Welcome New Faculty!

Welcome to Winona State University! We are excited to have you here and look forward to working with you.

Our Teaching, Learning, and Technology (TLT) team is ready to help you prepare for the fall and beyond. We can assist with classroom setup, Zoom, teaching ideas, Brightspace design, and more! Our team is located in Maxwell 130 (our classroom support team) and Library 105/110 (our teaching and learning team). You can submit a service ticket, email us or pop into our Zoom room (StarID log in is required).

Welcome Week

Welcome Week is schedule for the week before classes start (August 17-August 21) - the complete calendar is posted online and will be shared with you. In addition, new faculty are invited to the New Faculty Orientation on Friday, August 14. The tentative schedule for Friday is attached.

Getting Started in D2L Brightspace

Brightspace is our learning management system (LMS). You may be familiar with Brightspace, or you may have used Canvas, Blackboard, or Moodle in previous positions.

Until your official account is set up in Brightspace, we have created a temporary login for you. You will get an email to your non-WSU email address indicating this (check your junk mail folder, too). Once you set up your password, you will be able to log in. Use the “Non-StarID Login”.
Once your official/permanent account is created, you can use that. We will add you (with your non-StarID login) as an instructor to the courses you have been assigned. You will have full access to create and modify these courses. Everything you create will be available to you when you log in with your StarID account. For assistance with Brightspace, check out our Knowledge Base site.

Course shells in D2L Brightspace are automatically created for every course. Your courses will show on the Brightspace homepage. We will add you to your assigned courses with your temporary login (based on the current schedule).

We have several help articles in our Knowledge Base, including Getting Started in D2L Brightspace and Navigating D2L Brightspace.

Faculty Teaching Resources Site

You have been added to our WSU Faculty Teaching Resources site in Brightspace with your StarID login (or non-StarID login, if unavailable). This site includes WSU-specific resources and general resources on teaching and learning, like sample syllabus statements, course evaluation sample items, and Brightspace tutorials). This is available in the Brightspace “Professional Development” tab.

Student Learning Outcomes & Common Course Outlines

Each course has a set of approved student learning outcomes (SLOs). You can work with your department chair to get these SLOs (and program-level SLOs) and discuss whether the department has any set assessments or processes.

Common course outlines are available online. Navigate to View Course Outlines along the left side of the screen.

Syllabus Set Up

At Winona State, we do not have a syllabus template. However, individual departments may have standards or examples to share. You are encouraged to include the shared Commitment to Inclusive Excellence Statement on your syllabus. The WSU Faculty Teaching Resources site in Brightspace also has templates for your use.

Faculty members are required to share a syllabus with students within the first week of the class.

Digital Accessibility

Winona State is committed to ensuring accessibility for our entire community. This includes physical and digital accessibility.

Recent federal regulation revisions (ADA Title II) require that all digital content (including instructional materials) meet minimum accessibility standards. Our Knowledge Base has help articles on Title II, best practices, and accessibility tools.

Within D2L Brightspace we have an accessibility audit and remediation tool called Accessibility+.

Questions can be directed to our Title II team.

General Education Program

The General Education Program (GEP) at Winona State is a set of graduation requirements for all undergraduate students. This is made up of 10 Goal Areas (aka: the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum, MNTC) and 4 Intensives. If you are teaching a course in the GEP, be sure to review the specific learning outcomes associated with the Goal Area or Intensive. To find out if you are teaching a GEP course, ask your department chair or check out the current course list.

Zoom

Winona State uses Zoom for video conferencing and office phones. The Zoom application can be installed on your laptop, mobile device, and/or desktop. As an employee, you have a Zoom Pro account (when you log in with your StarID).

You will receive an email when your phone number is set up.

For assistance with Zoom, check out our Knowledge Base site.

Kaltura MediaSpace

Kaltura MediaSpace is a set of tools for creating, publishing, and sharing medial files. This system is shared across all MinnState institutions.

MediaSpace videos can easily be embedded into Brightspace.

For assistance with MediaSpace, check out our Knowledge Base site.

Academic Calendar

The Academic Calendar is set two years in advance and is available online once approved. This calendar includes semester start and end dates, days off, commencement days, withdraw dates, and special events. Faculty duty day calendars are available at this website as well.

WSU Website Navigation

To access many of your common links, go to the WSU website, then navigate to Info For at the top of the page and select Faculty & Staff. Here you can find Academic Calendars, the Course Catalog, Brightspace, the MNState Employee page (aka e-services), Office 365, the State of Minnesota site, and Workday (and more).

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