Purpose 

Faculty coordinators lead a cohort of CIS instructors in required ongoing professional education.  Provide and center engagement and discipline specific investment opportunities for required professional development workshops (PD) and wellbeing in the field.  Because professional development events are our primary way of knowing an instructor, their course, and their experience, regular and ongoing connection is built into CIS programming.  These opportunities develop a sense of belonging and provide the collegial support they need to sustain and teach a University course in their high school.  

Over time, i.e., not all in one workshop, you are required to address the content, pedagogies, and assessments of the University course.  Workshops are inclusive of discipline development, encompass world, technological, cultural and social impacts, as well as, new research.  After course changes are piloted on campus, those changes are then incorporated into the CIS sections as well.

Most cohorts, especially during the first few years, offer workshops as the primary professional development activity. The workshops connect CIS instructors with faculty and resources of the University, provide highly valued opportunities to share professional best practices, and give the faculty coordinator opportunities to both teach and learn from these energetic and dedicated instructors.  As cohorts mature, other professional development activities in lieu of some workshops might be appropriate. For example: 

• Offering series of short webinars, replacing one workshop during the academic year.

• Organizing visits by individual instructors to other classrooms to see how the course is taught on campus or by other CIS instructors. As part of this instructors might complete a reflective assignment to discuss at the next workshop. 

• Meet individually or in smaller groups with instructors who are working on teaching materials for particular topics. These would be presented at a workshop and/or shared online through a Canvas site. 

• Work with presenters across the discipline to offer appropriate sessions for CIS instructors; or perhaps attend a discipline-specific conference or participate in a short "course" together with options for reflection and debriefing.  

Your ingenuity and collaboration with CIS instructors creates vibrant community and these professional development events are one of the key connection points to ensuring that CIS sections of a University course are of University quality. 

Minimum Requirements

Workshops for all instructors in your cohort

CIS requires that each faculty coordinator hold a minimum of three days of professional development for all instructors each year: two days during the academic year (one in fall and one in spring) and at least one in the summer. The academic year workshops are ordinarily four to six hours long; the summer workshop is a minimum of one full day.  Many cohorts meet one to three half or full days in the summer.  The schedule may vary slightly each year depending on the cohort goals and curriculum development needs.

Workshops for instructors new to your cohort 

In addition, each cohort must hold a workshop or an individual meeting for instructors new to your cohort. The length and time of these workshops are at the faculty coordinator’s discretion. If there are only one or two new instructors for your cohort, your workshop may be more of an informal directed study than a workshop. Often faculty coordinators will meet with new instructors early in the summer and then again late in the summer. This schedule allows you to orient instructors to the course, gives instructors the summer to do reading and syllabus preparation, and provides a time before classes begin for you and the instructors to address questions or problems. 

Note: CIS holds a New Instructor Orientation in early August for instructors from all cohorts who are new to CIS. At this workshop, the agenda focuses on the how-to’s of managing a University course and the what if's that impact teaching and learning. We share policies and practices that ensure course quality in CIS sections, discuss University policies regarding attendance, academic conduct, and grading, and show instructors how to register CIS students and submit grades through University systems.  Instructors also are oriented to the U of M library and to resources available to students such as the Office of Disability Services, the Writing Center, etc.

Scheduling Professional Development Activities

1. During the summer workshop identify dates for the entire academic year’s professional development activities and field days. It is best to do this with instructors, either at a workshop or by using an online survey tool. High schools have many days when instructors and/or students are not available.

2. In the fall, identify dates for your next summer professional development activities. This early planning allows for everyone involved to plan their summer events and make room for CIS PD participation.  

3. Consult with your instructors and your CIS course liaison to determine if your proposed dates will conflict with other CIS professional development activities and field days that involve the same instructors you work with. (For example, writing instructors often also teach the literature class; history instructors may also teach political science or applied economics, etc.)

Hallmarks of Effective Professional Development

CIS instructor workshops and other professional development activities have many qualities that are hallmarks of excellent professional development. CIS workshops: 

1. Respect and nurture intellectual and leadership capacity of instructors

2. Focus on a specific course and explore the discipline; consider the university and high school context, and provide supported engagement, participation and reflection 

3. Provide ample opportunity for professional conversation 

4. Build trust and a collegial relationship among instructors themselves and between the instructors and the faculty coordinator 

5. Encourage collaboration and sharing of materials, resources, and ideas 

6. Create a climate supportive of change and risk taking 

7. Include discussion about and use of topics such as: technology, new pedagogy, world event impacts, discipline evolution, etc. — each impact teaching the U of M course and professional development

8. Support the sharing of instructor expertise.  Consider preparing CIS instructors to lead as peer mentors, instructor advisors and coaches 

Planning Instructor Professional Development

1. Help is available! The best resource for planning professional development is often CIS instructors themselves. You can do a mini-survey—during a workshop or by email—asking instructors what topics they would like to spend time addressing.

2. You may also identify up to three instructors from the cohort to serve as a Course Advisory Committee. (CIS will pay committee members a small annual honorarium for helping you plan professional development and student field days.) Committee meetings can be held after a workshop or by Zoom.  The CIS course liaison working with your cohort is also a good source of ideas and advice about professional development.  During the summer workshop, identify dates for the entire academic year’s professional development activities and field days. It is best to do this with instructors, either at a workshop or by using an online survey tool. High schools have many days when instructors and/or students are not available.

3.  Consult with CIS faculty coordinator colleagues!  They are terrific sources of great ideas regarding ongoing professional education with CIS instructors.

4. You may invite presenters from the University or community to deliver part of a workshop. These presenters may share thoughts and results from their research or demonstrate how s/he teaches a particular section of the syllabus. Or, they might provide related or contextual information that contributes to excellent teaching of particular subjects in the course. The cohort budget provided to you by CIS there to support PD activities and offer honoraria to speakers and presenters.

5. Staff from several University offices—for example, the Writing Center and the Center for Teaching and Learning—present without charge as part of their regular work.

Addressing U of M Grading

One of the most frequent concerns and questions instructors new to CIS have is about grading: “How do I know what an ‘A’ is at the University of Minnesota?” As faculty coordinator, you also will want to know that assessment standards in CIS sections are comparable to those in on-campus sections. Following are practices that have been effective for addressing grading standards in CIS cohorts. 

1. Discuss grade distribution reports provided to you by the CIS office; these reports include the grade distribution for all sections of a course, both those taught on campus and those taught in the high school. This practice can be useful in identifying outliers with a pattern of grading especially hard or especially easy.  NOTE: There are reasons why grades in CIS sections might be higher than grades in non-CIS sections of the same course. Talk with CIS instructors to learn about variations between sections that may be impacting or supporting students in new ways.

2. Examine the factors that are being used to determine a grade. Are they comparable to factors in on-campus sections? (Discussion participation, papers, exams, attendance, etc.) 

3. Discuss and/or review sample grading rubrics. Consider dedicating workshop time to creating rubrics for grading papers, exams, and other student work. Or, give workshop time to review and modify a draft of such rubrics which has been created by a subcommittee. 

4. Consider inviting staff from the University’s Center for Educational Innovation—or an instructor from within your cohort who may be trained in creating rubrics—to work with your cohort on creating and using grading rubrics.

5. Grade a set of student papers/exams at a workshop. The faculty coordinator, faculty assistant, and each instructor should grade the papers individually, followed by a full discussion of why people gave the grades they did. 

6. Review instructors’ assignments. Do they reflect comparable University section style and effort if they are not the same? 

7. CIS allows for the application of two final course grades (one for high school and one for the University).  Discuss with the cohort factors that may impact this option and ensure University academic standards.  Some high schools require each of the concurrent grades to be the same as do many instructors.

8. If your cohort has a Course Advisory Committee, consider engaging them in planning how to address any grading issues. 

U of M's Center for Educational Innovation (CEI)

The Center for Educational Innovation (CEI) has a wealth of material online that CIS instructors can access. Many CIS instructors have years of experience and are virtually a teaching and learning center themselves. But many will also appreciate knowing about this great University resource. 

Cohort Budgets

CIS has developed guidelines and annual cohort budgets that faculty coordinators can use to support professional development activities for CIS instructors. These budgets may also be used to support student field days, as appropriate. Our goals are to:

• Make funds available to all CIS cohorts in an equitable manner

• Encourage the planning and delivery of rich, effective instructor professional development

• Support excellent student field days

Cohort budgets are calculated annually and based on the total number of CIS instructors and students served by the cohort in the previous academic year. A letter stating the calculation is sent to the cohort faculty coordinator each summer. 

Spending from the cohort budget may include the following types of expenses:

• Copies, books, journals, subscriptions, or other “take-aways” to support CIS instructors in their professional development

• In-state travel, conference, or webinar registration fees for CIS instructors

• Honoraria or gifts for guest speakers at professional development workshops or field days

• Travel expenses for guest speakers at professional development workshops or field days. These expenses may include mileage reimbursement (NOTE: airfare for speakers needs to be pre-approved and purchased by the CIS director); hotel costs for speakers; per diem; or hospitality (please reference the University hospitality policy)

• Gifts for University students assisting with field days (small gifts are arranged by CIS events specialists)

• Miscellaneous materials for field days such as trophies, ribbons, poster board, markers, etc.

In most cases the CIS event specialists will arrange for the purchase of items or payment for services. If you must use your own University P-card or plan to request reimbursement for an out-of-pocket purchase, do not pay sales tax and save your receipts. Please discuss any non-standard expenses with the CIS director prior to your purchase.

Honoraria payments for speakers/presenters

Honoraria are often paid to speakers and presenters at CIS workshops and field days.

Faculty Coordinators decide on the amount that a speaker should be paid. Check with your cohort liaison or the director if you are unsure about a payment.

When arranging for a speaker or presenter, a faculty coordinator or faculty coordinator assistant will be asked to share the following information with a CIS event specialist:

1. Speaker information

   • Connect directly with the speaker/presenter to confirm their participation, and provide them with the date, time, and location of the event.

   • Request contact information from the speaker/presenter:

     1. 1. First and last name

        2. Email address

        3. Phone number

        4. Mailing address (if non-U of M speaker) – Confirm this information every time, as addresses change

        5. Whether they have worked as an independent contractor for the University within the past 10 years

  2. Payment

1. • Determine the honorarium amount 

   • Inform the speaker and CIS event specialist of the payment amount 

 3. Provide your event specialist with all speaker and honorarium information in step 1 and 2.

Note: There are additional steps needed if paying or reimbursing a speaker from outside the University $600 or more during a calendar year. Speakers actively associated with the University do not require this process. Please have your speaker contact cis@umn.edu to begin the process.