Pre-Term Guidelines for Distance Writing Instructors

July 2007

At least one week before the start of each term, every distance writing instructor will need to do the following:

1)      Check to make sure that your course content has been migrated.

2)      If this is your first time teaching the course, contact Catherine if your course content has not been migrated.

3)      If this is not your first time teaching the course, contact OIT immediately to get the correct course content migrated (this will likely be the content from the last time your taught the course).

4)      Print and review every page of your course. Keep this copy for your records and mine (if the WVU eCampus server goes down, we may need this).

5)      Edit vocabulary where necessary (see DWP Course Style Guide).

6)      Edit page numbers for assignments where necessary (new editions of the book will require very careful attention to this).

7)      Post a “Welcome” email to the “Announcements” topic on the Discussions board telling students how to start the course (see template provided in the DWP Instructor’s Guide)

8)      Post your office hours (time and location) in an “Office Hours” topic to the “Announcements” topic on the Discussion board

9)      Create a "survey" in eCampus using the following document as a basis: DWP Start-of-Term Survey. In your welcome and on the Discussion Board, ask students to complete the survey in the first week of the term.

After your first time teaching a course:

Instructors teaching a distance writing course they have taught before, should use the following as a guide after receiving their course assignments:

1)      Fill out your book order and put it in Catherine’s box. Catherine will collect and review all the DWP book orders and submit them en masse to Cindy. You may change your book and/or course assignments after you have taught the course once.

2)      Visit the WVU eCampus site (https://ecampus.wvu.edu) and submit a form so that your existing course content can be migrated into your course shell for the next term you have been assigned to teach the course. In the past, this form was called a “VCRS” form (Vista Course Request System). Note: The name has since been changed on the WVU eCampus page (“Faculty” tab) to “WVU eCampus Request System”; however, the form itself still says “VCRS.”

3)      Make desired and up-dating revisions to your course in “Development” before it gets migrated (usually a couple weeks before the term begins, but you can ask OIT when exactly to expect this will be done). Please follow the most recent “Distance Writing Program Course Style Guide” to keep key aspects of your course consistent with the other distance writing courses.

4)      Send Catherine an email describing any revisions to the course along with an attached copy of your “Course Guidelines” if you make changes to it.