Procedures

For Faculty and GAs

The items in this section are related to managing courses, etc. for faculty and GAs. For CS faculty and administrative assistant, the following is the link to the shared OneDriver folder with files related to CS students and faculty: CS Files OneDrive Folder

Entering Grades and Attendance

Note that the deadlines for entering grades and attendance are hard deadlines. It is not possible to submit these late. You 100% need to have these done on time, since this is very important to the administration (for purposes of federal reporting, etc.).

3 Week Attendance

The instructor of record is required to enter 3 week attendance to the university. You get to this by doing -

• ISU portal, then Faculty Self Service, then Reporting Services, then Attendance Reporting, then select the term, then select each course.
• If it is showing the wrong term, then click on Attendance Reporting Worksheet at the bottom, then click on Select Term, and select the correct term, and then go back to click on Attendance Reporting again from the Faculty Self Service.

You enter "Attended" if the student has participated in any way in the course. The fastest way to do this is to select Attended for everyone by repeatedly typing "tab tab a, tab tab a, tab tab a, ..." and then going back to change any that never attended.

For students who have dropped the course, they do not show up in the gradebook in Canvas, but they do show up under People. So, in Canvas, click on People on the left hand side, and then click on the student. If you do not see People as an option on the left, then go to the Settings for the course, and Navigation, and set People so you can see it.

This must normally be done during the 4th week of classes and by 4pm on the Friday of the 4th week. It is not possible to submit attendance after that time, so this is a hard deadline.

Interim Grades

Interim grades are entered in a similar way to attendance. This is after the 6th week of class, and is only for undergraduate courses. You can decide how exactly you will calculate the interim grades, you just need to let the students know. It is good if it is a best guess of what their grade would be in the term ended now, but this is not required.

Final Grades

Final grades are entered in a similar way to attendance. These are due by noon on the Tuesday after final exams.

Graduate Admissions

Entering Decisions

Entering admissions decisions (for faculty member in charge of this). Note that you will need to choose an advisor for the student and need that advisor's id #. Note also that you need to know the student's undergraduate GPA.

• Start at: https://apply.indstate.edu/manage/
• Hover over icon that looks like a document with a bell, click on Slate Reader.
• Click on Queue on the left, select the applicant you want to put a decision for.
• Once that person is selected, click on "Review Form / Send to Bin" in the bottom right.
• Put in the decision and click through the form. Note that after you have entered the decision, you won't see this applicant in Slate anymore.

Applicant Data

• Undergraduate GPA - can be found in Banner with SHATERM (for those who went to ISU as an undergrad) or SOAPCOQ (for those who were undergrads at a different university).
• General application information - Banner screen SAAADMS.

GAs - Administrative Things

Kronos - GA time should be reported in Kronos. There is information about how to do this in the grad school's GA orientation. The departmental staff person who signs off on your time is Jessica Markle. You should normally report 20 hours worked, and make sure this is entered by Friday morning by the end of the 2 week pay period. You should put a repeating calendar reminder for yourself so you will remember to do this on time.

Picture - A picture of you will be posted to ISU CS People and posted in the lab. If you want something other than your ISU id photo used, send it to the CS faculty member who is managing the ISU CS People page.

Teams Lab Hour - For your lab hours, you will have Teams running so that people can come online for help as well. Students can check the lab schedule and message you in Teams. You can message back and forth a bit, and if it seems a short online meeting would help then do that.

Lab hours - Send to the CS faculty member supervising the GAs your preferred hours (e.g., mostly afternoon, or give specifics) and hours you cannot do (e.g., classes, or recurring appointments).

Programming languages and operating systems - Send to the CS faculty member managing the CS wiki which programming languages you can help students with (should include at least C and python since those are covered in your first term in the CS MS), and which operating systems you can help students with (should at least include the OS of your own personal computer(s)).

FERPA

All graduate assistants and faculty members are required to be informed about FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and agree to abide by it. This basically entails keeping all information about students (their grades, which courses they are in, etc.) private and not disclosing to anyone else (e.g., including their family members, unless the student has followed the process to grant anyone else access).

