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Office of the Registrar

Faculty and Staff Resources

The Office of the Registrar provides a variety of resources for our faculty and staff. Please use the navigation to find more information about each.

Tips for Add/Drop

Below are a few recommendations for successfully managing your class roster during the first two weeks of the semester - particularly in a virtual setting. 

  • Create a short "Getting to know you" assignment (a discussion board, writing prompt or syllabus quiz) due the first day of class (for asynchronous, this can be the first day of the semester) in order to determine who is attending and therefore, how many permission numbers you may be able to issue. Check out examples of these assignments prepared by fellow faculty members.
    • Capturing early student attendance may also avoid financial implications for students who stop attending the university.
  • Collect requests for crashing through email (students have received instructions to email faculty if planning to 'crash')
    • If a synchronous class, send links to any zoom meetings to the students wishing to enroll; this way, the students have access until the roster is settled and can issue a permission number (similar to sitting in the physical classroom until a seat is available).
    • Consider emailing students on the waitlist prior to the first day of class to ask if they plan to attend (as a way of generating the list of students who plan to crash in advance).
    • Generally, it is not recommended that students be added to Cougar Courses prior to enrollment (to avoid confusion regarding the students' enrollment); however, if this is necessary please provide clear instructions to the student regarding their enrollment status (i.e. access to Cougar Courses does not mean the student is yet enrolled) and review the Add Course Users guide.
  • Make your container visible to students by the first day of the semester (for asynchronous/blended classes) and the first day of class (for synchronous classes); this will help alleviate stress and questions from students looking for their classes (an ‘Under Construction’ announcement is helpful if you are not quite done with setting up the class)

Please see the Pre-semester Instruction Checklist on the Faculty Center site for more tips.

In addition, we recommend reviewing these pages for detailed, up-to-date information: