Faculty Orientation Teaching

Roster and Enrollment Guides

The Faculty Center within the myUCCS Portal is the access point for schedules, rosters, and grading information. Start with the Faculty Center Overview and Guide to get to know the application.

Review the Academic Calendar on the Office of the Registrar website for important enrollment dates and semester deadlines. Students enroll through their portal including signing up for waitlists. Students on the waitlist will have access to your Canvas shell until waitlists are cleared. The Office of the Registrar has a "Waitlist Roll-In Request Form" if you want to accommodate students on a waitlist over the published cap.  

Grading Deadlines and Policies

Each semester grade rosters will be created 10 days prior to the end of the session in which the course is housed. Grade rosters for short courses will be created two business days prior to the end of the course. University policy requires that faculty enter course grades into the online grading system no later than 90 hours after their final exam has ended.

Start with the Online Grading Tutorial to learn the system and steps.

TAAP: Textbook Affordability and Access Program

Faculty select the course materials they want to use and submit them through the TAAP portal. Our TAAP partner at Akademos then sources materials in physical and digital formats. Students can choose to TAAP out if they like, and they will have the material information to source elsewhere.

You will receive many emails and reminders about your Course Adoptions and the deadlines to submit materials for TAAP participation. Follow the guides and instructions on those emails, usually starting 10+ weeks before the next semester.

Kraemer Family Library

Use the library to get materials and navigate copyright guidelines, request library instruction sessions that focus on the needs of your course or assignment, and link to Research Guides organized by subject. You can work with your subject librarian to develop or expand materials to fit the needs of your course.

C3 Innovation

C3 Innovation is a hub of multidisciplinary collaboration that connects students, faculty, and the community to push the boundaries of research and discovery. Students will have access to design and development labs with workshops that might fit well with your course goals. Cohorts of faculty research fellows will also offer workshops, research presentations, and creative works to follow.

Teaching and Learning Management

We use Canvas as our LMS. Canvas is an online web environment used to communicate class assignments, grades, resources, and other information between Students and Faculty. You will go to the Faculty Resource Center for training and course design help, while the general Canvas support includes guides and forums for system troubleshooting.

Smart Classrooms and Labs

The UCCS IT Department operates several smart classrooms throughout campus. These rooms provide teaching technologies for use by faculty in support of the academic mission of the university. We also have various labs across campus for all students, staff, and faculty use by signing into the computer using your UCCS username and password. The computers include both Apple Macintosh and HP hardware running Apple OSX and Microsoft Windows operating systems. All IT Lab computers are connected to Paw Prints printers and release stations available in several academic buildings on campus.

For technical assistance with hardware, e-mail, UCCS campus network (wireless and VPN), or to order software with academic licensing, contact the

UCCS OIT Service Desk
El Pomar Center (under the clock tower)
helpdesk@uccs.edu
719-255-HELP (4357)
Monday – Thursday, 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM | 24/7 after hours help is available at 719-255-4357.

Guidelines for Accessibility

Faculty must maintain the confidentiality of students with disabilities and allow private meetings to discuss letters of accommodations. Although it requires some forethought, all faculty members should strive to follow the principles of Universal Design of Instruction for the benefit of all students.

You will receive letters from Disability Services when a student on your roster registers for accommodations. Students will send notification of Faculty Accommodation Letters to professors through Accommodate. Watch this video tutorial on how to access and view accommodation information through the Accommodate platform.

Chancellors Leadership Class

Gateway Program Seminar

AI in the Workplace and Approved Tools

On campus, our information technology and security teams have been exploring AI's potential and have approved the following AI tools for university use:

• Microsoft Copilot for the Web (formerly known as Bing chat Enterprise): Microsoft Copilot lets you chat with an AI agent within your Edge or Bing browser that can answer your questions, generate content, or help you with tasks using public online data. Think of it as a smart and friendly chatbot that can talk to you about anything you want.
• Copilot for Microsoft 365: Copilot for Microsoft 365 is an AI-powered assistant designed to enhance productivity and streamline workflows within the Microsoft 365 suite. By leveraging advanced AI and machine learning technologies, Copilot helps users quickly generate content, analyze data, summarize documents, learn new skills, and write code.
• Zoom AI Companion: Zoom AI Companion is an intelligent assistant integrated into the Zoom platform, designed to enhance virtual meetings and collaboration. This AI-powered tool can help staff and faculty by generating meeting summaries, transcribing conversations, and highlighting key points in real time. It can also provide actionable insights, suggest next steps, and assist with scheduling and follow-ups.
• Adobe Firefly: Adobe Firefly is a suite of generative AI tools integrated into Adobe's Creative Cloud, designed to enhance creativity and streamline the creative process. Firefly leverages advanced AI to generate images, graphics, and other visual content from textual descriptions, allowing users to quickly and easily bring their creative visions to life.
• BoodleBox: The AI platform where faculty and students can affordably access top AI models, responsibly while collaborating with AI and each other. No-cost accounts available to UCCS faculty/staff/students. To access a free account, sign up on their platform and send an email to helpdesk@uccs.edu to get started.

AI in Academics Resources

The Faculty Resource Center has sample Syllabus Entries for "embracing" "limiting" and "prohibiting" to use. The campus also hosts workshops and learning sessions around AI topics.

Given that anything generated by AI has been culled from the web and restated or recreated without attribution (and sometimes even with false attribution), that content could be considered as to have been plagiarized. Caution is urged with what you allow students to use from generative AI. 

Our Center for Student Research oversees the Undergraduate Research Academy and the new Graduate Research Academy. The Undergraduate Research Academy encourages students to expand their education beyond the classroom through participation in research and creative projects mentored by UCCS faculty. The URA also includes $4,000 in funding for student-faculty research teams. The Graduate Research Academy Fellows are selected each year and receive a $5,000 stipend plus additional travel funds to help them kickstart their early research career.

Every year our student researchers have the chance to participate in multiple Colorado Springs-based conferences. Consider building these opportunities into your class structure or as extra-credit to attend.

• Colorado Springs Undergraduate Research Forum also known as CSURF is a collaborative venture designed to highlight the research and creative works of undergraduates from Colorado College, the United States Air Force Academy, and the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS).
• Mountain Lion Research Day is where faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students from all academic disciplines are invited to present their research and creative projects to the campus community. This usually occurs in the Fall semester.
• The Graduate Student Research Showcase is a poster session, where individuals across campus get to learn about the amazing research being done by UCCS graduate students. This event usually occurs in the Spring semester and is located on-campus. Students, staff, and faculty welcomed.
• The UCCS Mountain Lion Grad Slam 3-Minute Thesis Competition is an opportunity for graduate students to explain their research and scholarship in an engaging way.