To indicate your agreement, do the following: ISU portal / Employee self service / FERPA Acknowledgement, and then click the check box that you agree and Submit.

Course Setup, Jeff Kinne

Some notes on how Jeff Kinne sets up his most of his courses...

• Merge sections: If there are multiple sections of the course, merge them in Canvas (see https://cs.indstate.edu/web/index.php/Procedures#Canvas_-_Merge.2FCombine_Sections).
• Syllabus/Course Schedule: Use whatever you like (document, webpage, CS wiki) to make the course schedule/syllabus. You either upload it into Canvas, or put a link in Canvas to the syllabus. You can use someone else's previous syllabus as a starting point (so it contains all of the required items in it).
  • If you have a website for the course schedule, then you can have this embedded in Canvas. In Canvas, click on the Course Schedule, then click the right button to edit html. Then you put the link in an iframe tag, like the following. Note that if using a CS wiki page, the extra "?action=render" will make it show it doesn't show the extra left sidebar inside Canvas.

<p><iframe title="Embedded Content" src="https://cs.indstate.edu/web/index.php/CS_151_Fall_2026?action=render" width="100%" height="500" loading="lazy"></iframe></p>

• Teams lectures: Make a Teams meeting for the course, make it repeat each week for the right days/times for the class, and include the link to the meeting in the course schedule. For each lecture, remember to share screen, and start recording. The recordings will show up in the meeting chat after the meeting is over.
• Drawing: In the CS classrooms, there are drawing tablets that can be used to draw on the screen.
• Powerpoint notes: Start a new powerpoint presentation for each week of the class, named "Week __ - main topic" (e.g., Week 01 - Linux and Python getting started). Share your screen, and the powerpoint slides are what everyone sees. In the presentation for the week, put more details on announcements as needed. Use the presentation as the "board" for the lecture. You can type as you would write on the board. You can use the drawing tablet to draw (click on Draw at the top) things (e.g., math, data structures, whatever you would draw on a board). You can also put hints on assignments, solutions to assignments, anything that would go on the board. Try to keep the presentation notes organized with headings that make sense.
• Announcements: Each day there is a lecture, make a new announcement entry for the day in Canvas (e.g., Jan 13 class) with bullet points of announcements (upcoming assignments, things that have been graded recently, brief description of what the lecture plan is for the day, anything else that is important to keep in mind). Set the date for the announcement in the future if you want to type in notes that aren't available to the students yet, and then clear the date once class is over so students will be able to see the announcement (and probably get an email with the announcement, depending on their settings).
• Class documents: Make a OneDrive folder that you will put files into for the class. Keep the powerpoint slides here, and any other files you might want to share with the students. Make settings so the folder has read access for anyone at ISU and publish the link in the syllabus, so students can get back to these files if they want to.
• Programming assignments: Either use the handin system on the CS server for assignments (see Handin and https://cs.indstate.edu/web/index.php/Procedures#Handin_and_Class_accounts), or you can make the assignments in Canvas and have them turn in the assignments there (you can download a zip of all of the submitted files from all of the students).
• Math-ish assignments: Have them handed in with Canvas (so you don't have to deal with papers). Note that for most file types that they would hand in, you can highlight/draw on/make comments on their submitted files (may be easier/faster than typing in comments).
• Grading: All items that have grades should be in Canvas. You can use something else to have the assignment details, but the grades should be put into Canvas. After grading something, update the assignment information in Canvas to have some notes on what you took off for (e.g., -1 for no name in file, -10 program doesn't run, etc.). Canvas does not give a lot of options in how to calculate final grades. You can have grade categories that get a certain percentage of the total (e.g., Exams worth 50%), and that's it. Within a grade category it just adds up the total points, so you have to pick the number of points for assignments, quizzes, etc. so that the breakdown is about right.
• CS server accounts: See CS Accounts and CS Lab Computers.
• Quizzes and exams: See https://cs.indstate.edu/web/index.php/Jeff_Kinne_Course_Policies#Quizzes
• Attendance: I record attendance but don't count it as any points. I tell the students that I am taking attendance, and I put this into Canvas (an assignment that is worth 0 points) every once in a while. If the students know that I am taking attendance, some are more likely to show up.

