Teaching Policies & Syllabus Resources

Basic Information

Contact Information

In some recent end-of-semester student commentary, some students have complained about faculty that don't hold regular office hours. Holding regular office hours is a requirement. You need at least 2 hours of weekly hours per course. Thus, if you are teaching 2 courses, you should have at least 4 hours of office hours identified for your students. While faculty may schedule virtual office hours, students in F2F classes need to be given the option to meet in person if requested. F2F meetings may take place in the faculty's office or in another larger room if the faculty member would prefer. If you are going to miss office hours for some unforeseen reason, please email your students.

Course Materials

Faculty are expected to use the D2L gradebook and it should be kept up to date so as to keep their students advised of their progress throughout the semester. FERPA precludes faculty from posting any grade information that would identify students using their MUID. D2L maintains the necessary student confidentiality.

Course Specific Information

You may want to include detailed information on course sessions, meeting dates, quiz or exam dates, and proper etiquette in class. Many instructors include a detailed course schedule.

Note: The computer lab on the first floor is designated for use by Business Administration students only and non-business students as a result cannot swipe in. If you have students from outside the college in your class (e.g., a business minor) and you require them to work with some software in our College computer lab, they will need to have their ID card activated to be able to enter the lab. These students can get their ID activated by emailing their name and MU ID to (biz@marquette.edu). Within 5 business days, their card will be activated so they can use the card swipe to access the lab.

Course and Program Learning Outcomes

It is a good practice to include the following in your course syllabus.

If your course is a required or elective course in a program, you may want to discuss how this course supports one or more of those learning outcomes. For example, "This course is an elective for the Operations and Supply Chain Management major which has learning outcomes listed at the following link: ) At the conclusion of this class, students are expected to have learned the following outcomes:

Assessment Information

As part of the University's focus on assessment practices, we strongly encourage all course syllabi to include a section on assessment. For that purpose, we have developed the assessment statement below.

You should also include the list of the college's assessment goals for undergraduate or graduate programs.

In addition to the assessing the learning outcomes of the business core and the MBA program, each undergraduate major and all business graduate programs have unique program goals and associated learning outcomes. These programs assess their outcomes each semester. The primary rational for assessment is the assurance of learning for all undergraduate and graduate students in the College of Business. The links below identify the unique learning goals of the various undergraduate majors and graduate degree programs within the college.

• Undergrad programs: http://www.marquette.edu/business/undergraduate/undergrad-learning-outcomes.php
• Graduate programs: http://www.marquette.edu/business/graduate/learning-outcomes.php

Please contact your department chair, the Executive Associate Dean, the various graduate program directors, or Dr. Paul McInerny in the Management Department, the faculty representative to the University's Assessment Committee for more information on the College of Business assessment process and how the learning outcomes can be integrated in your course objectives in your syllabus.

Grading Guidelines/Policies/Schemes

You owe it to your students to be rigorous in your grading and to distinguish performance among your students. Of particular concern are faculty who are routinely overly generous in their grading. Indeed, the high achievement of top students is undermined when your grades are excessively high. This may indicate that you are either not challenging your students adequately, or you are not grading exams, quizzes, assignments, participation, carefully enough to distinguish student performance. The expectation of the Dean's office is that you will be a rigorous in your grading and that your grades are in line with college and departmental norms. At the college level, a good benchmark to consider for those completing your class is:

• Lower division average grade in the range of 2.3 - 2.7 with a point estimate of 2.5.
• Upper division core course average grade in the range of 2.8 - 3.2 with a point estimate of 3.0.
• Graduate MBA and MS program courses in the range of 3.3 - 3.7 with a point estimate of 3.5.

Note that the guidelines listed above are not meant to be shared with students. Rather, they are provided as a reference for you as you consider your grading practices.

On occasion, a class will be uniquely weak or strong, and it would be expected that average grades will deviate from these norms. However, it should not be the case that you are consistently above or below these guidelines.

