:: Instructor FAQ

FAQs

Room Locations and Meeting Times

Q: Where is my class? What if I don’t like the room or want a special room?
A: The location of your classroom will be mailed to you before the semester as soon as we receive our group of assigned rooms from the central administration. To avoid problems at the semester’s start, please go to the room immediately after you receive your room assignment notice and make sure you are pleased with it. If not, tell the administrative assistant right away at 471-2900. Don’t wait until the last minute because at that time we have much less flexibility to change rooms.

If you have a special room that you really want in your home building, please tell the administrative assistant about that right away when planning your course so she can make appropriate inquiries.

If you find there are too many or too few students for the room size once your class has begun, or if you feel your class dynamics would work better with a different room arrangement, call the administrative assistant who will attempt to find you a better room. Never move your room without permission from the University Extension office. That could cause enormous confusion for students and staff alike.

Q: Can I change my class meeting time? A:You may not change the times or nights of your course without the permission of the Director. Should you happen to schedule the odd class at a different time or place for a field trip or some other rare reason, please contact the Academic Coordinator first.

Q: What if my class falls on a holiday?
A:Regular UT rules apply to our classes as well. Normally no makeup class is required. If your class meets only once a week, you probably will need to negotiate with your class to make up some of the material. The entire class needs to agree without coercion to a makeup time. You may give a “walk” before Thanksgiving if you think it prudent; however, Wednesday-only class instructors should carefully evaluate whether too much material would be lost as a result. The overall level of the course should not be compromised.

Prerequisites for Students

Q: What about prerequisites for University Extension students?
A: University Extension honors course prerequisites specified in the official UT inventory of courses. We retain a professional advisor to counsel students about prerequisite issues before and during registration. Given a population of adult learners, there may be occasions where wisdom or common sense dictates allowing a student into the class who does not have the exact prerequisite. There may be some cases in which it is best for the student to talk to the instructor and receive his or her consent to enroll based on some professional experience or course taken elsewhere that would qualify the student for your course‹even if the student does not have the exact prerequisite specified in the catalog. While we will be sparing in referring calls to instructors concerning prerequisite qualifications, we hope you will talk to students who may be seeking instructor consent to enter a course. The course instructor is usually the best judge of whether a student can do the work in the course. Students who are enrolled in a course and are later found not to have had the prerequisite may be withdrawn with no refund.

Publicity Issues

Q: Can I send overflow or late students who want to get into my day class to my Extension class?
A: The UEX registration process is totally separate from the regular UT registration. The two cannot be intermingled. Likewise you may not allow your day students to attend your evening course or vice versa: We cannot allow that practice to become established. UT students may not “sit in” on your course either. UEX “auditors” must pay for the course, so allowing UT auditors would be unfair.

Recommending your evening class as a solution to students’ scheduling problems or desire for smaller classes must be handled with appropriate judgment. University Extension must not “steal” students from the day classes on a wholesale basis. In any case, most deans’ offices won’t approve more than one course per semester in University Extension for concurrently enrolled students, if that. It is very hard for Business, Communications, Engineering or Pharmacy students to get permission to take University Extension courses because of the concurrent enrollment policies in those colleges. Graduate students may take only graduate courses for credit in their program of work, and only with the approval of their graduate advisor and the Graduate Dean’s office.

That being said, many UT students do benefit from using this option. You can use these means to let them know you’ll be teaching with us:

  • Talk to your departmental advisor and the advisor in any related department from which your course typically draws students; he or she usually is happy to know of this option for students, especially late-registering ones;
  • Post a single flyer on your office door if you think it is appropriate (We will send some to you—if you don’t get them and want some, please call and request them.)
  • Post single flyers on departmental bulletin boards if your departmental administrator thinks it’s appropriate;
  • Give individual students who inquire about your course the “triple packet” (consisting of course flyer, the fact sheet titled “We’re A Little Different,” and the financial aid policy for UT students) before they register. This helps prevent them from coming to us in a futile situation that does not suit their needs or options;
  • Tell other professors whose classes are routinely overcrowded that you can give them some “triple packets” to hand out to late students if they would like you to do so.

Q: I don’t have a current UT appointment. How can UT students learn about my course?
A: Most of you have some prior teaching relation with UT and thus know former colleagues or your faculty sponsors or the departmental advisors. Talk to the University Extension Director about how to best approach them in your case. Avenues to publicizing your course on campus usually can be found.