Class Picture Roster

For an instructor to get pictures of students in their classes (to help remember names), you can view this in Canvas. Go to the course, then People, then click on "Photo Roster".

Lockdown Browser

To require the lockdown browser for a quiz or exam in Canvas, you need to do this...

• Go to the course in Canvas, then Settings, then Navigation. Find Lockdown Browser in the list, and drag it to the ones that are visible to students. Save.
• On the left, you should now see Lockdown Browser in the menu on the left. Click on it. Then you can click the settings for each quiz or exam.

Textbook Adoptions

Instructors are supposed to indicate to the book store what materials are required (i.e., textbook) or if none are required. You get to this by logging in to the ISU Portal and then finding the "Textbook Adoptions" app/link.

Canvas - Merge/Combine Sections

The steps are outlined here: https://indstate.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/1851/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=139949

Canvas - Creating MS Teams Team

To create a MS Teams team for a course, do the following. Note that the team will automatically contain all of the students, so you don't need to worry about adding students to the team. If you are merging multiple sections, you should do that first before enabling the team.

• In the canvas site for the course, click Settings on the left menu.
• Click Integrations on the tab options on the top.
• Under Microsoft Sync, enable the push button and then click the Sync Now button.

Canvas - Importing

To import course content, you go to the course you want to import into, click Settings at the bottom of the menu on the left, then Import Course Content on the right.

Canvas - Adding People

Note that the +People button to add people to a course may be greyed out if it is past the end of the course's term. To be able to add someone, you need to go to the Settings and set it so the end of availability for the courses is in the future, and after adding a person you can then change it back to how it was.

Canvas - Email the class

From canvas, click the Inbox icon on the left (that looks kind of like a printer), then click the icon that looks like a pencil for writing a new message. From there it's relatively clear.

Note that if you have cross-listed sections (merged) this is likely the easiest way to write a message to the whole class.

Canvas - Let Students View Roster

The roster in Canvas is under the "People" link on the left. By default this is not visible to students. So you need to go to Settings, then Navigation, and drag People up to the part top area where the tools are that are visible to students.

Student Course Evaluations

Student end of course evaluations are available for students to complete at the end of the term. The deadline for students is the last Friday of classes (before exam week). Faculty will be able to see them after final grades are turned in (after the Tuesday after exam week). For faculty to see the evaluations, go to the ISU Portal, then open Faculty Activity Database (use the search, or click around on the menu on the left), then click on Course Evaluations & Surveys.

TC 307, TC 308 - CS room setup

To connect your laptop or use the CS system that is at the sympodium, do the following.

• In TC 307 and TC 308, press the On button on the podium, and press the PC button on the podium.
• For CS system, set the KVM switch to 1.
• For laptop use, set the KVM switch to 2. You should plug in the usb-c cable coming as the output from the KVM switch into your laptop. Depending on your laptop connections, you might need to unplug the HDMI USB cables from the usb-c dongle and plug the HDMI and USB cables directly into your laptop.
• Once things are going through the projector properly, check the audio. You may need to adjust the volume knob on the top of the podium.
• You should also confirm that your microphone is working.

If the connection is not working, some troubleshooting steps that sometimes work.

• Unplug each cable going into the KVM switch and plug back in.
• Unplug HDMI cables going into the wall and plug back in.
• Sometimes, powering off the entire podium and powering it on again is needed. Note, though, that this also powers off the CS system in the podium, so make sure it comes back on.

Course Websites - CS Wiki

If you want to use the CS wiki for a course website, you can pick a recent course that has used it and copy/paste the source code. You would need an account on the CS wiki. Write to the CS sys admin to get an account.

Course Websites - OLD

Note - this maybe/probably still works, but has not been used by the CS sys admin in a while. So if you want to use this, you may need some assistance if it doesn't seem to be working.

Using Steve Baker's course website system (for faculty) -

cd ~/public_html
mkdir csXYZ
cd csXYZ
cp -R ~sbaker/public_html/cst/* .

Then edit the files in ~/public_html/csXYZ.

Some notes...

