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For Instructors

Cheat Sheet for Instructors

1. Key Academic Dates

  • Start date for Upper Year courses (all courses except first year)- Wednesday, August 31, 2022

  • Start date for First year courses - Tuesday September 6, 2022

First/Last day of class (based on your schedule pattern) - First-year courses excluded: 

  • Mon (M) - Start date: Sept 12 / End date: Dec 5, 2022*
  • Mon-Wed (MW) - Start date: Aug 31 / End date: Dec 5, 2022*
  • Wed (W) - Start date: Aug 31 / End date: Nov 30, 2022
  • Tues (T) - Start date: Sept 6/ End date: Nov 29, 2022**
  • Tues-Thurs (TR) - Start date: Sept 1/ End date: Dec 1, 2022**
  • Thurs (R) - Start date: Sept 1/ End date: Dec 1, 2022
  • Wed-Fri (WF) - Start date: Aug 31 / End date: Dec 2, 2022
  • Fri (F) - Start date: Sept 2 / End date: Dec 2, 2022

* October 13 is the make-up lecture day for Monday classes and will follow a Monday schedule.

**October 14 is the make-up lecture day for Tuesday classes and will follow a Tuesday schedule.

  • 12-week term (24 classes)
  • Add/Drop deadline: Tuesday September 13, 2022

 

See other academic key dates

  • Statutory Holidays
    • Labour Day (Monday September 5, 2022)
    • Thanksgiving (October 11, 2022)
  • Fall Study Break - October 11 & 12, 2022 (no classes on those days)
  • Focus Week - October 17 to 21, 2022

**Please note that all Upper Year courses (except First Year courses) are suspended during Focus Week AND assignments / midterm exams should NOT be scheduled during that entire week**

  • Examination Period - December 7 to 21, 2022 (inclusive)
  • Term Essay / Term Papers deadline - December 14 at 3:00pm

Go to our website to see other law specific academic deadlines

3. Access to Minerva / myCourses

  • You will receive an email from HR with your credentials for your access to Minerva and myCourses only AFTER your appointment has been processed.
  • sao.law [at] mcgill.ca (Contact the SAO) if you cannot login to either website with your credentials.

5. myCourses

  • The only way students will be able to access a course and its material on myCourses is by registering for the course in Minerva.
  • Students on the registration wait list in Minerva can view the course material in myCourses.

Features

Further documentation

Technical assistance for myCourses is itsupport [at] mcgill.ca (provided by IT) or call 514- 398-3398.

7. Method of Evaluation

  • Your course outline must specify the method of evaluation and it cannot be changed after the first week of classes. Any changes before that time must be communicated to the SAO.

All written assignments worth 25% or higher must be submitted electronically and monitored by the SAO. Any midterms, quizzes or assignments below 25% will not be handled or monitored by the SAO. If students do not submit their work or are late in submitting, please inform the SAO immediately.

  • Minimum weight for a final examination is 25% of the course grade.
  • Maximum weight of a final examination is 75%.

 

  • If you are giving a grade for participation, please attach parameters to that grade rather than leaving how it will be assessed open-ended (i.e., tell the students what participation means such as a certain number of posts on the myCourses discussion board or a certain number of times they should report back to the class from discussions in break-out groups etc.)
  • In-term evaluations may be submitted via myCourses or email saoassignments.law [at] mcgill.ca. Please send a note to sao.law [at] mcgill.ca if you plan to have assignments (25% or higher) submitted via myCourses. The SAO will require access to the course in order to track late submissions.
  • Our policy regarding electronic submissions | Kindly inform students that they can only make one submission through myCourses or saoassignments.law [at] mcgill.ca. Any additional submissions will result in a grade penalty.
  • Our grading policy
  • Participation should not exceed 10% of the final grade. If participation (which may include attendance) is to exceed 10%, instructors must include a clear rubric in the course outline. Due to the current COVID situation we do not encourage the use of an attendance component to participation as students should stay home if they have symptoms.

9. Library Resources

  • Printed course reserves are available at the library.
  • Please adopt texts available electronically through the Law Library. Law librarians can confirm whether texts are available or obtainable electronically. They can also assist you with the links.
  • The library offers an article/chapter scan service from the print collections. See instructions on how to request a scan.
  • Alternatively, if the book is not available at the Library, it can be requested via our interlibrary loan (ILL) service. Here are the instructions 
  • Our Liaisons Librarians
    • Ana Rogers-Butterworth - ana.rogers-butterworth [at] mcgill.ca (Email)
    • Sonia Smith - sonia.smith [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

11. Class Cancellations

  • You cannot make schedule/time changes without prior consent and knowledge of the SAO.
  • Any and all class cancellations must be sao.law [at] mcgill.ca (communicated to the SAO).
  • You must also notify your class by email or post a notice on myCourses.
  • Make up classes should ideally be scheduled during Universal Break on Mondays or Wednesdays from 1:00pm-2:30pm (except when Faculty Council Meetings are scheduled – Jan 14, Feb 2, Mar 16, Apr 6, May 13).
  • Make up classes may be in the form of an in-person class scheduled at another time, a Zoom class or a pre-recorded lecture posted on MyCourses. Please inform your class of the date of the make-up class and the form it will take

13. Access to Course Evaluations

  • You can only view your course evaluation results once ALL final grades for the course are submitted and processed. This includes deferrals and extensions.
  • If you are teaching a full-year course, both your Fall and Winter course evaluations will only be available once the final grade for the course is finalized in May.
  • Results are available to instructors
  • Written comments are always treated as confidential and will never be available to students.
  • Trouble accessing your results? Call IT: 514-398-3398 or email sao.law [at] mcgill.ca

15. Other

  • Student accommodations such as extensions, deferrals, academic concessions must be directed to the sao.law [at] mcgill.ca (SAO). NOTE, you are not allowed to give a student an extension on any assessment.