Course Materials

Q: How do I copy materials for my course? What is my $ limit?
A:Please do not presume that you can use your home department to copy things for your University Extension course. We are administratively separate. If you have only a few things to copy and your department administrator has no problem with it, go ahead and make your copies there. If you wish to use your home department’s machine and your administrator wants us to compensate the department for it, we have a procedure for that. Please call the Administrative Assistant to set this up. (Give forms enclosed to your home department administrator to keep for future backup.)

If you do not wish to use your home department or you do not have an ongoing appointment with UT, you may use the Central Duplicating facilities either at the Texas Union (first floor) or in School of Social Work Building (G 14). Once your course has made, your name will be on an approved list there. If you need copies before you know your course has made, contact the academic coordinator who will see that you are approved with Central Duplicating.

Policy on making copies at University Extension expense:

Before you know whether your class makes, you are entitled to copy up to ten pages. After your course makes, you may copy as much as you need within the guidelines below. (Please wait to copy your syllabus for the whole class until you know it has made).

The limit per course is $50 (and please don’t spend it if you don’t need it). You may make copies of your syllabus, course assignments, and exams at the expense of University Extension. You may also receive one copy of a “course packet” you prepare for the students at our expense. Students must purchase their copies through a copy shop, where you place your order, whether University Duplicating or a commercial shop.

Q: How do I select textbooks for my University Extension students?
A:You should use the books assigned during the day for large courses for which departmental committees have selected textbooks. Otherwise, you are free to choose your texts. Please take care to note and specify the current edition. Using an out-of-date edition causes enormous havoc at the bookstores and doesn’t allow our students to be on the same track with the regular UT students. That could put them at a disadvantage if they enter the UT day program in the following semester.

Q: How do I order textbooks for my University Extension students?
A:Our Academic Coordinator orders your textbooks. Do not order these through your regular department procedures.

Our program must use the same procedure used on campus for ordering textbooks. You must complete a textbook form and return it to University Extension by the date on the checklist. We then send it to the bookstore. If you will be using a course packet instead of a textbook, you will still need to complete a textbook order form stating such. You do not need to notify us if you are using a packet in addition to the textbook.

If you do not return your textbook order by the deadline, your students will likely not have books when classes begin. Even when the orders are on time, as you may know, the bookstores typically under-order books or lose orders, and there is often a problem having enough books at the beginning of the class. We work very hard to get books on rush orders when more copies are needed. Call the Academic Coordinator immediately if there is a problem.

We ask that at the first class you tell students about the location of the Co-op bookstore on Guadalupe. Some students have no idea of the nature or whereabouts of bookstores that serve the campus. Our experience is that the Co-op workers are better informed about how to serve our students than other area bookstores. Extension textbooks are placed on the shelves next to those of the same course, and they are labeled “University Extension.” Sometimes, if our books have not come in, the same editions are available under the regular day course numbers.

Q: Can I get desk copies for my University Extension Course?
A:Our Academic Coordinator will order you a desk copy from the publisher for major standard textbooks. If your own department is ordering desk copies for the same book, sometimes the person there is willing to do it for your UEX course also. But please don’t presume he or she will do that.

Q: Will I have a grader or a TA?
A:Normally University Extension does not employ graders or TAs since they add greatly to course costs. But if a class has a large enough enrollment (usually around 50, depending on the course), graders may be provided when approved by the Director of University Extension. If you feel you need a grader, please talk to the Director when the course is programmed.

Q: What if my class requires that students have access to computer labs or other labs on campus to do their work?
A:Please discuss the need for lab access with the Director when proposing or developing your course. We must charge non- UT students a special fee for lab use, and it should have been built into the course fee. If it has not been, and access is absolutely necessary, please talk to the Academic Coordinator immediately to see if a solution can be found.

Q: What if I need my students to check out library materials, reserve materials, or to use special library databases?
A:All UT students pay library fees on a per-credit hour basis, and they will have IDs with which to check out books. All our non-UT students are now required to pay $15 a semester for library privileges. They should take their course receipts to the Courtesy Borrower’s desk where they will be issued a card to check out books. Additionally, their names will be sent electronically to the library authorizing use of the special proprietary databases students often use in research now. If they need to dial into these databases from off-campus and they don’t already have an Internet service provider, they will need to pay extra to University Extension for a computer account and the connecting software. (We generally do not do this except for classes where such access is a required part of the course for everyone, but we can consider special cases.) Because of security problems in the libraries, our students may not use the databases after 5:45 on Fridays and Saturdays and after 9:45 on other nights without possessing one of these computer accounts, although they may stay in the libraries until closing time.

