Teaching Resources

Pursuant to policy T20.01 section 2.2, at least two weeks before registration, instructors are responsible for providing the Department Chair with a course outline and a statement setting out the course requirements and how these will relate to course grades. Instructors have teaching assignment in current semester are now able to post their own course outlines for the next semester (login to outlines.sfu.ca with your SFU Computing ID and password). The instructions to do this can be found here: http://www.sfu.ca/outlines/help/

Sessional Instructors can send the course outlines to Ryan Ostonal (sppugs@sfu.ca) to post on their behalf.

Your outline should include the following:

• Course Details
• Course-level Educational Goals
  
• Grading
• Note
• Requirements
• Materials
• Materials and Supplies
• Required Reading
• Recommended Reading

A sample of previous course outlines used for your course can be obtained at here or from Undergraduate Programs. Older outlines are available here.

If at all possible, when choosing your texts, check with the publisher to ensure the texts you are using are still in print. This will alleviate problems and last minute substitutions. Please telephone the SFU Bookstore (778-782-3656) to obtain the names and telephone numbers of publishers or the name and telephone number of a publisher's local representative.

A list of publishers' contacts can also be found at the following link: at.sfu.ca/rOdqFs

Canvas (Learning Management System)

We encourage you to set up an account with Canvas for your course. You can use this web page to provide information to your students (course outline, class discussions, other website links and readings).

If you are not familiar with setting up the course shell on Canvas, the setup instructions and a FAQ that covers most of the essentials can be found here: http://www.sfu.ca/canvas/instructors.html

For an overview of Canvas or if you have any questions, please email educ-tech@sfu.ca.

Using Zoom at SFU

Faculty and staff can use Zoom for no charges using an SFU computing ID. For set up instructions and tech support, visit this link here for details.

You will need your SFU ID and password to access your rosters. Access to the class roster will not be available until your contract begins. To activate your SFU ID go to SFU Computing Account Activation and enter your employee number and birth date. (If you were an SFU student, then your SFU number is your employee number, if not then contact our office.)

Next, log onto go.sfu.ca and enter your SFU Computing ID and password. After logging into the information system, click on the 'Self-Service' option in the left hand menu. This should open up to show more options. Find the 'Faculty Centre' hyperlink towards the bottom of the left hand menu. Click the link and the Faculty Centre should open up.

Step by step instructions for accessing your class and grade rosters can be found here. Please log in using your SFU Computing ID and password.

Access to the grade roster will not be available until the end of the semester.

If you must cancel a scheduled class, please contact the program administrator as early as possible, so that appropriate signs can be posted to advise students. A full list of program administrators is available via the staff directory. 

During the first week of the semester, students are able to swap tutorials themselves through goSFU. If a tutorial is full, they are encouraged to waitlist or check again until space is available. Starting from the second week, students will require permission from the instructor to switch a tutorial or to swap tutorials with another student in the class. It is at the instructor's discretion whether to permit switching or admit a student to a course or tutorial that is already full. Other factors such as room capacity and class size will also be considered before the request is granted or rejected. Students are only permitted to attend their registered tutorial and may not sit in another section.

In Summer 2018, Fall 2018 and Spring 2019, course evaluations will be completed on paper for courses that taught by Sessional Instructors and tutorials taught by Teaching Assistants. Evaluation paper packages will be sent 3 weeks before semester end by intercampus mail. 

The following applies to all courses taught by faculty members.

Effective Fall 2015, courses in Faculty of Education will participate in the Student Evaluation of Teaching and Courses (SETC) online course evaluation system. Information regarding SETC can be found here: http://www.sfu.ca/setc.html

Around week 6 of class, you will receive emails with support materials from the implementation team at your SFU email account. The online system will consist of institution wide questions, department (Faculty of Education) wide questions and 4 instructor context questions. You will have a choice of compiling your own instructor questions from the question bank or creating your own. Separate emails will be sent in week 10 of class for details.

Students are able to access the course evaluations in the last 2 weeks of class from the email link they receive, from Canvas, or logging on https://sfu.bluera.com/sfu). This is all done automatically by the Blue System so there is no need for the instructor to upload or post anything to Canvas. Instructors should give time to students during class to finish the evaluations online. The instructors evaluation report will be available at the end of the first week of the subsequent semester. Another email will be sent with a link to access your report. Your access to the evaluation will be granted through your SFU Computing ID and password. A pdf version can be saved after you log in. Saving the report in pdf is crucial as you may not have access to the evaluation report after your contract ends.

All communications will be sent by emails to your SFU email account. If you're not checking it regularly, it is strongly suggested that you to forward your SFU emails to the email account that you use. Instructions can be found here: https://www.sfu.ca/sfumail/using-sfu-mail/mail/managing-mail/forward-mail-to-another-account.html

For additional guidelines on grading, refer to the Guidelines for Grading in Undergraduate Courses memo that is attached to the SI, TA and TM offer email.

All grades must be entered online through the SFU Student Information Management System (SIMS). You must have an active SFU Computing ID to access your class roster.

To activate your SFU ID:

1. Go to SFU Computing Account Activation,
   
2. Enter your employee number and birth date. (If you were an SFU student, then your SFU number is your employee number, if not then contact our office.)

To enter grades in SIMS:

1. Log onto go.sfu.ca and enter your SFU ID and password.
   
2. Click on the 'Self-Service' option in the left hand menu. This should open up to show more options.
   
3. Click the 'Faculty Centre' hyperlink towards the bottom of the left hand menu and the Faculty Centre should open up.

Remember to ‘SAVE’ your grades after inputting. Review and then set to ‘Ready for Review’ and ‘SAVE’ again.

Grades are NOT final until the Director has approved them. Please remember that students will be able to access their grades once they have been approved and sent to Student Services, where they will be posted to go.sfu.ca. The Undergraduate Programs office staff is not able to give out any grade information to students.

Grade change

Effective May 1st, 2015. Grade Changes are now on-line through go.sfu.ca.  For information and training see:  www.sfu.ca/students/source/gradechange.

Sessionals who have an expired contract will need to contact Undergraduate Programs to initiate a grade change.

Here is a simple step-by-step for the new online grade change form:

1. Login to go.sfu.ca
2. Click on the Grade Change tab (next to Faculty Center)
3. Click on Instructor - Grade Change Form
4. Click on Grade Roster for the appropriate course
5. Click on Grade Change for the appropriate student
6. Using the drop down menus, select the appropriate reason and revised grade
7. In the text box add reason for the grade change
8. Click submit and confirm that you want to submit the change (at which point it will go to Director of Undergraduate Programs for approval)

If you have any questions or get stuck along the way, please don't hesitate to contact Tina at edugpa@sfu.ca or Kim at educuga@sfu.ca .

Deferred grades

Deferred grades are due from the instructor at the end of the first week of classes of the following semester. A DE grade will automatically change to an N in the first week of classes of following semester if no Change of Grade notification (done by online Grade Change procedure above) is submitted.

Extended deferred grades

These are requested in the form of a letter (or email) from the instructor to the Director.

Final grade appeals

The student is advised to first contact the instructor to resolve the issue. If no successful resolution is reached, the next step is a written appeal to the Director. Additional information is available online here. 

Recruitment of off-campus resource personnel should only occur when staff from the faculty or university are not available to meet the needs of the occasion.

In all cases, members of the faculty's instructional staff must have written approval from Undergraduate Programs before making any commitments to resource people. Effective Fall 2015, if the request is approved, a gift may be purchased (no alcohol). Please contact:

As per the Copyright Act, instructors at Simon Fraser University must follow specific guidelines when using copyright protected material in their class. Information regarding the use of copyright material by instructors can be found at this link: http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/academic-integrity/copyright/instructors