December 05, 2024

Center for Teaching Excellence finals and winter break services

With final exams and SIU Carbondale’s winter break approaching, the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) wants to remind faculty of support available over the next several weeks.

24-hour D2L support

CTE will provide 24-hour D2L support with a variety of chat options, including customer service agents providing personalized service. Agents can log on to courses and fix issues in real time. Instructors are encouraged to remind students this service is available to them as well.

The D2L help line is 888-877-3281. Email and chat options are also available.

Extended hours for exam processing

To assist instructors with examination grades, CTE offers Scantron (bubble sheet) grading services in its office in Morris Library, Room 110. Hours will be extended to 5:30 p.m. each day during finals week, Monday through Friday, Dec. 9-13, to assist instructors with late exam grading. Faculty who need Scantron test sheets can request them via email at teach@siu.edu and can receive them via campus mail or by stopping by the CTE to pick them up.

Faculty ‘fuel-up’ is Dec. 10

CTE will have coffee and treats including mini-muffins and donuts available for instructors from 9 to 11 a.m. Dec. 10 in its office.

AI and plagiarism detection

Faculty are encouraged to plan ahead for their spring courses by attending “Copyleaks Basics for Instructors,” from 11 to 11:45 a.m. Dec. 16. CTE’s instructional design team will lead training that covers the new artificial intelligence and plagiarism detection tool that is replacing the Turnitin detection tool. Faculty may attend this virtual presentation via Microsoft Teams.

‘SPARK Lite’ is Jan. 8-10

CTE will host “SPARK Lite” online sessions in early January for all new and returning SIU Carbondale faculty and staff. SPARK stands for Support, Professional development, Advancement, Resources and Knowledge. The sessions will cover topics, including D2L support, AI video assignments and video coaching, lockdown browser and Respondus monitor assistance and LinkedIn learning assistance. Another Copyleaks training will also be provided as well. Registration is open via Microsoft Teams.

The session schedule is:

  • Jan. 8 — 1-4 p.m.
  • Jan. 9 — 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
  • Jan. 10 — 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Contact CTE with any questions or concerns at 618-453-2258 or by email at teach@siu.edu. In addition, CTE has a page for additional upcoming events over the next few weeks.