• The information about the course will be in ~/public_html/csXYZ/config.json. You edit that file and make changes to individualize it to your course.
• This file is a json file - contains a javascript dictionary that contains all of the course information.
• Note that if you have syntax errors in config.json, the webpage won't render properly.
• config.json can have multiline strings, newlines _do not_ need to be escaped (a local modification to the JSON5 interpreter), but may be escaped with a backslash \, like

"courseDesc" : "This is a description\
of the course.  Is it not\
wonderful?"

• Note - strings are interpreted with parsedown markdown which seems to follow the syntax of this, see parsedown tests for examples of each supported markdown feature, the file as a whole is JSON5. Note that JSON5 does allow some things that JSON does not.
• The config.json file can have C style multi-line comments as well.
• The config can be validated on the CS server using the command 'json5 -v config.json'. Note that un-escaped newlines in strings will cause it to fail validation.

CS Online Teaching - OLD

Proposal for minimum standards and requirements for CS online courses (from perhaps 2020 or so).

1. Oversite - Include another CS faculty member in the Canvas site and any other systems, as a student.
2. Email - Reply to emails within 24 hours during the work week, within 48 hours otherwise.
3. Discussion - Use some discussion system where students can post questions, answer each other’s questions, and the instructor can do the same. This could be in the Canvas course, or a Teams group for the course.
4. Lecture content - lecture content (asynchronous videos and/or synchronous) must be at least half as many hours as the total # of lecture-credit-hours (1/2 of 45, for a 3 credit hour course).
5. Assignments - assignments are well documented in text, and proper solutions and hints are demo’ed (either by a video demo, good powerpoint, etc.).
6. Final exam - in Lockdown Browser.
7. Phone/Teams - talk on the phone/teams/etc. with each student at least once, early in the semester.
8. Content and assignments - cover the same content and use the same types of assignments as the face-to-face version of the course.
9. Regular schedule - decide during the first week of classes what the regular schedule will be for the course and stick with it. Preferred - pick two days per week when assignments can be due, and give at least 48 hours notice before any due date. Preferred - pick a few different times per week to hold live-chat office hours (using some live-text-chat system).
10. Absence - notify students and department when you will be absent from the normal course schedule (not available for email, not delivering content on normal schedule, etc.).
11. Grading turnaround - items graded within 1 week of due date.
12. CS policies - abide by all standard CS course policies
13. Abide by university guidelines

The following are suggestions from students

1. Keep videos 20 minutes or shorter
2. Make sure students have a way to interact with each other and instructor. Make it not for many points.
3. Keep regular assignments to keep students engaged and working on the course.
4. Have enough videos and/or simulation/demos since most people are mainly visual learners.

Suggestions from someone who has taught online at other universities

1. Consistency - types of assignments, lecture content, off-line information, short web casts are the best
2. 8 weeks or 16 or something else - 8 weeks can work, more pressure to stay on track
3. Cheating - usual things, also can do live presentations, narrated powerpoints
4. Training for faculty - similar to our OICC, not quite as heavyweight, have a peer review / mentor helping with first time doing one, require faculty to use each of the possible options so they know how to do it
5. Training for students - yes for how to navigate courses, use the system, etc.
6. Standards - actively taking care of the course (answering questions, etc.) at least 4 out of 6 days, peer review is important
7. Requiring attendance at live sessions - could offer to let students who do this not be required to do discussion posts, etc.
8. Hints/tips - due dates on Sunday/Saturday for flexibility, use group work, ability to get asynchronous help is very important, early assignments to get everyone on track

Syllabi / Course Schedule

The following link was at one point the standard template used for the syllabus for CS courses - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cqXZZp0JOg0FOlGOBpMhffbDMiWBV-hw6VkV2KnwBO4/edit?usp=sharing

You can see a version that is in the CS wiki that is more recent and has more "required for all ISU courses" that has been added more recently: CS 151 Fall 2026

Student information

Advisors can do the following for any student (whether it is your advisee or not)...

• ISU portal, then Faculty Self Service, then Advisor Services, then Advisee Search. Put in the current term and the information you have (id #, name, or email). After you click on a student you can look at their unofficial transcript (and click around for some other information - class schedule, etc.).

