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| Dear Summer instructors, We hope that your summer is off to a great start! New Boilermakers arrive soon! Classes beginning on Monday, July 11, will again have a unique combination of students. More than 700 new Boilermakers will get a jumpstart on their Purdue education, another 100 highly motivated high school students will enroll in classes alongside our undergraduate students, and thousands of continuing students will be earning credit. Because many students participating in these programs will be new to the college environment, we offer many resources to help students transition to Purdue. A primary goal of summer programming is to help achieve equitable educational outcomes for all students. To that goal – and thanks to strategic partnerships with the Offices of Admissions and Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, academic units, and others -- we are ecstatic to share that 40 percent of participants enrolled in Summer and Early Start have identified as underrepresented students! To help foster a sense of belonging among these new Boilermakers, please encourage your students to engage with the cultural centers, connect with diversity leaders in your college, and access the many resources available at Purdue and in the Greater Lafayette community. Summer instructional resources and updates New Academic Regulations The University Senate approved two key changes to Purdue’s Academic Regulations during the 2021-2022 academic year, which may be found under the 2022-2023 Academic Regulations of the University Catalog.
Syllabus information, Brightspace communication To help prepare high school and incoming students for the demands of college-level courses, students will learn how to use Shovel, a real-time college planner app, to reinforce time management. Our goal is to teach students to successfully upload their syllabi and class schedule information into Shovel during orientation the weekend of July 8. To ensure each student is able to successfully create an academic success plan, we request that you open your course in Brightspace and send an initial communication to students pointing them to the course syllabus, and also consider sending a copy of your syllabus to thinksummer@purdue.edu by Friday, July 8. Accommodated testing Approximately 7 percent of Purdue students report having a disability, and about half of those students will have accommodations that affect how they take a test, quiz, or exam. Accessibility to approved accommodations is a critical commitment that all members of the Purdue community make to our students. The Disability Resource Center (DRC) encourages instructors to determine whether they will implement their own testing accommodations or request that the DRC administer accommodated exams on their behalf. As a reminder, instructors must submit a Testing Instruction Form (TIF) through the DRC Instructor Portal (BoilerKey two-factor authentication required) before students can submit their accommodated test request. Instructors have the following options once they open the TIF:
Visit the DRC website for more specific instructions and additional steps for each approach. Additionally, the DRC encourages instructors to add a brief statement to their syllabus and Brightspace course indicating their approach to testing accommodations. Proposed statements are available on the DRC website. Please contact the DRC at drc@purdue.edu with any questions. July 12-14 Creating Informed Learners in the Classroom symposium Purdue Libraries is inviting Boilermakers to a free three-day virtual event, July 12-14, 2022, Creating Informed Learners in the Classroom (CILC). CILC will showcase the collaborative work of librarians and instructors who co-designed student projects that embed information literacy into disciplinary courses at Purdue, the University of Arizona, and University of Nebraska. The Purdue CILC website provides details on registration and sessions, which are all early afternoon Eastern Time. Brightspace tips: Help students see their progress Students, particularly new Boilermakers, sometimes have difficulty tracking their progress toward course completion. Instructors can help by frequently updating their course Brightspace gradebook in ways that show it as a running total based only on activities graded to date. Documentation on this strategy may be found among many resources available on the Brightspace Resources webpage. Related, course add/drop dates are outlined on the Office of the Registrar website.Tips for summer student engagement Students in Summer Start and Early Start -- including Emerging Leaders, STEM Summer Session, and Engineering Academic Boot Camp -- participate in various learning community events and team meals to help foster a sense of belonging. Instructors are invited to join students for lunch 12 noon-1 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays in Wiley Dining Court. Instructors are also invited to attend the Third Street Block Party to help welcome students to campus on Friday, July 8, at 4:45 p.m. and the Purdue Talent Show on Wednesday, August 3, at 7 p.m. on Slayter Hill. If you are interested in any of these opportunities, please email thinksummer@purdue.edu. Most undergraduate students need social support from their peers to be successful and feel connected to Purdue. When on campus, students are more readily able to form friendships with classmates; this process occurs more naturally in residential courses than it does in online courses. By providing structure for students to informally interact with each other (even when they feel awkward at first), instructors are both increasing students’ mutual social support and alleviating some of the burden on the instructor to answer all of students’ questions. It's a double win! Below are some ideas to foster the process of students supporting one another:
Thank you and Think Summer! Jenna Rickus, Vice Provost for Teaching & Learning Heather L. Servaty-Seib, Associate Vice Provost for Teaching & Learning John Gipson, Executive Director of Summer Session |