Newsletter November 6, 2025
cte.utah.edu

In academia, the months of November and April tend to be the busiest and most emotionally exhausting. November comes with the rise of flu and cold season, a holiday and potential travel and/or family interactions, a time change, national elections, and more. When we were in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there was a lot of talk about giving grace. That talk has diminished, although the mental health crisis and the need for grace have not (see Chronicle of Higher Ed, 2020). 

In the context of teaching, practicing grace doesn’t mean lowering your standards. It means really seeing students and acknowledging what they’re going through and providing structure and resources to help them succeed, even if that means adapting current practices. Our new Accessibility Essentials feature in our newsletter (read on below) and on our website is one way to give students structure to succeed. Other things to think about as the semester winds down are doing check-ins with your students (Poll Everywhere is great for this), being flexible with course policies or schedules where appropriate, providing in-class time for instructor consultations or group projects, and providing clear and timely feedback with the help of structured rubrics. And don’t forget to practice grace with yourself, too. 

Banner:

Pixelated background with the Universal Access icon. Banner reads "Accessibility Essentials: Your simple guide to digital accessibility!"

Designing for accessibility isn't exclusively about supporting learners with disabilities and official accommodations– our goal is to create a learning environment conducive to learning for as many students as possible. 

The main accessibility challenge we must address in digital course content is making that content compatible with assistive technologies. 

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a set of international standards used to gauge how usable web content is for those using assistive technologies.

Meeting these standards is simpler than you'd think. Over the next few newsletter issues, we'll be sharing some easy tips and tricks to make your content shine! 

To get started, let's look at the first guideline:

All images, graphs, & figures included in the course have alternative text available or are marked as decorative.

Alternative text (also known as alt text) is a written description of a non-text element on a web page, like a picture or a chart. 

Image in body text:

What does alt text look like? Two browser windows are shown: one shows an image, and the other depicts what alt text might look like on a web page.

Alt text is displayed when that element cannot be loaded, or when a user is navigating with a screen reader software. It explains what the element is, and why it is there. Learn how to write great alt text with us!

SCITE.AI TRAINING
Tuesday, November 18th
11am - 12pm
Marriott Library room: 1110 & Zoom

CTE & THE LIBRARY

Learn how to use scite.ai to find research, evaluate sources, and teach students to think critically about citations.

This session will include pedagogy for classroom and hands-on practice.

Click here to register!

SUPPORTING YOUR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN THE CLASSROOM

Discover practical strategies to connect with your international students and help them thrive in your course. Gain simple, effective techniques that not only boost your students’ success, but also strengthen your own confidence as an instructor in a diverse classroom.

WEDNESDAY
19th November 2025

WHERE
GC 3105 Conference Room

TIME
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Student Course Feedback Window for Full Term Courses: November 27 - December 15

Reading Day : December 5 (no exams may be held)

Final Exam Period and Schedule: December 8 - 12

Grades Due: December 17 

In accordance with PPM 6-100 and UT HB261, faculty are required to post their core syllabi in advance of the beginning of the semester. This helps students get a sense of what courses will cover and require before classes begin. To streamline syllabus posting deadlines, all course syllabi (mandatory AND non-mandatory courses) should post their syllabi for Spring 2026 two weeks before classes begin — December 22, 2025. 

All course syllabi must be posted to the class schedule via CIS

All syllabi for mandatory courses should also be posted to Simple Syllabus

For more information about syllabus requirements, mandatory institutional policies, and additional syllabus suggestions, please see CTE’s Syllabus Design page. 

Appointment to the prestigious rank of University Professor recognizes extraordinary skill in or commitment to undergraduate teaching with an emphasis on crossing conventional boundaries, interdisciplinary relationships, and a strong commitment to liberal education. Individuals considered for the University Professorship will have demonstrated exceptional ability in challenging and stimulating the intellectual curiosity of undergraduate students. The University Professorship offers faculty the opportunity to launch a project that has the potential to improve and enhance the University's undergraduate curriculum within the changing landscape of higher education.

University Professors hold this special rank for two years. The funding associated with this award supports:

Open to tenured or tenure-line faculty. More information can be found on the University Professorship page. Deadline to submit applications is December 1, 2025. 

Policy 6-100: Instruction and Evaluation is one of the most fundamental university regulations because it establishes requirements for instruction such as grading, course numbers, adding and dropping

courses, and academic standards. While certain sections of this policy have been revised over the years, it has not undergone comprehensive review for quite some time. At the direction of T. Chase Hagood, Vice Provost for Student Success, a working group of faculty, administrators, and students reviewed the policy section by section and is proposing revisions to ensure the policy clearly communicates requirements, aligns with university practices, and promotes student success. The working group proposed changes for several reasons, such as to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, to improve safety for the university community, to ensure consistent and equitable processes across the university, to increase transparency for students, and to clarify the language. Changes are not intended to impact academic freedom or faculty rights related to teaching or primary responsibility related to course content. A summary of the proposed changes has been provided by the Writing Group. 

The PPM 6-100 Writing Group will host 3 town halls to get feedback on proposed revisions before the final draft goes to the Academic Senate:

Wednesday, October 29 from 3-4pm in person in Sill Center Conference Room

Tuesday, November 11 from 11am-12pm in person in Alumni Hall, EHSEB

Monday, January12 from 2-3pm virtual via Zoom. Click here to register.

Graduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education

Key details:

Prepares students for academic higher education teaching positions

Open to graduate students at the U

Courses taken prior to Fall 2024 may count toward the certificate

Flexible online class format

Required courses:

1 hour Trainings are divided by 30 minutes for a Canvas related tool, followed by 30 minutes for an Adobe related tool.

11-Nov Zoom Recording & Breakouts/Express Collab.

18-Nov Lucid Chart-Mind Mapping/Express D

2-Dec Import for Spring Semester/Adobe Assnmt

9-Dec Feedback Fruits/Adobe Express Holiday Fun

Free, but registration is required using this link: https://utah.zoom.us/meeting/register/-tmCu_trSIWNmffmJI8Eqw#/registration

John R Park Teaching Fellowship

November 10

Community Engaged Teaching and Scholarship Award

November 10

University Professorship

December 1

Early Career Teaching Award

December 5

University  Teaching Grants

January 26, and March 6