If you do not have an ongoing appointment at UT and would like to put materials on reserve at UT’s libraries, please wait until you know that the class has made. Once you have permission to use the library and/or your ID card, you may do this at Perry-Castañeda Library using the regular services there. PCL has told us they can have books on reserve within 24 hours if they have the materials in the library. It takes longer if they have to order materials from another library.

Q: Do my non-UT students have access to tutoring services?
A:If you notice students who need extra tutoring beyond what you could give in office hours, they do have access to the Learning Center in Jester. There is a cost for this service, and the information is included in the University Extension course bulletin.

Grades, Exams, and Course Evaluations

Q: Why are University Extension final exams on “no-class days”?
A:The Provost’s Office requires this program to use the “no-class days” for its final exams because of pressures on room availability for the regular day students. The UT day students that are taking your course may object to this. Please explain to them that we must do it that way.

Q: What if I need a makeup exam for my students?
A:Contact our Registrar who will make suitable arrangements. If you need someone to proctor it, that can be arranged.

Q: What grade records do I need to turn into University Extension at the end of the semester?
A:You must keep a record of your students’ grades on assignments that count toward the final grade. It is very wise also to take attendance and record it in case of future disputes. Our Academic Coordinator can supply you with a gradebook if you need one.

As in regular UT departments, gradebooks or their computer surrogates are property of the department. You should turn in your records indicating the basis for grades at the end of the semester. We must keep them for one year in case any grade disputes arise. Some professors also turn over other written work for this reason, particularly if they will be out of town when the semester ends.

Q: How do I get my teaching evaluations for University Extension courses?
A:University Extension conducts the same MEC evaluations each semester that you have on campus. You are required to have these conducted in class by a selected student who mails them to MEC. After the forms are processed, MEC sends them to University Extension, where copies are made for your file. They are then sent on to you. MEC usually takes well into the following semester to get them back to us. If you did not get your evaluations for some reason, contact the Academic Coordinator.

Settling In: Instructors Without a Current UT Appointment

Q: Will I get an ID card?
A:If you do not already have a currently valid UT Austin ID card, we have made arrangements for you to receive one from the campus ID Center once your official appointment has become active (about the 12th class day). Once we know what courses have actually made, we send a list of the names of the instructors to the ID Center. You then go to the ID Center for the card.

If you feel you need an ID before your course has made in order to check out books to prepare for your course(s), call the Academic Coordinator. We can arrange that and have set up a process for it.

Q: What about a parking permit and places to park?
A:Our Academic Coordinator can go over the campus map with you to show you likely lots that may empty out at night.

If you want to purchase a parking permit, you may buy an A parking permit. Contact the Academic Coordinator, who will see that you get a letter from us stating that you are one of our instructors. Parking & Traffic is located in the Service Building, Room 1, on 24th Street just west of San Jacinto. Hours are 7:45-5 p.m. They do not close for lunch. It costs around $100 annually, but prorated amounts are available for one semester.

Q: Can I get an e-mail and remote access account paid for by University Extension?
A:If your course clearly requires such an account because of its subject matter or the way you teach it, you may ask the Director for permission to set you up an account. Most people use their own private on-line providers. If you tend to teach again and again with University Extension, talk to the Director if this is an issue. We have provided a few teachers with e-mail accounts at our expense. But we may have to ask them to share the cost in the future.

Q: Can I have a mailbox at University Extension or have my check send there? How should I receive administrative materials from you and send them to you?
A:We prefer you arrange with the Payroll Office to have your check sent elsewhere. Occasionally we hold mail for instructor for special reasons.

We try to send documents by e-mail attachment or fax as much as possible. Instructors without these options or without a campus address in another department usually need to come into the office for these exchanges when time is an issue. Everyone must turn in his or her grades in person to our registrar.

Q: Can I leave and retrieve class materials for students with University Extension?
A:You may call the Academic Coordinator to arrange to have papers left for students to pick up. However, it is hard to have these exchanges on a regular basis since our office is normally open from 8-5, and many instructors and students cannot come regularly to the office during those hours. (We have to work those hours to deal with the rest of the campus to administer the program.)

Often there is staff after 5p.m. in the Thompson Conference Center and, if you make arrangements with our Academic Coordinator, we can find a solution for the after-5p.m. problem by leaving envelopes at the TCC front desk or taped to our door.

Q: Do I have access to teaching aids as University Extension Instructor?
A:The Center for Teaching Effectiveness at UT Austin stands ready to help you with any teaching issues you may have. They provide individual consultations, special seminars and programs and have a videotape library on exemplary teaching. You may call them at 471-1488 for more information.