Please review these important materials related to your role as an instructor.

Responsibilities and Deadlines

• Order textbooks and desk copies for your class. There is a blue icon on MyASU next to the course. If you click on the icon and fill out the information for the desired book the request will be sent to the ASU bookstore.
• Request Canvas Course Shell and update it accordingly.
• Submit syllabi to the Student and Academic Services team by the first week of classes
• Check your assigned room via the Classroom Directory a couple of weeks before your class starts to make sure there are no major issues.
• Turn in grades by deadline according to the Academic Calendar.

Course Evaluations

Course evaluations usually auto-open one week before the last day of classes in the semester. Once evaluations are open, students will receive an email with links to the evaluation(s) for your class and subsequent email reminders. However, you will also be notified and asked to remind your students either in class, via email, and/or on Canvas to complete the evaluation. Well after grades are posted you will be sent a link to access your evaluations, as well as any TA evaluations that were taken for your class, (note: TA’s will only be evaluated if they are leading discussion/lab or are instructor of record; they will only have access to their own evaluation). However, classes that have three or fewer students will not be evaluated for reasons of anonymity.

To view past evaluations online please log onto MyASU and on the first page you see under the "Teaching & Support Tools" box you will see a link that says "course evaluations."

Instructional Design

Resources from The College

SHESC Master Syllabus

Please use and customize this template to ensure your syllabus contains all required elements.

Download (Last update June 2019)

Posting Grades

Guide to posting and importing final grades

Grade Changes

If you need to request a grade change you can do so through your grade roster. Go into the grade roster by clicking the icon in your MyASU page. Once grades are posted, the "request grade change" icon will display at the top-right of the roster. Selecting this icon will take you to the Grade Change roster. Then just choose the grade you want to change and enter the reason and submit. The request then gets sent to the Level 1 approval (director of undergraduate or graduate studies), then onto the Level 2 approval (The College) and then to the Registrar’s Office. It usually takes about 5 days for the change to go through. Here is a job aid that explains the process in more detail.

Incompletes

Please remember that in order to receive and grade of “I” it is the school’s policy that the student:

1. Cannot finish the class due to a situation beyond the student’s control (serious illness, death in the family, etc.);
2. Has completed at least 80% of the course work and has a passing grade at the time of the incomplete; and
3. Can finish the course work with the same instructor (the student should be able to finish the course work outside of class, i.e. repeating the class is not an option for an incomplete.

Please fill this form out completely and sign. You can then bring the form to SHESC 233 or submit it by email. It is important that you follow these procedures to protect both you and the student’s interests. More information about incomplete grades can be found here.

Honors Enrichment Contracts and Ideas

Getting students out of the classroom to work on a project develops a variety of skills. The Honors College can find space for honors contract group meetings if requested by the faculty member.

For an honors contract the professor can:

• create a group project; the contract does not have to be individually tailored.
• establish a meeting time for the group (e.g., using a doodle poll); those who cannot make this meeting time cannot sign up for an honors enrichment contract in that course
• have consequences (e.g., reduced course grade by a half grade) if the student does not fulfill the contract. The consequence is on contract. They are the responsibility of the professor, so s/he can choose not to act on an unfulfilled contract.

Archaeology

In 200‐level intro course:

• Normally tailors projects that link a student’s major or interests to course material
• Planned a group project to compare Aztec and Inca cities.

In a 400‐level course (not honors): Had students apply archaeological models to the ASU campus built environment, based on “fieldwork” on campus. This very successful project can be adapted to an honors project.

In 200‐level course: Has students, in the role of consultants for Pixar, write a story or make a detailed drawing of a day in the life of the Ice Man that could be animated (by Pixar). In this two‐part project students first provide a summary of what is known about the Ice Man with a bibliography of peer‐reviewed publications. For the second part they write the story in a compelling way.

As an extra‐credit assignment students can provide photos of instances that document that the US is organized as a state‐level society. This assignment but could be expanded for an honors enrichment contract.

Global Health

In 400‐level courses: Developed a group project addressing the question: Why do we overeat? The students used anthropological methods to address this question. They collected quantitative data in grocery stores regarding the protein, carbohydrate, and fat in different foods, and then learned to analyze these data. They observed someone they knew shopping, and then asked them about their decisions. They also observed a family meal, and then asked people about their choices. The group met 5 times together for an 1 hour each time over the course of the semester. 12 students completed the contract; 15 would be about the maximum this kind of project can handle. He set up the assignments on blackboard, and bb could be used to set up an email list; the teaching assistant participated as well since it was in line with his own interests.

Sociocultural

As an extra credit assignment for a 300‐level SOS course he had students design a nutritious meal on $1.25, allowing up to 4 people to pool their funds to do this. They then described the meal and wrote reflective statements. It could be possible to scale this up and make more substantial for a contract project.

Another extra credit project he sometimes assigns is to have students develop a tourist brochure that makes the case for sustainable development at a particular international destination.

For the ASB 102 honors section he assigned four short fieldwork projects

• participant observation at an ethnic food market or on the light rail
• interview an informant on how to make something,
• a kinship chart
• life history of a fellow student or family member

For a 300‐level course: He established a book club with the 4 honors students; they met every other Friday at Charlies’ to talk about an assigned reading. The students selected two books; Jim suggested two he has read or should read. Not standard textbooks. Or read parts (selected chapters). The readings were more in the public forum than standard assigned anthropology readings and included Bird on Fire, Paradise Built in Hell, and Spirit Level.

Several current students are preparing Power Point presentations on chosen topics for real or hypothetical audiences, in lieu of a written paper.

To develop new ideas for contracts, periodically sponsors a class contest with a $25 prize for the best student‐generated idea for an honors contract; the TA judges the entries.

Other ideas

Have students build an exhibit.

In 400‐level classes make time for students to give presentations on their research towards the end of semester.

Develop web‐based units or activities for a section of a course. With enough contract students it would be possible to have teams of students, each working on a different component. May pick one to incorporate into class (let the students know that this may be an outcome).

Use invited lecturers or conferences as a jumping off point. The students select a few people at the conference, learn about them, attend the conference, and meet them.

The honors contract page on the Honors College website provides a list of ideas.