Useful banner screens...

• SHATERM - undergrad GPA (at ISU), course grades, transfer courses
• SOAPCOQ - undergrad incoming GPA (from outside ISU)
• SOATEST - test scores (Maple TA, SAT)
• SPAAPIN - advising pin
• SAAADMS - student admission information
• SOAHOLD - information on holds

Printers and Supplies

GAs have a key to the CS work room. GAs can use the printers, copier/scanner, and supplies in the work room - for your use as students and lab assistants / TAs. You will be told how to add these to their computers and the code needed for using the copier. If you notice any supplies being low, let the administrative assistant know.

Faculty review

For full time regular faculty, the college guidelines are here: university guidelines, BCET college guidelines, ECET department P&T guidelines 2018 version, ECET department faculty performance evaluation evaluation (triennial evaluation) 2021 version.

Email Lists

See Email Lists.

Honors Conversions

Students in the honors program often decide to do an "honors conversion" for some of the courses in the major. It is up to the instructor and student to agree on an extra project or additional work to be done to count for the conversion.

One generic plan that can be given is the following: A significant project related to course material. This will be agreed upon at the mid-term. Possible options include: paper and presentations on the historical development of BLANK (whatever the course is) with a focus on key figures, paper and presentations highlighting applications of BLANK (whatever the course is) to computer science and beyond, tutorial materials that show how to solve more challenging problems within BLANK (whatever the course is). This is fairly open-ended and has the student making connections between the course and something outside of the course.

Another generic plan is to have the student work on more challenging problems/assignments throughout the semester. Each time there is an assignment for the course, the instructor would give some additional problems/requirements for the honors conversion students.

The instructor also needs to put on the honors conversion form how the project or additional work will be evaluated. One option is the following: The project will be given a letter grade, and the overall course grade given cannot be higher than the grade of the project. The rubric for the project grading will be agreed upon when the particular project is finalized. Note that this sets higher than "just" a pass/fail standard for the project, so is likely to provide more motivation to the student.

Graduate admissions

A few times during the semester, CS graduate coordinator should write to all applicants in the admissions spreadsheet, and let them know what their status is (some do not know their application is missing something). You can use the “MS Application Status” message below. Applicant status comes to the department automatically once per week.

Requests from applicants.

• Change of term requests
  • If more than one year since original application, they need to create a new application but should not be charged an application fee a second time.
  • Within one calendar year: if referred application then department can update term, if admitted or incomplete application then department asks admissions office to update the term.
• Unofficial transcripts
  • Unofficial transcripts can be used for international students for their application, but they also need to have official transcripts sent. For domestic students, only official transcripts will be accepted.
  • Test scores - only official test score reports will be accepted, these need to be sent directly from the testing company.

Graduate student probation and dismissals

Graduate students with below 3.0 GPA are put on probation and by default retained. Having below 3.0 GPA for a second semester in a row by default results in a dismissal. Students on the dismissal list can be retained if the department recommends this. First semester students with below 3.0 GPA after the first semester can be dismissed if the department recommends this. The dean of the graduate school writes with a probation and dismissal list in the week after final grades are due, and the department needs to respond promptly if we want any of the default options changed for any of the students. Plan on checking email and replying to the dean’s message during the week that final grades are due.

CS graduate assistants

Advising current GAs First time GAs should be observed if they are teaching or lecturing. First time GAs should also have their grading checked if they are grading for the first time. GAs should be encouraged to observe each other, and check each other’s grading, and offer advice to each other. GAs that are teaching for the first time should be mentored by a regular faculty member.

Beginning of semester meeting The faculty member supervising the GAs normally meets with them as a group before or near the beginning of the semester to discuss expectations, answer questions, etc.

Weekly meeting The supervisor of the GAs can hold a brief weekly meeting with the GAs during the first part of the semester to make sure everyone is doing what they’re supposed to and to answer questions. GAs should look at all the information linked off the CS homepage.

Website One of the GAs can be chosen to make sure information on the website is current and get the GA schedule into the calendar that shows on the CS homepage.

