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Monday, November 25, 2024

News

Winter Break 2024 Support and Workshops from ITS

  • ITS is updating Moodle to version 4.4 on December 5th. Join us for a workshop to learn about new features on December 6th.
  • During winter break (Nov 28 – Dec 20), the ITS Helpdesk will be open M – F, 8am – 5pm.
  • ITS will provide emergency support Dec 23 – 30. The voice message box at x5999 will be reviewed midday each day, and messages will be escalated, if needed, to the appropriate ITS staff member. Non-time-sensitive messages will be addressed in early January.
  • For teaching and learning technology questions, Academic Technology will continue to offer drop-in hours through November 28. For specific times and Zoom link, go to the ITS Calendar. We will be available via appointment through December 20, and we will be back on January 2nd with drop-in hours. We will respond to tickets during the staff winter break, with a delayed response time.

For more details and information about workshops, read our Winter Break 2024 blog post.


Library Support for Winter Courses

Research Support

As you finalize your research assignments for the Winter Term, your Reference & Instruction Librarians would like to remind you that we are here to help! We encourage you to get in touch with your liaison librarian to discuss the variety of services we offer to help support you and your students. Additionally, if you need library instruction or a course guide in a STEM area, please contact Sean Leahy. For help with the Arts, please contact Adam Lewis. If you are unsure of who your liaison librarian is, please send an email to reference@carleton.edu, and we will get back to you!

This is support that you can take advantage of at any point during the term, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch to discuss your ideas or your students’ research needs. For those of you with many first year students in your classes, we’d also like to remind you that not all A&I courses received library instruction in the Fall, so you might consider inviting your librarian to introduce themselves and the library’s resources.

Streaming Media Requests

Streaming media requests are handled by the RADS department of the library (Resource Acquisition and Discovery Services). Please direct any film requests to Susan Shirk (Acquisitions, E-Resources and Outreach Librarian) or libraryacquisitions@carleton.edu. This includes requests for new acquisitions, as well as for assistance identifying a potential streaming option for your course.

Creating Digital Connections with the Library

The Library’s newly-formed Digital Collections Advisory Team (DCAT) is charged with stewarding the Library’s various digital collections platforms, such as Carleton Digital Collections and Carleton Digital Commons. Interested in adding a digital collection to a Library platform for teaching or research purposes? Visit the DCAT webpage to learn more and submit a proposal.


Campus Access to The Minnesota Star Tribune

Students, faculty, and staff now have access to The Minnesota Star Tribune through a digital subscription provided by Gould Library. Directly access while on campus or through VPN off campus via The Minnesota Star Tribune. For additional information about access, please see the Newspapers: Current and Historical guide.


Winter Weather Reminders

As a residential campus, Carleton very rarely closes or cancels classes completely because of weather. But even if the college is open, winter weather can still make staff and faculty travel to campus challenging, particularly for those who live farther from Northfield.

If severe weather impacts employees’ ability to safely travel to campus, there are Weather Days and FlexWork policies that may apply, depending on circumstances. Faculty unable to travel safely to campus on a weather-impacted class day will need to teach in ways other than the usual. (We’d all hope that these disruptions won’t occur frequently, but circumstances are different, and the individual decision about when it’s appropriate to stay off the roads is left to the best judgement of individual faculty.)

Many instructors will be able to use hard-earned experience of the last several years to substitute remote instruction during their normal class meeting time. For some types of courses, though, remote instruction may not be possible or appropriate; these instructors can arrange for a colleague to cover their class, make their own arrangements for make-up class sessions after the weather improves, or offer alternative asynchronous instructional activities. In any case, the amount of work asked of students in these alternatives should be similar to that of the original class session. (The LTC’s information on resilient pedagogy is particularly helpful in planning.) See the policy on Class Attendance for the limitations on remote class sessions.


Advising

Winter Term Advising Circle

Have you worked with a student with a mental health challenge and wished you had more knowledge to support them? Have you wanted to participate in Mental Health First Aid but have not had the time/availability?  

The winter term Advising Circle is for you! Our focus will be on helping you develop essential skills and introducing you to resources that support students facing mental health challenges. The session will be facilitated by Patrick Gordon, Director of the Office of Health Promotion. Note: This session will not certify you in Mental Health First Aid, but it will give you some key skills and resources to support students dealing with mental health concerns. 

We invite all advisers to provide input on the best date for the advising circle. Please fill out the Winter Term Advising Circle form to indicate your availability.


Liberal Arts Adviser Notes

If you are going on leave in the winter term, your sophomore advisees will be reassigned to a new adviser shortly following the end of the current term. These students will continue with their new advisers until the moment they declare their majors in the spring term. Since you will no longer have access to their files, consider setting aside some time at the end of this term to compose brief notes on these sophomores using Workday. These notes will be helpful to the new advisers. You can find instructions on how to enter student notes here. If you need any assistance with this, please contact Yansi Perez (yperez@, x4311). Please keep in mind that these notes become a part of the official student’s record and a student may request access.


Advising Quick Links


Grants and Fellowships


Workshops