2024-2025 Syllabus Language
1. University Senate-required syllabus components – Note: New effective Fall 2024: https://provost.uky.edu/sites/default/files/2024-08/syllabus-guidance-a…. Template available at link if needed.
- Course title (must match title in course catalog).
- Course prefix, course number, and course section number.
- Instructor name, office location, office phone number including area code, and campus email address.
- Office hours (in person and/or virtual), how to set appointments, preferred communication method, and timeframe for responses
- Course descriptions (Must match approved catalog description)
- Required materials for the course, e.g. textbooks, required readings/films, etc.
- Associated expenses other than required materials
- Skills and Technology requirements, if applicable.
- Student learning outcomes. See https://comm.uky.edu/student-resources/courses
- List of activities, assignments, and exams with description, deadlines and grading schemes
- Mechanics of submissions (if applicable)
- Policy on grade return (if applicable)
- Grading scale (undergraduate, graduate, etc.)
- For 400G- and 500-level only – explain different expectations for undergraduate and graduate students
- Midterm grades (if applicable)
- Submission of late assignments and policies on late assignments
- Prep week and permissible assignments
- Tentative course schedule. Must include major due dates
- Course activities outside of regularly scheduled course days/times (if applicable
- URL/hyperlink to, or copy and paste of, Academic Policy Statements: https://provost.uky.edu/proposals/guidance-course-proposals/standard-academic-policy-statements
- Attendance policy for course, if applicable. (See Department Language in #2 below.
- Acceptable documentation for excused absences
- Policy for absences due to major religious holidays (if applicable)
- Resources that may be helpful (if applicable) (e.g., The University offers a variety of resources available to students. Visit the Office of Student Success https://studentsuccess.uky.edu/get-help)
- Use full language for academic offenses, found here: Plagiarism: https://ombud.uky.edu/students/what-plagiarism and Cheating: https://ombud.uky.edu/students/what-cheating
- Include Classroom Emergency Preparedness and Response information – see the policy in the appendix of this document: https://provost.uky.edu/sites/default/files/2024-08/syllabus-guidance-a…
2. Attendance Policy Language – Note: The Senate’s academic policy language covers most of our previous language on excused absences and verification of excused absences. Therefore, we have only included information about the specific attendance policy recommended for COM classes.
Department of COM Attendance Policy - You will earn your participation grade through class attendance and engagement over the course of the semester. Class participation may include activities, quizzes, discussions, reflective writing, etc. and may be graded as complete/incomplete or graded based on a rubric. Participation totals a set percentage of your grade (as indicated by your instructor in the syllabus) with a certain number of participation opportunities worth a certain number of points each. Each instructor will lay out procedures for earning participation in the syllabus and/or on Canvas.
New for AY2023-2024 – In classes that meet once a week, you are allowed ONE excused absence. After the one excused absence, your grade will be reduced by a set percentage grade (as indicated by your instructor in the syllabus) per absence.
3. CI SONA syllabus language – Note: FOR COM 101, 249, 252, 281, 287, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316, and 317 only!
https://ci.uky.edu/research/research-resources/ci-sona-policy-insertion-course-syllabus
4. GCCR language – Note: FOR COM 326 and 351 only!
This course provides full GCCR credit for the Communication major. In order to receive GCCR credit for this course, students must submit formal written work that totals 4500 words of English composition (approximately 15 pages total) AND a formal oral (spoken) assignment such as a speech or presentation (length of at least 10 minutes). Students must submit a draft of their work, receive feedback from the instructor and/or peers, and revise assignments accordingly before submitting for final grading. Additionally, the assignments must demonstrate information literacy in the discipline. This requirement can be fulfilled only after students have completed 30 credit hours towards their degree. Students must earn an average grade of C or better on the GCCR assignments themselves (not the course) in order to satisfy the GCCR requirement.
5. Grievance Procedure
If you have tried to resolve an issue with your instructor and are not satisfied, you should contact Dr. Anthony Limperos, Chair of the Department of Communication, at anthony.limperos@uky.edu for an appointment.
6. YOU MAY INCLUDE THIS: Teacher Course Evaluation (TCE) policy – Special note to instructors: The rule is that you can create the # of points/insert the # of points… but it should not equal more than 1% of the final course grade (please do the math).
Instructors may choose to incentivize students for completing the online teacher course evaluation (TCE). The incentive should be an enhancement to the final exam grade, as per the department’s policy. The incentive will only be provided if the response rate for the course reaches 80%. For this class, X points on your final exam/paper grade of XXX total points will be available to all students if the response rate for the course reaches 80%. Note: Instructors do not have a record of who completes the TCE. Instead, the instructor has a record of the response rate for the TCE. In other words, instructors can monitor the percentage and number of students who complete the TCE but they cannot monitor the names of the students who complete it.
7. Email policy – Special note to instructors: Please encourage students to communicate via official university email addresses.
Electronic correspondence from the University, the College, the Department of Communication, your instructors, advisors, and SONA will be sent to your official University Email Address (UEA), as defined in the UK Account Manager. It is your responsibility to regularly check this account or forward this address to an account that you will check regularly. Log-in to the account manager (http://ukam.uky.edu) using LinkBlue to confirm your University Email Address and delivery location.
8. Federal Regulation Regarding Disbursement of Federal Financial Aid Funds (Title IV) – Policy for Confirming Student Enrollment and Engagement in Courses
Federal regulation mandates that federal financial aid funds (Title IV) may only be disbursed to students who are actually enrolled and engaged in coursework. This regulation mandates that institutions provide evidence of engagement early in each semester. Failure to provide evidence includes sizeable fees and fines.
To comply with this mandate, all instructors of undergraduate and graduate courses (including lab sections, online courses, internships, independent studies, and research credits) in the College of Communication and Information will be required to confirm student attendance or engagement in classes during the two-week period following the last day to add a class.
9. Degree Progress Reviews – Note: For upper-division (325+ courses) only! Important information from advising for our juniors and seniors.
Upper-division students should stay in contact with their academic advisor to make sure they are on track for graduation. If you have 85 or more completed hours (not including current coursework), then you can schedule from myUK a degree progress review with Suanne Early, Director of Student Affairs. To schedule the appointment: 1) Start on the myInfo tab in myUK; 2) Click on the myAppointments link on the left side; 3) Choose Advising Department (College of Communication); 4) Choose Appointment Category (Degree Progress Review); 5) View the calendar and select an appointment time (options in BLUE). An email confirmation of your appointment will be sent to your UK email account. Failure to complete a degree progress review could result in delayed graduation.
Students must apply for their degree. To be eligible to apply for the degree, a student must have completed 85 or more credit hours. This does not count any current coursework. To submit a degree application, go to the GPS Degree Audit in myUK and select “Graduation” on the left side. From there scroll down to the green “Apply for graduation” box. Degree application deadlines are March 20 for a May degree, July 1 for an August degree, and November 1 for a December degree. You are encouraged to apply early as there will be no extensions on these deadlines.
10. Generative AI Policy – Please see this guide for assistance on creating a course specific AI policy here: https://universitysenate.uky.edu/sites/default/files/committee_resources/Generative%20AI%20Syllabus%20Resource.pdf