Please note that there is no statistical evidence to suggest that higher average grades are correlated with higher average course evaluation scores (i.e., MOCES scores). Moreover, both grades and MOCES scores are considered during performance reviews for permanent faculty and renewal decisions for part-time faculty.

If you have questions or comments, please feel free to discuss departmental expectations with your Department Chair, and college expectations with the Executive Associate Dean.

In developing your grading policy, it is essential that your syllabus accurately and completely identify the following:

• The assignments/quizzes/exams/projects/ participation, etc., that will be used to determine student grades.
• The weights or points assigned to each of the above in the course of determining student grades.
• A grading scale!

Grading Scales

If you do not have a grading scale and there is a grade appeal by the student, there is a higher chance that the student's appeal will be upheld.

Marquette's grading system is now consistent with most other institutions that use plus and minus grades instead of half-letter grades. Thus, undergraduate grades are now A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D and F. You are free to set your own cutoffs and there is some variability across faculty. However, the following percentage cutoffs are "representative" of the cutoffs that have been used over the past several years, and now been translated to the new classifications.

Below is a typical grading scheme for a undergraduate class:

In some cases (typically lower division courses), the A category extends to 90 - 100, and there are commensurate changes to the other grade categories so that the lowest D grade is in the low to mid 50s, with F below that cutoff. Note also that below a C (i.e., below 2.0) is considered less than "satisfactory" and students whose overall GPA or college GPA fall below 2.0, may be placed on probation and may be dismissed from the college or university.

See the following link for undergraduate grading regulations established by the University: http://bulletin.marquette.edu/undergrad/academicregulations/#gradingsystem

Make certain that you establish your grading cutoffs so that there is no discrepancy as to what grade the student has earned. Clearly, you reduce the likelihood of confusion by including more significant digits. Also, clearly state in your syllabus whether you round the grade. If you do round, then make certain that your cutoffs reflect that practice.

Below is a typical grading scheme for a graduate class:

See the following link for graduate grading regulations established by the University: http://bulletin.marquette.edu/schoolofmanagement/academicregulations/#gradingsystem

Note that some instructors take the cutoff for a C to be 70 with the F grade assigned for percent grades below 70. Other than F, there are no grade categories below C in Graduate School of Management courses. Also, note that it is potentially problematic if a student's GPA falls below 3.0 in a given semester, and all students must maintain a GPA of 3.0 to graduate from a program in the GSM.

Again, make certain that you establish your grading cutoffs so that there is no discrepancy as to what grade the student has earned. Clearly, you reduce the likelihood of confusion by including more significant digits. Also, clearly state in your syllabus whether or not you round the grade. If you do round, then make certain that your cutoffs reflect that practice.

"No Exam Rule"

Are you having a final exam? Are you assigning a final paper or final project in lieu of a final exam? REMEMBER, NO EXAMS OF ANY KIND CAN BE SCHEDULED DURING THE FINAL WEEK OF CLASS! You can have other assignments due and you can have a QUIZ scheduled, but no exams can be held during the week prior to finals week.

Regarding the "no exam rule" during final week of class; please do not try to get around the system by calling your exam a "quiz". If the weight of the assessment is significant to the student's overall grade and, more importantly, if the students treat your "quiz" like a final exam, what you are trying to do is get around this rule in name only. A couple of instances have arisen in the past couple of years where students missed another class (or more) during the last week of the semester so they can study for the "quiz" or "third semester exam" in someone's class. The rule is in place to prevent that kind of situation from occurring.

Class Participation

Be particularly clear and specific on how you will assign grades for class participation, participation in online discussions, and/or group project components of your course.

• These three items are the ones that tend to lead to the most grade appeals.
• A "best practice" is to post your participation grades in the D2L gradebook regularly so that students can discuss them with you in the case they disagree with your assessment and have the ability to do something about improving their participation grades over the remainder of the semester.
• Be clear on how both the entire group and each individual in the group will be assessed and graded as part of a team project. Be clear if you will incorporate any feedback from members of the team in determining individual grades.

Assignment Submissions

Be clear on how students can hand in assignments done outside of class (e.g., only in person, email, through D2L drop-box, etc.).

