CALENDAR: First you may wish to refer to MICA's Academic Calendar (and in PDF form) so that you know your first day of class, whether Fall Break and Thanksgiving Break interrupt your course, and when the semester concludes.

SYLLABUS: Here are MICA's Syllabus Guidelines (PDF and Word) and Course Modality Definitions and Expectations for reference in designing or adjusting your course syllabus. In addition, department chairs and faculty members often have past syllabi on file that they can share with you. You should submit your syllabus to your department (email it to your Program Coordinator) by the Thursday before classes start (August 22) and also post it on your course's Canvas page before the first day of class.

CANVAS: Canvas is MICA’s learning management system (LMS). You are required to post your syllabus to your course site in Canvas. This can be accomplished by using the syllabus tool in Canvas or by uploading your syllabus as a file to your course. The Syllabus must be posted no later than the beginning of the first scheduled class session, however, posting it earlier benefits students--especially those in Hybrid and Online courses who need to know how to access the first day of class.

In addition to sharing your syllabus, you will find Canvas as a helpful complement to face-to-face instruction in the classroom. You can use it to post course information, assignments, and grades online. MICA's Educational Techology teach will be holding the following sessions to help faculty work on their Canvas pages:

Course Spas -- Tuesday and Wednesday (August 20 & 21), 1:00-4:00pm on the 1st floor of 81 Mosher building (These sessions will also be a time when you can work on your syllabi.)
Session offered during our Professional Development Day -- "Canvas: getting the most out of our learning management system" will be held on Thursday (August 22) at 12:30-1:45pm in Lazarus 160.

In addition, MICA faculty & staff have produced several course prep videos. Canvas' parent company Instructure also has a great community forum for specific questions. If you have problems with or questions about Canvas at MICA, you can contact Educational Technology at osedtech@mica.edu.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY: Did you know that as a MICA faculty member you have free access to Adobe Creative Suite, Office 365, and support for your classroom technology needs? You can read about Technology Services here.

***Update on Google Storage - As of July 25th, 2022 accounts have transitioned from unlimited storage to a storage limit of 15GB per account to use across all Google features including mica.edu email, Google Drive and other Google apps such as docs, sheets, slides and photos.***

GRADUATE TEACHING INTERNS: All faculty are eligible to have a Graduate Teaching Intern (GTI). You can find out more about GTI/GTAs here. Typically, faculty new to teaching at MICA choose to wait a semester or two before they take on a GTI, as the program is designed to mentor graduate students learning how to teach at the college level. Thus, it is an additional responsibility for you, the instructor of record. The advantage of having a GTI is that you (the professor) gain a great deal from the expertise and interests of the graduate student who is learning how to teach.

MODELS: Some programs hire models for some of their courses. If you need models for your clas, you should be in touch with your Chair. If you have models in your class, you'll find this document very helpful: Model Requests & Classroom Etiquette.