Winter 2022 CUPE Unit 1 & 2 FCS and In-Class Teaching Assessments

To: CUPE 3904 Unit 1 and 2 Contract Lecturers
CC: Deans, Deans’ Office Admin, Chairs/Directors, Senior HR Partners

Dear colleagues,

The modifications to the Faculty Course Survey for CUPE 3904 Unit 1 and Unit 2 Contract Lecturers and In-Class Teaching Assessments for CUPE 3904 Unit 1 Contract Lecturers will continue for the Winter 2022 term. These modifications are outlined below.

1. Faculty/Course Survey (FCS)

The FCS process for CUPE 3904 Unit 1 and 2 members teaching online courses will continue online.

For clarity, online courses are those that are traditionally taught fully online without an in-person component and virtual courses are those normally taught in-person but transitioned to a virtualized format due to the pandemic.

Regardless of the mode of delivery of the course, CUPE 3904 Unit 1 and 2 members will be given the option of whether or not they wish to submit their online FCS results, as part of their application process, as the official results for the in-person or virtual course(s) they are teaching.

FCS results for Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Fall 2021, and Winter 2022 will not be automatically uploaded to CUPE Unit 1 currency reports. CUPE 3904 Unit 1 members who want to include these FCS results in their currency reports must upload them manually.

A negative inference will not be drawn if these are not submitted. In addition, Contract Lecturer Appointments Committees (CLACs) should not provide additional scoring to applicants who provide their FCS scores in their application.

In reviewing FCS results for the Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Fall 2021, and Winter 2022 terms, units are strongly encouraged to give consideration to any challenges that may have been imposed by teaching during the pandemic.

2. In-Class Teaching Assessments (CUPE 3904 Unit 1 Contract Lecturers)

The normal process regarding communications to CUPE 3904 Unit 1 Contract Lecturers as to the number of assessments and the scheduling of these will continue as per the Collective Agreement.

1. In the Winter 2022 term, Contract Lecturers may elect whether they wish to have their normally scheduled teaching assessments take place.
   • For the Winter 2022 term Contract Lecturers shall have the option whether they wish to have an in-class teaching assessment. Contract Lecturers may opt for an assessment by writing to the Chair/Director prior to February 7, 2022.
   • If no election is made by the timeline for Winter 2022 above, the default will be that a teaching assessment shall not be completed for Winter term.
2. Contract Lecturers who elect to have their scheduled teaching assessments conducted will also be given the opportunity to elect if they wish to have this teaching assessment(s) as an official assessment that will be included in their Service Record File (SRF).
   • To facilitate this, when an assessment is completed, the assessor must provide it only to the Contract Lecturer within three weeks of the class visit and advise the Chair/Director that the assessment has been completed. No copy will be placed in the SRF.
   • Within two weeks of receiving all of their in-class teaching assessments, Contract Lecturers must notify the Chair/Director in writing if they wish one or more of the assessments to form part of their SRF. If they so elect, the Contract Lecturer will provide the assessments(s) to the Chair/Director who will forward it to the Dean, CUPE 3904 and for filing in the SRF.
3. Contract Lecturers who have elected either to waive the normally scheduled assessments or declined to use the teaching assessment(s) in whole or in part, will be required to have additional teaching assessment(s) as set out below:
   • Additional teaching assessments will occur following the resumption of in-person teaching;
   • Additional teaching assessments will occur at least one every term the Contract Lecturer teaches after the resumption of in-person teaching until they reach between 6 and 8 assessments in their first six semesters of teaching,  per Article 18.2.b.
   • No adverse inference shall be drawn because a Contract Lecturer has fewer than 8 teaching assessments as a result.
4. The Contract Lecturer and a potential assessor are strongly encouraged to have a discussion to determine the most appropriate manner to carry out the assessment taking into consideration the mode of delivery.
   
5. The unavailability of an assessor will not negatively affect a Contract Lecturer.
6. Assessors and those reading assessments shall be informed that, while not devaluing excellence in innovation and technology, they ought to be cautious in placing undue weight on technology management where a course has been converted to virtual or remote delivery.
7. The following statement will be appended to the Contract Lecturer’s Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Fall 2021, and Winter 2022 Teaching Assessments that are included in their SRF: “This Teaching Assessment took place during the challenging conditions caused by the pandemic and should be viewed in that light. It is understood that the Contract Lecturer may not have had the opportunity to demonstrate the normal range of in-person teaching skills.”

Please share this information with all members of your CLAC.

Sincerely,

Office of the Vice-Provost, Faculty Affairs