Other GA duties Note - https://cs.indstate.edu/web/index.php/Unix_Lab_and_Help#Lab_Assistant_Duties

Choosing GAs See Assistantships and Funding for deadlines and discussion.

Transfer credit

See Undergraduate Transfer Credit and Graduate Transfer Credit.

Academic Misconduct

See Policies. For any cheating or plagiarism, the case should be discussed with the CS faculty member that deals with academic misconduct. This should normally done BEFORE discussing with the student or notifying the student there is a problem. The faculty member gives advice on how to deal with the situation and is a second opinion to confirm that the activity is indeed cheating/plagiarism.

Assessment

For undergraduate students, they are evaluated in ECT 437 and ECT 438. They also complete an exit survey in these courses.

See also CS Program Assessment.

Email Messages

The following are templates for email messages to send for various things.

MS Application Status

Subject: Status - Application to CS MS program at Indiana State University

Body:

I am writing to let you know the status of your application to the CS MS program at Indiana State University.

For Incomplete Application, use the following.

Your application status is: Incomplete Application

See https://cs.indstate.edu/web/index.php/Graduate_Admissions#Applying for what this status means. Note that our normal application deadline for the spring is Nov 15 and for the fall is June 15. Our normal deadlines for consideration for department assistantship positions is March 15 for fall intake and Oct 15 for spring intake. For all deadlines, a complete application and everything we have asked for should be in before the deadline.

If you have any questions, feel free to be in touch. If you have a question about what is missing in your application, please first check your online application, and if you are still unsure then write to admissions@indstate.edu.

For Admitted, use the following.

Reply to welcome email, and use the following for the email body.

Cheers again to those admitted to the CS MS program to start in the fall.

I am writing to ask that you please register for courses if you plan to start in the fall (if you have not already). If something changes you can drop the courses before the term starts and will not be charged. It looks like we may have a larger incoming group than normal, so I would like people to get registered so we can plan accordingly.

Please see the links below about getting registered for courses. For those of you starting full time, you should be registering for CS 501, CS 600, either AI 601 or AI 602 or another CS 500/600 level course that you feel prepared for - unless you have been given approval otherwise from your advisor (either Dr. Rafiey or Dr. Abhyankar). If you have any questions, you can be in touch with your advisor or myself about courses.

MS New Admits - Welcome, etc.

Subject: Indiana State University Computer Science - Welcome!

Cheers. You are receiving this message because you have been admitted to the CS MS at Indiana State University. Information on signing up for courses is below. See also the three linked webpages which contain answers to many of your questions. Please read them all before replying to ask any questions.

Make sure to start making arrangements for where you will live in Terre Haute. My only recommendation in that regard is to not live in university housing unless you will have a roommate - it is pretty expensive.

Note also that the registration system opens for registering for courses in early November for the spring classes and early April for the summer and fall classes.

Best regards, signature...

Please begin by reading the following pages completely -

 For New Graduate Students
 CS Programs
 Graduate Advising

Note that the CS MS is updated starting Fall 2026 so that concentrations are no longer required. You will not need to pick a concentration. Stay tuned for information about the new requirements in June.

Follow the instructions on the graduates-new page linked above to get your ISU id and sign up for courses. Note that you can only sign up for 500 and 600 level courses.

Note that most 500 level courses (except CS 500) have prerequisites, so the system will not let you register. Please go ahead and register for the courses you can, and then write an email to me with your list of courses you would like and which you need a prerequisite override for. Include your id number in the email.

Note that adding/dropping classes on or after the first day of classes results in a fee.

MS Application - Rejection

Subject: your application - Indiana State University Computer Science

Hello. I am writing to inform you of the decision on your application to the MS in Computer Science at Indiana State University. I am sorry to inform you that your application is being declined.

Please note that you are welcome to apply for a future term if you work on your basic programming skills and data structures & algorithms. If you have not done so, you should check the sample questions at the end of the interview evaluation form linked from the Interview section of Graduate Admissions. If you work on solving these questions and would like to know if your solutions are correct please be in touch.

We wish you the best, and feel free to be in touch if you have any remaining questions.

Salutation