Given academic dishonesty issues (see Academic Integrity), the College recommends that you include the following in your syllabus:

This serves to give notice to students that any work can be checked using some electronic detection service in case you actually do use some means of detecting plagiarism and helps to provide a disincentive to submit plagiarized work on such assignments.

If you use D2, you now can have the TURNITIN feature as part of your dropbox submissions. The home page of D2L gives an overview of the integration of TURNITIN and D2L. Please see that overview and the additional information you can link to regarding this integration on the D2L homepage.

Grade Appeals

You should consider adding some language on grade appeals on any component of their grade. That is, if they think their exam is not graded accurately, they have 10 days from when it is returned (or whatever time period you deem appropriate) to appeal otherwise must accept the grade.

Dual-level Course Requirements Policy

For dual-level (i.e., cross-listed) courses the key distinction between the 4xxx version of your course and the 5xxx version of your course is rigor. Students taking the 5xxx version of your course will need to experience a substantively more rigorous course than those taking the 4xxx version of your course. That rigor should be both the qualitative and quantitative. In order to increase the rigor of the 5xxx course you are encouraged to use a combination of additional readings, additional or enhanced assignments, cases, and projects, essay exams in place of multiple choice exams, separate grading rubrics for assignments and separate grading scales for the assignment of final grades, etc.

The differences between the 5xxx version of your course and the 4xxx version of your course must be clearly described on a syllabus. You may choose to include the different requirements for graduate students in the same syllabus as the requirements for undergraduates, or create separate syllabi for each type of student. Keep in mind that students registered for the 5xxx version can only earn the graduate grades (i.e., no C-, D+, D grades). Also, students must be registered for the 5xxx level class by late registration (i.e., they can't decide part way through the semester to change from 4xxx to 5xxx or 5xxx to 4xxx).

Please be aware that the Graduate School of Management holds classes during certain periods when undergraduate students do not (e.g., mid-semester break; the Monday after Easter). Please make certain that you are aware of the differences in the undergraduate and graduate calendars and consider options for your graduate students in cross-listed classes during those times.

Academic Integrity

Students, faculty, and staff at Marquette University developed a Statement on Academic Integrity located on the provost's website that recognizes the importance of integrity, both personal and academic, and includes an Honor Pledge and Honor Code applicable to all. You may want to consider including the Honor Pledge and Student Obligations under the Honor Code (listed below) in your syllabus.

Academic Honor Code and Academic Misconduct Policy

Faculty may require students to sign the pledge in their courses or for any individual assignment. For example, you can include the above pledge on the first or last page of an assignment, exam or quiz, and have the student sign or initial as part of completing/submitting the assignment, exam or quiz.

DO NOT make up your own "course agreement" (such as having students affirm that they understand and will abide by the rules laid out in your course syllabus). As long as the syllabus is set up properly, having the student sign such an agreement is extraneous (that opinion provided to us by the University General Counsel).

Academic integrity is a matter of great importance to the entire Marquette community and as such the honor code obliges others on campus as well.

The honor code obliges instructors:

1. To monitor and design exams and assignments so that honest students will not be disadvantaged by other students who might choose to cheat if given the opportunity.
2. To report circumstances that may compromise academic honesty, such as inattentive proctoring or premature posting of answers.
3. To follow all published procedures regarding cases of academic misconduct.
4. To report any observed breaches of this honor code and academic honesty.

The following best practices should also be considered for addition by faculty:

Violations of the Academic Misconduct Policy

If you believe a student in one of your sections has committed an act of academic misconduct, go to the Academic Regulations section of the Undergraduate Bulletin or Graduate School of Management Bulletin.

If the student is found to be in violation of the Academic Integrity policy (through an Expedited Procedure or as part of a Full Hearing), you will be provided a recommended penalty for the offense. If an academic integrity case is pending on a particular student, at the time that final grades are to be submitted to Checkmarq, the Registrar will assign a temporary grade of "IC" in the Checkmarq system. You cannot record this grade; it can only be recorded by the Registrar. The Registrar will make all of these assignments the Monday before the grading deadline. Under no circumstances should you submit a grade for that student. Once a decision has been made and the student has exhausted the appeal process you will be notified to do a grade change for the student.

