be more stressful for you than previous quarters, and problems with the classroom equipment adds to that stress. Please treat our hard-working staff and student staff kindly as they try to correct any problems. We appreciate the patience, flexibility and kindness that we've seen from most faculty as we work to support all 100 GA classrooms.

GauchoSpace Best Practices - As you build out and plan your course please take a look at our best practices regarding grading and organization.

GauchoSpace Fall Support - Help requests and consultations over Zoom can be scheduled by contacting help@collaborate.ucsb.edu. The Faculty Resource Center in Kerr 1110 will remain closed for Fall quarter.

Other Resources Available to You:

Join the KeepTeaching Nectir channel to ask questions, get timely teaching resources, announce your successes, and congratulate your colleagues.

Doing In-person Multiple Choice (and Short Answer) Exams? Consider GradeScope!
Instructional Development strongly encourages faculty who want to conduct in-person multiple choice exams to use GradeScope bubble sheets rather than Parscore/scantron. You'll create your exam as usual, download the Gradescope bubble sheet template and print it with the exam to distribute to students. You’ll be able to scan students’ tests and bubble sheets using any scanner (in your department or in ID) to upload to GradeScope. GradeScope automatically scores the exam, produces analysis, allows regrading, comments, etc., all through the GradeScope online interface, which you can access from any computer. Additionally, you can mix handwritten exam questions with multiple choice questions, in the same exam. The campus plans to phase out Parscore; if you need to use it this quarter, please contact ID .

Fall Workshops on Equitable and Just Teaching and Learning
UCSB’s CITRAL has upcoming workshops and talks on faculty work and workload, teaching interculturally, systemic injustice in STEM, and more. Email to join the CITRAL listserv for regular updates on guest workshops, speakers, and events.

Special workshop invitation from UC Davis - Join us for an interactive presentation on Mobile Learning at UC Campuses
Fri, Oct 1, Noon-1pm on Zoom; Register through UC Davis
A team of UC Instructional Designers doing mobile learning research on UC Campuses since 2017 will do an interactive presentation highlighting UC faculty who have successfully used mobile learning inside and outside of classrooms to be more efficient, increase student engagement, build community, and gather data about student learning. It will include examples from UCSB instructors and TAs!