Dr. Charlotte Usselman at a KPE Grad Seminar

Instructor Resources

The following teaching resources are addressed to full and part-time instructors in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education with the purpose of providing the tools to tackle the variety of topics relevant to effective teaching and learning,  as well as related university regulations.

Guide to Creating Your Course Outline

The course outline serves as a contract between the instructor and their students. As such, there are the following important components that instructors must include in their outlines.

KPE advises all instructors to carefully review McGill's Teaching and Learning Service's (TLS) website to consult the many online resources available to prepare a course outline. Course Outline Guide.

KPE requires that all instructors include in their course outlines the following three statements, in conformity with university policies and Senate resolutions:

Academic Integrity

"McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures (click here for more information)”. (Approved by Senate on 29 January 2003)

Right to submit written work in English and French

“In accord with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded.” (Approved by Senate on 21 January 2009) (Not applicable to courses in which acquiring proficiency in a language is one of the objectives)

Use of Text-matching software

 "Instructors who may adopt the use of text-matching software to verify the originality of students' written course work must register for use of the software with Educational Technologies (support.ist [at] mcgill.ca) and must inform their students before the drop/add deadline, in writing, of the use of text-matching software in a course." (Approved by Senate on 1 December 2004).

Attendance Policy
Example: Attendance to this course is mandatory. If a student misses more than one-sixth (4 hours) of the course, the instructor will exclude that student from further participation and evaluation in the course.

Special Circumstances
Students with disabilities should contact the course instructor to arrange a time to discuss their situation. It is advisable that students contact the Office for Students with Disabilities beforehand at 514-398-6009 or online at https://www.mcgill.ca/osd.”

Course Evaluation
Students are strongly encouraged to fill out the MERCURY ONLINE EVALUATION for this course at the end of term. Online course evaluations serve primarily as a tool towards teaching improvement, informing students about courses, and as one of the elements for evaluating the teaching performance of staff for reappointment, tenure and promotion purposes. For more information consult the following link: https://www.mcgill.ca/tls/teaching/course-evaluations

Mobile Computing and Communication Devices in Classes at McGill
Please refer to the guidelines to establish the policy for your own course.

 

Submitting your outline for review:

Course instructors are required to send an electronic version via e-mail of their course outline to the studentaffairs.kpe [at] mcgill.ca (Student Advisor)no later than a month prior to the start of classes, to allow the Undergraduate or Graduate Program Directors to review the outlines.

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What does my classroom look like?

The Classroom Audiovisual Instructions tool is accessible from the myMcGill portal. This tool allows you to choose a building and a specific classroom in order to view images of the room and layout of AV equipment, a listing of each piece of equipment, operating instructions, and video demonstrations.

Instructors are encouraged to consult this tool and make sure they know how to set up their equipment before the term begins.

To access the tool: IT Knowledge Base Article

  1. Log into myMcgill using your McGill Username and McGill Password.
  2. Click on the IT Tool tab.
  3. Under Quick Links to IT Sites, select Classroom Audiovisual Instructions.
  4. Select a building and a room.

Please note that room capacity is unfortunately not available on this site. You can find capacity information for rooms within the Faculty of Education here: Classroom Information. For other rooms please contact the nada.abu-merhy [at] mcgill.ca (departmental course scheduler).

Need equipment installed?
For more information on equipping classrooms with technology for teaching, contact the support.ist [at] mcgill.ca (ICS Service Desk).

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Mercury Online Course Evaluations

The deadlines for students to complete online course evaluations through Minerva can be found on the Mercury Course Evaluations web site. It is crucial for students to know these dates when they are asked to submit an evaluation. Please remind students of these deadlines.

How easy is it for students to complete their evaluations?

It only takes 5-10 minutes for students to fill out their course evaluations and a great way for their voices to be heard to impact positive change in the program.

To access their course evaluation(s), students simply need to log into their Minerva account where a pop-up window will appear prompting students to fill out their evaluations.

If no pop-up window appears, they can access the course evaluations by:

  • Selecting Student Menu
  • Clicking on Mercury Online Course Evaluation Menu
  • Then on Submit your course evaluations

Increasing response rates from students

As an instructor, there are a number of things you can do to help increase students' response rates for course evaluations. Making a note of the evaluation dates in the course outline, allowing students to bring in their laptops and fill them out during class time and posting reminders on myCourses, are good starting points.

Of course, there is no better way of getting students to take a few minutes of their day to evaluate a course than to simply talk to them about the importance of doing so and how they can actually cause real positive change in the program for both current and future students.

Please visit the Mercury Course Evaluations web site to see the policy on Course Evaluations. Many of the main points have been summarized above already, but there are even more creative ideas on how to encourage participation included in the document.

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Student's Rights and Responsibilities:

McGill University course lecturers are expected to know about their Students' Rights and Responsibilities in order to ensure that reciprocal respect and a positive learning environment are fostered.

 

 

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Important Dates and Deadlines

For a List of important dates and deadlines for the Current Academic year ​please visit Key academic dates.  For a list of Holy days for each calendar year, please visit Holy days.

 
 
 

Copy Cards and Mailboxes

Should you need to make photocopies for the course you have been assigned to teach, KPE has a photocopier available in Room 207 (Access hours – Daily from 8:30 am – 4:45 pm)

Each course is allocated with 20 double-sided photocopies/per student registered in the course.

Access to the photocopiers for the duration of your contract is available using your McGill ID Card. For instructions on how to set up a laptop to access uPrint printer options please read the IT Knowledgebase article under the "About: uPrint (campus printing)” section. For those contract staff members who do not have Staff ID Card access to the uPrint printers, please contact the admin.kpe [at] mcgill.ca (Administrative Assistant) to make arrangements to pick up a photocopy card should you require one.

With the exception of instructors from the Department of Athletics, a mailbox will be assigned in Room 216 (Access hours - Daily from 8:30 am – 4:45 pm)

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Ordering Textbooks/Course Packs

Please note that it is the responsibility of individual instructors to place orders for textbooks or custom course packs that they require their students to use through the duration of the course. In an effort to be as "green" as we can be, KPE encourages all professors to consider using myCourses  as a mechanism for distribution of required readings to students.

Faculty - Course Materials Information:  https://lejames.ca/textbooks

TEXTBOOK ADOPTION

LE JAMES Bookstore uses Verba (a requisition management system) to contact and guide you through the course materials ordering process. If you have been assigned to teach a class, you should have received an email from LE JAMES prompting you to register as an instructor.

If you did not receive this email, you can do one of the following:

  • Click here to open a new window and set yourself up as the instructor of a particular course (you will need to use your @mcgill.ca or @mail.mcgill.ca email address).
  • Contact the coursematerials.bookstore [at] mcgill.ca (Course Materials Department) and they will be happy to do this for you.


PLEASE NOTE: It is highly recommended that you request your textbooks at least 8 weeks prior to the beginning of your class to make sure it is available on time.

For more information regarding this service, please click here.

As of the Winter 2021 semester, the Library took over the production of course packs from the Bookstore. All course pack requests should be directed to McGill Library's Course Readings Service.

 

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myCourses

myCourses is McGill's learning management system used by most courses as a supplement to classroom-based instruction and can also be seen as an alternative to expensive course packs and textbooks. The McGill Library website provides a vast array of additional access points to teaching and learning content and research materials, including over 50,000 e-journal titles and 2 million e-books. Links directly to instructor defined readings can be easily included in myCourses WebCT as the primary source for student reading materials. Liaison librarians in each branch library can provide further assistance.

myCourses course sections are automatically created for all courses offered at McGill. Students automatically have access to the courses in which they are formally enrolled.

Some key features to myCourses are:

  • Links to library and other resources
  • Detailed selective release of content and course components
  • Pop-up announcements from instructors
  • Multiple options for assignments and assessments (e.g. group/individual, gradable/non-gradable, public/private and resubmission)

 

Getting Started for instructors

For steps on getting started, tutorials, frequently asked questions and help with using myCourses please consult myCourses for Instructors.

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Recommended Guidelines for Returning Assignments/Tests to Students

We encourage instructors to return assignments/tests during class hours, however, in cases where assignments are submitted after the end of classes, the following options are strongly recommended:

  1. You may ask students to submit self-addressed, stamped envelopes with their assignments so that they can be mailed out at the end of term.
  2. When returning assignments after the last day of class, you may drop assignments off to KPE’s General Office in alphabetical order, and a clearly labeled envelope or box (Course No. & section - Course Name - Instruction Name - Term).
  3. Please notify your students that their assignments will be kept in the department for pick up for 1 month only. At that time, any assignments not picked up will be disposed.

 

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Plagiarism and Text-Matching Software

Any suspicion of plagiarism or cheating is to be reported to the disciplinary officer of the Faculty of Education along with corroborating evidence.

Dealing with academic dishonesty on your own: violates McGill regulations, denies students their rights to due process, and may lead to a successful student appeal on grounds of a procedural technicality.

Instructors can consult McGill's Academic Integrity website to review various strategies that instructors can implement to reduce these occurrences.

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Text Matching Software for Instructors:

For More information on text-matching software please visit the McGill IT Knowledge Base article: Text-matching Software

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