To avoid confusion on the part of the student, faculty who use the D2L gradebook should not record any grades in D2L for assignments, exams, quizzes, etc. that are the subject of an ongoing investigation. Likewise, do not assign a final grade for that student in D2L. While you might consider the infraction to be minor and one that will not impact the final grade, there may be other circumstances that could warrant harsher sanctions should the student be found to be in violation of AI policy. Just leave that student's grade blank in D2L.

Attendance Practices/Policies/Issues

The undergraduate attendance policy specifies the role of the student, the instructor and university administrators in cases when students are absent from one or more classes. The policy aims to clarify several aspects of attendance, including, but not limited to the following five.

1. With few exceptions, no distinction is made between excused and unexcused absences.
2. Instructors determine if work (including tests and examinations) may be made up as a result of one or more absences.
3. University offices do not provide documentation of absences.
4. Students may be withdrawn from a course as a result of excessive absences.
5. Lack of participation in an online course may lead to the recording of an absence for the student.

The following is recommended for inclusion into your syllabus:

Instructors should determine and notify students in writing the first day of class, in the course syllabus, if any component of the grade is based on participation and whether or not the student will have the opportunity to make up missed work including assignments, quizzes, examinations and so forth, will be provided. If so, instructors should specify the conditions students must meet to be given the opportunity to make up missed work. The opportunity to make up work is considered a privilege, not a right.

As was the case last year, no portion of the grade should be based solely on attendance. Given that some students may have to miss F2F meetings due to illness, isolation/quarantine, I would strongly discourage you from using attendance in any component of the grade.

Since it is up to each student to understand and abide by each instructor's policy on issues related to attendance, students should consult the instructor if any portion is not understood. With that said, instructors need to have a plan to work with students should either the student or the instructor need to miss class as a result of COVID based issues (illness, isolation, quarantine).

The Marquette University Student Health Service does not provide documentation of illness, or of a visit to the Student Health Service. Likewise, college and other university offices (e.g., Office of the Dean, Counseling Center and Student Affairs) do not provide documentation of an absence on behalf of the student. When an extended absence of a week or more is expected or occurs, the student, or a family member if the student is unable, should communicate with the college office as soon as possible, after which the college office may notify faculty and others, as appropriate.

Regardless of the reason for the absence, students are responsible for learning what happened in class. Students who anticipate missing one or more class periods should contact the instructor ahead of time, just as they should contact their instructor as soon as possible after an absence. Students are responsible for monitoring their absences during the term.

Withdrawals Due to Attendance

Since attendance is taken at the discretion of the faculty member, the following distinction is made for withdrawals that occur in courses where attendance is regularly taken, and withdrawals that occur in courses where attendance is not regularly taken:

• For courses in which attendance is regularly taken, an instructor or college office may withdraw a student from a course due to excessive absences and assign a grade of WA (Withdrawn-Excessive Absences). In these cases, instructors must document the dates of absenteeism. Such action may be initiated, for example, in a 16-week course when the number of class hours missed exceeds twice the number of course credits. As such, a student may be assigned the grade of WA when more than 6 classes have been missed in a 3-credit course, when more than 8 classes have been missed in a 4 credit course and when more than 10 classes have been missed in a 5 credit course. As examples: students who miss more than 6 classes in a 3-credit course that meets 50 minutes, 3 times per week, will be considered to have excessive absences and may be assigned a WA. Likewise, students who miss more than 4 classes in a 3-credit course that meets 75 minutes, 2 times per week, will be considered to have excessive absences and may be assigned a WA. Students assume all consequences that ensue as a result of receiving a WA grade. These consequences include but are not limited to: a delay in graduation, loss of eligibility for certain scholarships or financial aid, loss of full-time student status. After the WA grade has been issued, the student may not apply for a grade of W.
• For those courses in which attendance is not taken on a regular basis, an instructor or the college office may withdraw a student when it becomes apparent that the student has excessive absences. In such cases, a student's last date of attendance is determined by the last date of participation in an academically-related activity for the course including, but not limited to: an exam or quiz, a submitted assignment, participation in a lab activity, or in computer-assisted instruction.

Absences Related to Legal Obligations, Religious Observance, or University Activities

There are only a few circumstances under which absences are excused. These include students who must fulfill a legal obligation such as jury duty; students who are participating in a religious observance; or students who participate in an officially sanctioned university travel activity such as Division 1 sports. These students should be given the opportunity to make up class examinations or other graded assignments that are missed as a result of these activities. It is recognized that sometimes an exam or graded assignment is impossible to make up. However, students cannot be disadvantaged for absences resulting from legal obligations or those university sanctioned. The faculty will be required to establish some form of accommodation so that the student's grade is not inequitably impacted by the required absence. The manner in which the student is accommodated is left to the discretion of each individual faculty member.

In order to minimize the difficulties for both students and instructors caused by absences due to legal obligations or religious observance or university sanctioned activities and related travel...

Students should:

• Make every effort to schedule classes that will minimize conflicts caused by these activities and related travel.
• Provide a schedule of all activities and related travel to all their instructors within the first week of each semester, or as soon as possible for non-scheduled events.
• Obtain any class notes or other course material missed due to these absences, prior to taking any subsequent examinations or submitting any subsequent graded assignments.
• Make arrangements with the instructor to make up any missed work, prior to any of these absences.

Faculty should:

Develop with the student, an agreed upon and mutually acceptable resolution as to how missed classroom activities and missed work will be handled as a result of these activities, if make-up work is allowed in the faculty policy.

Record Keeping

If you plan to take attendance in your class, it is expected that you do one or both of the following as a way to have corroborating evidence that a student has missed the class for which you have marked them absent:

• During the class, preferably not at the very beginning or very end of the class, and so that all students in the class can hear, ask if the student in question is or is not in attendance.
• When a student approaches the number of absences that would allow for the WA grade to be recommended, contact the student in question and review the days that you have recorded as the student being absent. The takeaway from this contact should be that the instructor and the student have the same records regarding absences.

Since the person hearing an appeal of the WA grade by the student is not in the classroom nor do we have "surveillance" video to determine who is or is not in the classroom on a certain day, doing the above mitigates the "he said/she said" nature of the appeal. Either there are witnesses for the days the student has missed or the student and instructor share the information on absences up to the point when the dialog on absences occurred.

Attendance Policy Practical Notes

Instructors are strongly encouraged to clearly define/state their attendance policy in their syllabus; this is extremely important! Aspects to consider include:

• Are you going to have an attendance policy or not; it is the instructor's prerogative if they wish to have an attendance policy. If you do have an attendance policy, I recommend that you review the university policies in the undergraduate and graduate bulletins:
• Undergraduate:https://bulletin.marquette.edu/undergrad/academicregulations/#attendance
• Graduate: https://bulletin.marquette.edu/schoolofmanagement/academicregulations/#attendance
• Students are expected to attend and be on time for all F2F sessions of a course for which they are registered.
• Students that enroll in your course during late registration should realize that they are expected to make the effort to “catch up” what they have missed on the days they were not officially part of the course.
• It is up to the instructor if you want to afford them extra time to "catch up" but this extra time IS NOT A RIGHT.
• However, you cannot penalize or in any way "hold it against" a student who registers for your course during late registration.
• Absences MAY result in consequences for the student.
• Instructors MAY include class attendance as a measure of academic performance.
• Regardless of the class attendance directions provided by the instructor in the syllabus, it is the student's responsibility to:
• Contact their instructor if they miss an exam or other deadline.
• Inform the dean's office in their college if they are (expect to be) absent from class for one week or more.
• If a student exceeds the maximum number of absences before the final drop date, then:
• Instructors wishing to formally warn a student about excessive absences may the form at: https://www.marquette.edu/business/undergraduate/documents/Excessiveabsenceform.pdf
• Once you complete and submit that form to Ms. Sara Koenig, the Undergraduate Records Coordinator, she will forward the warning form to the student.
• Instructors wishing to withdraw a student for excessive will use the same form to withdraw the student: https://www.marquette.edu/business/undergraduate/documents/Excessiveabsenceform.pdf
• Again, complete and submit the form to Sara Koenig, the Undergraduate Records Coordinator, she will forward withdrawal form to the student.
• If an instructor wishes to withdraw a student, the dates of absences must be provided AND documented (see previous page for part of documentation needed).
• When the instructor files a form to withdraw a student for excessive absences, the student automatically has five business days to appeal the WA grade. For those five business days and while the appeal is ongoing, the student has the right to continue participating in the course.
• If a student exceeds the maximum number of absences after the final drop date, then the same process is followed. A warning may be issued to the student (at the faculty's discretion) or the faculty may choose to simply initiated the withdrawal.
• If the student is passing the course at the time of the withdrawal, the faculty may assign the WA or the WF grade.
• If the student is not passing at the time of the withdrawal, then the student must be assigned the WF grade. When the instructor files a form to withdraw a student for excessive absences, the student automatically has five business days to appeal the WA or WF grade. For those five business days and while the appeal is ongoing, the student has the right to continue participating in the course.
• Instructors are encouraged to be flexible in certain student absences, e.g., hospitalization, death of a family member, COVID-19 related absences etc.
• Any questions, please contact Executive Associate Dean Dr. Dave Clark

If you are going to use the University's attendance policy, please make it clear on how you intend to do so, how you will determine if a student is in class and the consequences of having excessive absences.

Missing an Examination, Quiz, or Other In-Class Assignment

Please be clear on how you are going to deal with a student missing an exam, a quiz or another type of in-class assessment. (Make-ups? Drop the lowest score? Double the score of another assessment? etc..). Again please note the wording in the Undergraduate Bulletin, "[f]aculty and students should develop an agreed upon and mutually acceptable resolution to situations of missed classroom activities and missed work for university sanctioned events."

A Statement Regarding Absences for Graduate Courses

The Marquette University Graduate School of Management considers regular class attendance an important component of the learning process. Students are expected to attend scheduled class meetings; excessive absences may have adverse consequences, ranging from a lowered course grade to forced withdrawal from the course. Excessive absence is generally defined as missing more than 10-15 percent of the regularly scheduled class time. Please consult the instructor's course syllabus for additional details regarding a particular course.

Auditing a Course

Students who wish to audit courses without earning credit must present evidence of their preparation for the course or courses in which they wish to enroll. Auditors are required to attend all classes but are not required to complete written course assignments or examinations.

Students must first register for the course via CheckMarq, then request the audit option from the student's college office with the Audit Request form located at Marquette Central. This form is used through the end of registration for each session, as published on the University Academic Calendar. Note that a student must declare by the beginning of the term (i.e., by the end of late registration) that she/he will audit the course. It is not an option for a student to come to you midway through the semester to ask if she/he can audit your course.

Weather Related Cancellations

In the event of bad weather, please inform your students that the Office of the Provost will make the decision to cancel classes. It is not up to individual faculty to do so. If some of your students are commuting and do not feel they can safely attend class during inclement weather, please try to work with them regarding missed work, etc.

If for some reason classes are cancelled during Finals Week, students will receive the grade to date, unless you specifically state how they will be graded (e.g., make-up exam, re-weight other assessments, etc.). Again, if you do not say anything about this in your syllabus, University policy is that students will get the grade they have earned on points or percentage earned prior to the final.

Accommodations

The Office of Student Disability Services can help you with test proctoring for students with documented disabilities. Please see this site for more information: http://www.marquette.edu/disability-services/testproctoring.shtml

PLEASE NOTE THE LEAD TIMES! You must schedule proctoring with the Office of Student Disabilities at least 3 business days before an exam and at least 5 business days before an exam during midterm week or finals week.

Emergency Plan

The Office of Risk Management and Public Safety has asked us to include the following wording in all course syllabi: