Teaching Information + Resources

The Center for Teaching and Learning promotes teaching and learning by providing consultation and program facilitation on all aspects of teaching, as well as administration of teaching-related awards, fellowships, and grants. CTL provides support for the Committee on Teaching of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate, the colleges and schools, as well as academic partners across the campus that supports the mission.

For information on policies and procedures related to graduate education, visit the Berkeley Grad Dashboard.

The academic calendar lists critical for each semester dates. Please also consult the religious holidays and religious creed policy.

The Berkeley Academic Guide includes the schedule of classes, as well as the final exam schedule.

We all share concerns about reducing the high cost of course materials and ensuring those materials are accessible by students. UC Berkeley complies with HEOA by asking faculty to submit book orders to the Cal Student Store even in cases where faculty place orders with independent bookstores, so they can be listed in the course catalog. Providing book lists to the Cal Student Store, regardless of where books are ordered, also makes it possible for the store to buy back books at the end of the semester and offer them at a discount in the future.

In addition, each faculty member has the responsibility to identify instructional materials for their courses far enough in advance of the semester so that the Disabled Students’ Program has adequate time to convert them into an accessible format, e.g., Braille, large print, digital/electronic, etc. Timely submission of textbook adoptions enables the university to meet its legal requirement to provide students with disabilities an equal educational opportunity to learn course subject matter, to participate actively in classroom discussions, and to meet assignment deadlines.

The Division of Undergraduate Education announces each year the deadlines for submitting textbooks to meet these affordability and accessibility deadlines on the UE News portion of its website. To ensure a record of your adoption, email text@berkeley.edu.

bCourses is Berkeley's official campus Learning Management System, which uses the open-source Canvas platform. This web-based tool provides a resource for instructors and students to enrich the teaching and learning experience. bCourses is integrated with our Academic Integrity, Clickers, CalCentral, Course Capture, SuiteC, and Gradescope services.

Instructors can create new or upload existing course materials and build graded activities within bCourses, while also using it to communicate with and provide feedback to students. It offers a variety of built-in assessment tools, as well as an opportunity to integrate external tools to customize the course experience.

Get started with bCourses.

Changes to requirements for courses (units, hours per week / in-person or remote) must be approved by the chair and COCI in advance of the semester. All courses, unless approved in COCI as remote offerings, are to be taught in-person. 

A syllabus is required for each course and must be filed with the department scheduler.  

All syllabi should contain the following:

It is expected that all instruction will be offered in person unless the course has previously been approved for remote or hybrid instruction by the Committee on Courses of Instruction.

If you need to be absent from a scheduled class for illness or any other unavoidable reason, please make arrangements for a substitute instructor and notify the department as soon as possible. It is not recommended to hold a make-up class during hours where students may be in other classes.

If you intend to be absent from your scheduled class for any reason other than illness or an emergency, please review the Leaves policy and discuss with the chair whether this absence can be accommodated per the Faculty Code of Conduct and the Conflict of Commitment policy.

You are expected to arrive on time for your classes.  If you are consistently late, you will be counseled by the department chair and a memo will be placed in your personnel file.

CalCentral is the campus's secure online portal that provides students, instructors, and staff with important notifications, access to student records, enrollments, billing and financial aid, and which facilitates navigation of campus resources in support of learning and the academic experience.

Under CalCentral (advance class enrollment), students have pre-enrolled in your class. After the third week of classes, CalCentral is no longer active and students may come to you for approval of add/drop petitions. If you have a question about which levels of students (graduate, undergrad, major, non-major, etc.) are eligible for your course, ask your departmental scheduler. After the fifth week of classes, undergraduates can no longer add/drop classes; they can only change grading options from letter to P/NP.

A variety of tasks can be accomplished via CalCentral, such as class enrollment lists/rosters, communicating with students and entering grades (discussed in a subsequent section).

Class enrollment limits can also be checked in the schedule of classes. 

If you are teaching a required course, please consult with your department chair or program director before admitting students from the waitlist or others. Typically, restrictions are set to prioritize students that need your course in a particular semester — admitting others into your course first can make student progress to graduation difficult.  You can also contact your department scheduler for any questions about CalCentral.

UC Berkeley Extension Concurrent Enrollment program provides an opportunity to enroll in UC Berkeley campus courses on a space-available basis without formal admission to the university. Concurrent Enrollment is available only for spring and fall terms. UC Berkeley degree students have enrollment priority in all courses, and not all UC Berkeley courses are open for Concurrent Enrollment applicants (e.g., classes in the School of Law are not eligible). Approval of class applications is at the sole discretion of the campus academic departments. Please speak with your department chair if you get a request.

The Disabled Student Program (DSP) is quite attentive to student needs and will inform you via email when you have DSP students in your class and what accommodations you must make. Each DSP student is assigned a DSP staff person and that staff person and their contact info is on the DSP notification. If you have any questions at all, call the DSP staff person — they are very responsive and informative.
 
Let the DSP office take the lead on this and just be sure to be responsive should you get a notification. If you have any questions, feel free to speak with undergraduate or graduate advisors, as well as your department chair.

In every class that has undergraduate students (whether it is an undergraduate or graduate class), a midterm report form will be generated by the campus course administration on CalCentral. Only undergraduates will be listed and all that is needed is for you to note any students doing D or F work. 

If you have not given your midterm by the deadline date for the report and if, after the midterm, you find a student is failing, you are required to let the student know.  

If you have not already done so, you will need to register for CalCentral. The Registrar’s Office requests that you submit your e-grades for the class within 48 hours of your last final or final review. Students rely on their grades to register for the next term. It is important that you make sure to do your e-grading on time.  When grades are not submitted within the deadline, it may take the Registrar’s Office up to six weeks to process. If you need technical assistance, email the Registrar's Office or call 510.642.5042 or 510.642.0179.

For questions regarding grading standards and guidelines, assigning incompletes, etc., please refer to the Office of the Registrar website.

At the end of the semester, your department will contact you with instructions regarding student evaluations of your course. Some departments do this electronically, others on paper. It is highly recommended that you set aside 15 minutes in class for students to fill out their form to ensure a high rate of return. The evaluations are one metric used as part of your teaching evaluation. 

If you suspect an undergraduate student of plagiarism or misconduct, please go to the Center for Student Conduct website to determine the instructor’s responsibilities. For graduate students, information can be found on the Graduate Division website.

As a faculty member interacting daily with students, you are in an excellent position to recognize behavior changes that characterize the emotionally troubled student. A student's behavior, especially if it is inconsistent with your previous observations, could well constitute a "cry for help."

There are many resources on campus to help with this. The first step is to contact the department. The chair of the department should be apprised as soon as possible. If the student is a graduate student, then also let one of the graduate advisors know. The departmental manager can also help. Some tips can be found on the University Health Services website.

All off-campus travel requires the student to sign a waiver (learn more about waivers and download a sample waiver). These waivers should be turned in to your department prior to the time of travel. If a student is going out of state for a course-related trip, they should also register their travel in order to access the university’s travel insurance. Registration is free, but required. 

Please refer to University Health Services communications and website regarding the most up-to-date COVID protocols.

When interacting with students in both in-person and virtual learning settings, it is important to adhere to the highest standards of conduct rooted in UC Berkeley’s Principles of Community. We recommend that you review the details of the standards of conduct available in the Faculty Code of Conduct and in the applicable contract, and use the toolkit developed to help instructors create a learning space and establish practices that support a culture of inclusion, belonging, and respect .

Instructional Improvement Grants provide funds for small-scale projects to improve existing courses, develop new courses, evaluate instruction, and assess curricular needs. The grants also support larger innovative projects that will directly and significantly affect teaching and learning, such as developing materials for new/existing courses and developing new modes of instruction.

Freshman and Sophomore Seminars provide opportunities for faculty and small groups of lower-division students to explore a scholarly topic of mutual interest together, following an often spontaneous flow of dialogue and interchange in the spirit of learning for its own sake. Faculty are encouraged to design seminars on topics they don’t typically have a chance to teach, including an emerging research area or an outside interest.