A: A series of things need to be done in the classroom before the course starts. These items will be reviewed by your Full Time Faculty Mentor a few days before the first day of class. You will then be asked to adjust certain areas you may have missed. If the course is not set up properly, it could be reassigned to another facilitator. There are a number of ways you can personalize the classroom. In the facilitator's resource area under the section entitled "General Education" you can find many helpful resources and hints, including a checklist of course setup requirements. For additional help view the training session recorded on WebEx relating to classroom set up at http://edmc.webex.com . Click on recorded sessions and select "Training for Course Set up in eCollege."

A: Personalizing your course is not only a requirement at AIP Online Division but it provides many benefits to the online environment. Building a strong community, providing a positive tone and motivating students, are only a few advantages to personalizing your page. Within eCollege you can personalize your course in the following areas:

1. The Home Page
2. The Announcements
3. Student Lounge Area
4. Questions for the Professor Area
5. The Read and Respond Area

A: Faculty are required to teach the course as it has been developed by The Art Institute of Pittsburgh/Online. This includes the syllabus, assignments, lectures, study/discussion questions, and assessments. Do not edit the lectures, syllabus, or instructions in any way. Do not offer extra credit. Do not ask students to engage in group work, unless that is a syllabus component of your course. Do not edit the gradebook by removing or adding assignments, or changing grade totals. If there are content inconsistencies in the course and the rubrics, please contact your Full Time Faculty Mentor to see if changes can be made to the course. If a single discussion assignment includes more than two questions in the pull-down menu, faculty should delete all but two of the questions OR provide directions to students to respond to two questions of their choosing.

A: No, not at midnight. Work is due by 2:59 A.M MST the next day. For example, work due on Tuesday must be posted by 2:59 A.M. on Wednesday. This applies to all students in all courses, regardless of their own time zone. Faculty may not change this deadline.

A: The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division provides student with Late Work Guidelines that should be posted in the classroom and emailed to students at the beginning of every term. They are set up to allow instructors to use their own discretion on accepting late work, depending on a student’s mitigating circumstances. Late work with no mitigating circumstances should have 25% point deduction every day. These Late Work Guidelines are also posted in the course home.

A: Wikipedia is not a reliable scholarly source, since anyone can edit it. For more information click here.

A: AIP Online Division does not permit extra credit. Encourage those students who need extra credit to work extra hard on the remaining assignments in the course.

A: Respond to the initial post of all students who post on time in a DQ within 2 days of their postings, although quicker is better. Also, as a general rule of thumb, your posts should be no less than 18-20% of all the DQ postings during that week. This is calculated by counting up all the posts, including your own in every DQ, and then counting just those "substantial" posts of yours, and then getting your percentage. If you respond to the initial post of every student in every forum, and do follow-ups to the conversation, you will easily arrive at this minimum percentage.

A: You are expected to give substantial discussion replies to your students in a personal way that shows you read what they posted, that raises new questions, deepens the content under discussion, pushes the envelope of ideas, etc. You are not supposed to give "grade-type" evaluations in the DQs--that is for the grade book content area. Your job is to support student-learning outcomes by responding to each student's initial post, and to follow up with the discussion of the course content with that student or groups of students as the discussion unfolds.

A: Please do not continue discussions from a previous week in the present week. Simply invite your students to bring the content of that previous discussion into the present week (say in a related DQ, or in the Student Lounge area) if more needs to be said.

A: You should primarily use the announcements area of your course home page to post all messages to the whole class. You can copy this post in an email to the students as well if you wish. Other than the initial welcome email to all students before they arrive in your course, email should only be used as a private communication vehicle for you and a single student on private matters, such as grades.

A: Both grades and grade comments need to be posted within 72 hours of the end of an instructional week--but often less than this after Week 6 for the final grades. You will be told when the final grades are due before the end of the course. Do not post a grade without a comment that clearly explains where in the grade rubric the student lost points, and why. Make sure all comments are personal and encouraging--especially for those doing less well.

A: It is important that all final grades are posted on or before their due date - this date will be communicated to you by your faculty mentor. There is a special column in the Week 6 grades of the course with a red crossed-out circle in it. That is the place for final grades. Grades are given in letter format (not number format). Towards the end of each session you will receive notification of the deadline for posting final grades. If by the end of week 5 you have not received this information, please contact your faculty mentor immediately. To review the final grade submission procedures, click here.

A: Please be sure to read the grade change policy PRIOR to attempting a grade change. The policy will provide justifiable reasoning for a grade change. Keep in mind that a grade change can only be made in extraordinary situations. A student turning in work late is NOT a justified reason for a grade change. The first step in changing a student's grade is to submit a grade change form. You can locate a grade change form in the facilitator's resource area under the section entitled "Policies/Processes" or by clicking here. Be sure to fill the form out thoroughly. ***NOTE the Program Director you will choose for any and all General Education courses is Jennifer Cooper, jlcooper@aii.edu. The Program Director will review the request and upon approval, send it to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs on ground. Once approved by both online and on ground schools, you will receive a notification instructing you to change the grade in the course grade book.

A: Requests for major course revisions require the involvement of several departments and school resources. Therefore, these changes do take a session or two to be implemented. Both the on ground and online schools must review and agree on all changes prior to implementation. To make suggestions for major revisions compile a document containing the following information and send it to your Full Time Faculty Mentor:

1. Course title
2. Specific content, and/or assignment of the course in need of revision
3. Suggestions for replacement of that assignment and/or content

A: The content alert button is the quickest way to have minor errors and typos fixed during a session. ***NOTE: The Content Alert button cannot be used for major revisions. Using the Content Alert button for any requests beyond minor revisions and typos will only prolong necessary course changes and may be ignored! This button is on each page in the classroom. Click on this button and follow the instructions to report any minor errors in content in the classroom. You will need to provide information including your name, course title and section, and location of the error.

A: If a student has an average below 70% in a certain week, and an overall cumulative average of 70%, then you need to contact this student by both telephone and email and encourage them to catch up. The student's academic advisor also has this information automatically generated for them from eCollege, and they actively reach out to these students as well. Ultimately, the student is responsible for his or her own grade, but we need to give them every opportunity to shine here!

A: Yes, please direct them to the SmartThinking website. All students are also attached to the Writing Center and Math Learning Center. Please refer them to these areas in eCollege for assistance with writing or mathematics.

A: The student must have an AIP Online Division evaluation and approval of the condition to get special considerations in a course. Have them contact Sarah White sawhite@aii.edu, or 1-877-872-8869 ext. 8884.

A: Please contact the student by both email and telephone regularly. If you are getting no response, then it is ultimately the student's choice to be signed up for the course and not be present. Some do this to retain private scholarship funding within the rules of their scholarship.

A: Within the Course Home, under the section entitles, “Instructor Resources” there is a link to the Communicator Database. This database offers you a list of all courses that you are currently facilitating, and a student roster. Each student’s contact information is listed within this database. If you need to contact a student’s advisor, you can send a message through this system that will automatically go to the advisor assigned to this student. Reasons for contacting a student’s advisor are included in the General Education section of the Faculty Resource Area. To view a training of how to use the Communicator Database, go to http://edmc.webex.com, on the left hand side of the webpage, select “Recorded Sessions”, and search for, “Faculty Advisor Communicator”.

A: Given FERPA rules concerning privacy, you may leave your name and the name of the school and contact number, that's all. You may not communicate the content of what is to be discussed.

A: We do! Please use your phone cards provided to you from AIP Online Division. Phone cards are issued to instructors before the start of each session. Each faculty member receives his or her own a personal" code to use. These cards are used for calls made to students before the course starts and during week one. If your card runs out of minutes, you should contact John Borman at jborman@aii.edu to resolve the issue.

A: No, eCollege does this for us. If a student does not post 4 out of 7 days of an instructional week and accumulates 8 days of cumulative non-participation, then you will receive an email asking to suspend the student. This email needs to be taken seriously and if you do not respond within 24 hours the student/s will be removed from the course. If a student is removed accidentally, it will be your responsibility to catch the student up in the course. YOU MUST RESPOND TO THESE NOTICES. If you are working with a student, a student will not be dropped from the course. Please only respond "I am working with this student, please do not suspend" or "I am not working with this student, please suspend."

A: If a student does not post 4 out of 7 days of an instructional week and accumulates 8 days of cumulative non-participation, then you will receive an email asking to suspend the student. This email needs to be taken seriously and if you do not respond within 48 hours the student/s will be removed from the course. You will respond to this suspension notification by using the Communicator Database. Check the box that states, “Suspend” if you are not currently working with the student. If you are working with the student, please mark, “Do Not Suspend”. If a student is removed accidentally, it will be your responsibility to catch the student up in the course. YOU MUST RESPOND TO THESE NOTICES. If you are working with a student, a student will not be dropped from the course.

A: If you cannot encourage the student to stay in the course, then ask the student to speak with his or her advisor or advocate to initiate the process. Faculty do not deal with student issues that are not directly related to the student's activity within a course. Faculty are encouraged to direct students to their advisors when addressing issues associated with problems outside of the classroom.

A: Even if this is the first instance, and otherwise an "honest mistake," you need to follow the AIP Online Division plagiarism policy procedures. If you find plagiarism in a student's work, you should follow with care AIP Online Division's Academic Integrity policy. This policy and procedure document clearly states what to do if the plagiarism occurs in a posted thread for a discussion area or in a final assignment. The process includes what to do for first, second, and third offenses. In addition, ANY faculty member who detects plagiarism must fill out an integrity report form along with supporting documentation and send to the Director of Student Affairs, Tim Fitzgerald (tifitzgerald@aii.edu). You can locate the Academic Integrity Policy in the Faculty Resource Area under the section entitled "Academic Integrity Packet" or by clicking here. Use turnitin.com in the Faculty Resource Area under the section entitled "Academic Integrity Packet" or by clicking here, to ensure the student is plagiarizing. Make a copy of the turnitin.com report.

A: Use Google advanced search or turnitin.com, which you have access to as an instructor. You need to document the source of the plagiarized words carefully. You can locate information regarding the use of turnitin.com in the Faculty Resource Area under the section entitled "Academic Integrity Packet" or by clicking here.

A: You need to remove any posts that might violate the integrity of the course or anyone involved. Before you remove the post make a copy of it, with the date and time noted. You should contact the offending student by both email and phone to let the student know what is "netiquette" in your course. Often that will diffuse the situation. Let your Full Time Faculty Mentor know of the situation, and copy the student's advisor and/or advocate as well. Then submit an AIP Online Division Incident Report Form. You can locate the Incident Report Form in the Faculty Resource Area under the section entitled "Academic Integrity Packet" or by clicking here.

A: Please verify the storm is in that student's area code. Then accommodate this student to allow for her to catch up with work. The same process and accommodations would apply to any natural disaster.

A: If the internet was down due to a storm or natural disaster in their area, then please allow the student to catch up. If they think it was AIP Online Division's fault they should get a "ticket number" from Tech Support to document that the course website was down. Again, please accommodate this possibility. Otherwise, students are responsible for their technology connection, and for having an available backup such as a local public library or internet cafe. Getting their work in as early as possible is the best prevention against this.

A: Faculty evaluation takes place throughout your time facilitating at AIP Online Division through Course Checks, Snapshots, Idea Surveys and PPARs. Course checks are made by your Full Time Faculty Mentor, Program Director or others, and are intended to provide mentoring and support to facilitators in need and to ensure that a quality education and experience is provided to our students. You can view the Course Check Standards in the Faculty Resource Area under the section entitled "General Education" or by clicking here. Snap Shots are weekly "pictures" of your course activity. Snapshots are completed either by your full time faculty or by one of our Instructional Specialists. They are used to provide mentoring and to identify areas within a course that may need improvement. Idea Surveys are student surveys which are managed by an outside company and completed once a session. The results are sent to AIP Online Division for review. To improve the accuracy of your surveys outcome, please encourage your students to participate. You can view your Idea Surveys in the Faculty Resource Area under the section entitled "Faculty Evaluation" or by clicking here. PPAR evaluations are completed once a year for all faculty and staff of AIP Online Division. You will receive your PPAR sometime after your year anniversary date and it is extremely important that you fill your portion out and return it to your full time faculty member right away. After you have filled your portion out, your Program Director and full time faculty member will complete your evaluation. This evaluation will be sent back to you for your review and signature. ***NOTE: If you do not return your evaluation to your Program Director in a timely manner you WILL be removed from the schedule as these evaluations are crucial to your continued success at AIP Online Division.

A: Let your Full Time Faculty Mentor know right away. Communication is the best policy. We will try to get someone to cover for you. If you must be away from the course for an extended time, we may have to seek a replacement.

A: You are typically paid every two weeks on a Friday. Pay dates will be given to you at the beginning of a session.

A: Please contact the Student Support Center. They can be reached at 1-877-872-8869 or studentsupport@aii.edu.