 

2. Class Recordings

4. Minerva

Features

6. Teaching and Learning Services (TLS)

McGill’s Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) is available to assist individual instructors with various aspects of course design and the teaching and learning process. For more information on their services visit Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) - McGill University.

Access the Teaching and Learning Knowledge Base (TL KB) for information about planning and implementing your courses. Contact TLS for an individual consultation by filling in this form or calling 514-398-6648.

8. Writing Requirements

  • If your evaluation includes a final essay worth at least 75% of the overall grade, please confirm whether it meets the writing requirement guidelines
  • To qualify as a Writing Requirement, the paper must be worth at least 75% and have a minimum word count of 8,000 words (anything less must be approved by the Associate Dean). The writing requirement is intended to involve independent research by the student on a topic largely developed by the student and to give rise to a written product that includes proper footnoting and a bibliography. The word count includes footnotes but not bibliography.
  • Further details on writing requirement can be found in the following link
  • N.B. Course Lecturers are NOT permitted to supervise Independent Term Essays.

10. Accessible Materials Request

12. Examinations

  • Students receive only final letter grades in their law courses at McGill NOT percentage grades.

Faculty of Law’s grading system for B.C.L./J.D. students correlates descriptors to letter grades, as follows: 

 

  • A Real Excellence (4.0) o A- Excellence (3.7)
  • B+ Very Good (3.3) o B Good (3.0)
  • B- Reasonably good (2.7) o C+ Competence plus (2.3)
  • C Competence (2.0)
  • D Marginal Pass (complementary and elective courses)/Failure (compulsory courses). (1.0)
  • F Failure (0)

 

  • The class average norms for First Year courses in any section are: Within the range of 2.7 to 3.0
  • The class average norms for Upper Years courses are: Courses with an Enrolment of equal to or greater than 25: B- to B (2.7 to 3.0) | Courses with an Enrolment of less than 25: B- to B+ (2.7 to 3.3)

Please keep these class averages in mind when marking mid-term assignments as at the end of the course, the class average must be within these ranges.

  • Detailed Grading Memo will follow later in the term.
  • Please remember:
    • Graded assignments before Add/Drop deadline are NOT permitted.
    • Instructors are responsible for distributing midterm grades and feedback to students (i.e. on myCourses) for non-anonymous assessments.
    • Late penalties shall be assessed by the SAO. o Extensions on papers and exams can only be approved and granted by the SAO. (Instructors are NOT permitted to grant any extensions)
    • Assignments and midterm exams may NOT be scheduled during Focus Week, Weekends or Statutory Holidays.
  • All final examinations must be co-examined by a full-time member of the Faculty, who may refuse to approve an examination. List of full-time faculty members.
  • If you require assistance securing a co-examiner, please sao.law [at] mcgill.ca">reach out to the SAO.
  • Instructors and their co-examiners must password protect any electronic exchanging or forwarding of draft and final examinations.
  • Examinations must be co-examined and sent to the SAO two weeks before the examination date.
  • A final assessment cannot be worth more than 75% of the total grade.
  • Exam types available for the Winter 2022 final exams (tbc prior to Winter 2022 term)

Computerized Exams (ExamSoft/Examplify).

For the April 2022 exam period, the prospect of having a sit-down option is subject to health and safety guidelines. In the meantime the SAO has established four take-home exam options for instructors:

1. Scheduled in-person sit-down exam (open book or closed book) with set duration (Health and safety measures permitting.)

2. Scheduled take-home exam with a set duration using ExamSoft (traditional take-home format). This means that it is a) scheduled on a certain date and at a certain time, and b) of a set duration (specified number of hours). If students are in a different time zone, the SAO will accommodate them by allowing them to start and complete the exam at slightly different times.

3. Scheduled take-home exam with a set duration using Examplify (also known as a Remote Non-Secured Sit-Down exam). Students install Examplify on their CHEAT SHEET FOR INSTRUCTORS WINTER 2022 7 TOPIC INFORMATION computers to turn them into word processors. This option is the same as option 1, except that exam takers have no access to the Internet on the computer used to write their exam. Students will have access to their summaries and notes on their hard drive. This option attempts to duplicate the sit-down, open-book exam in a remote environment. This new form of take-home exam was instituted to avoid plagiarism.

4. Flexible take-home exam with a set duration. This means that students have a set number of hours to complete the exam, but may do so at any time during the exam period. This is essentially what we did for the Winter 2020 period due to the COVID-19 emergency.

5. Flexible take-home exam with no set duration, which means that it may be done at any time during the exam period. We do not monitor when it is downloaded, just when it is completed and sent in. This option has been used in the past when the exam is really a form of essay that must be done and submitted before the end of the exam period.

14. Office Hours

  • Office Hours should be held on a weekly basis during Universal Break or before / after class. This will need to be noted in advance to students via myCourses and on your course outline.
  • Officer Hours may take place in-person, via Zoom or phone call. Please specify mode of office hours in your course outlines.

16. Useful Websites

 

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