The undergraduate curriculum is designed to meet the needs of our students and provide them with a full education in their short time here. Copies of class syllabus and exams from previous years are available from the Undergraduate Advisor. The General Catalog contains a description of all courses. Please consult with current faculty who have taught your course in the past so that you are aware of the expected scope of the material to be covered.
It is imperative that your course covers the appropriate material so that your students are properly prepared for future courses.
Every Instructor is expected to distribute a class syllabus document that contains textbook (optional or required) and topic information that can be used for evaluating course equivalency with courses in other schools. Instructors should be aware that this syllabus is a public document. Please submit your syllabus and exams to the Undergraduate Advisor at the end of the quarter for our records.
All classes that are full will have a waiting list that is maintained on the eGrades site. The Undergraduate Administrator is charged with distributing add codes to allow additional students to register for your class. Please familiarize yourself and your TA's with the Switching and Adding Policies for PSTAT Courses. Remind your Teaching Assistants of their responsibility to generate a list of students crashing their section during the first meeting and giving this information to April.
If students inquire about crashing your course, they should be instructed to put their name on the waiting list and attend the lecture and section. Do not promise students a place in the class because only a few of them will be accommodated. You can forward any student emails with questions regarding waitlists/crashing/add codes to the Undergraduate Program Advisor.
All Instructors have access to the course management system GauchoSpace (it is a local implementation of the Moodle system.) The system allows a range of online interactions: posting class materials, messaging students, posting grades, accepting online homework, discussions forums, etc. Due to security issues, we strongly recommend the use of GauchoSpace as opposed to a personally maintained class web page.
New faculty should enroll in the Online Orientation as early as possible in order to familiarize themselves with the system.
Every discussion section will have one Teaching Assistant hired to lead it. The TA's typically are responsible for leading discussion sections, grading homework and exams, and proctoring exams. Our graduate students generally lead 2 or 3 sections per quarter. Please read the Guidelines for Supervising Faculty in the Department TA handbook.
The contract with the Teaching Assistants requires that all instructors fill out the TA Assignment Form for each Teaching Assistant and submit it to the Staff Graduate Advisor before the start of classes each quarter.
Teaching Assistants are not expected to teach lectures, set assignments and exams, or work more than their required 10 or 20 hours per week.
Undergraduate Course Textbooks
All undergraduate classes have prescribed textbooks to insure consistency of the syllabus. Changes to course textbooks must be approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Instructors and Teaching Assistants can borrow desk copies of the textbooks from the Staff Graduate Advisor.
UCSB is on a quarter system which divides the academic year into three main eleven week quarters. Lectures are scheduled either two or three times per week for the 10 weeks, and then the last week is for final exams.
Approved academic calendars can be found on Registrar's Calendar's and Deadlines. The Summer Sesssion's calendar is maintained separately.
The PSTAT Departmental Class Information page has more schedule information, and office hours will be posted there.
Most classrooms have podiums equipped with computers and connections to data projectors. Instructional Development Classroom Services provides support for the equipment as well as microphones in larger lecture halls. You will mostly likely need to visit their Kerr Hall office to get an A126 key which allows you access to the podium and projector.
Most large lecture halls are configured to use the i-Clicker systems to allow students to respond and interact during lecture. Instructional Development information about using i-Clickers
All regular undergraduate courses are expected to have a final exam during the scheduled exam time. The Schedule of Final Exams is set by the Registrar. Instructors are not authorized to change the published time of final examinations.
Please respect the students' time during "Dead Week", the week 10 of the quarter immediately preceding the week of exams. No homework or projects should be due during this week, and no quizzes or exams should be given in week 10.
Accommodations for Exams: Students with disabilities may request academic accommodations for exams online through the UCSB Disabled Students Program at http://dsp.sa.ucsb.edu/. Students should make their requests for exam accommodations through the online system as early in the quarter as possible to ensure proper arrangement.
PSTAT Department DSP room coordination process: Very soon you will be approached by students with disabilities as well as receive e-mails from DSP program. Here is what you need to know/do:
Note: Please do not leave your test in the department office. April is not responsible for delivering tests and instructions to proctors.
Please include the following language in your class syllabus and in an announcement in your first lecture.
Students with disabilities may request academic accommodations for exams online through the UCSB Disabled Students Program at http://dsp.sa.ucsb.edu/. Please make your requests for exam accommodations through the online system as early in the quarter as possible to ensure arrangement. Students are required to submit the proctor request to DSP online at least 10 days prior to the exam in order to be guaranteed their accommodation(s). Also, non-DSP students cannot be proctored by DSP.
Honesty and integrity in all academic work is essential for a valuable educational experience. The Office of Judicial Affairs has policies, tips, and resources for proper citation use, recognizing actions considered to be cheating or other forms of academic theft, and students' responsibilities. Instructional development also has some general strategies for faculty to insure a fair and honest classroom.
The PSTAT department takes academic honesty and integrity very seriously. The instructor of the course has the authority and the responsibility to handle any incident of misconduct, but they also should report every such incident. Guidelines for reporting a breach of academic honesty and integrity policies are as follows:
Please review the Office of Judicial Affairs Academic Misconduct Policies and Procedures.
All instructors are required to hold at least two office hours each week for each of the course they are teaching. The times and locations of these office hours should be published on GauchoSpace, in the syllabus, and sent to the Undergraduate Program Advisor to be published on the Course Information page.
For large classes, it may be necessary to reserve a conference room in which to hold your office hour. Use the Room Reservation form to reserve one of the departmental conference rooms.
Personal concerns such as stress, anxiety, relationships, depression, cultural differences, can interfere with the ability of students to succeed and thrive. For helpful resources, please contact UCSB Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) at 805-893-4411
If you encounter a student in distress, please contact Student Mental Health Coordination Services 805-893-3030 immediately and/or consult the Campus Distressed Student Protocol. Please call 911 if the situation is an emergency or there are immediate safety concerns.
Grades for all classes are submitted electronically through the eGrades system. Instructors can also access this system for an official roster of enrolled students as well as the waiting lists.
For general academic support, students are encouraged to visit Campus Learning Assistance Services (CLAS) early and often. CLAS offers instructional groups, drop-in tutoring, writing and ESL services, skills workshops and one-on-one consultations. CLAS is located on the third floor of the Student Resource Building.
Instructors should advise students who are looking for tutors to check the Department of Statistics Tutors page. Graduate students that are Teaching Assistants for a class are forbidden to also be a paid tutor for that class. In the past, tutors that were not affiliated with UCSB have caused problems for our students.
You might receive requests from honors students enrolled in your classes to participate in an honors contract. You may opt not to do this supplemental instruction, and simply inform the student that you are not doing honors contracts this term. Faculty that are interested should visit Honors Program, but most of the essential information is included in Honors Contract Questions and Answers for Faculty.
In combined courses (PSTAT 131/231, 174/274, 132/232) students should take graduate level course to receive honors units. Graduate courses automatically give honors units to undergraduates. Enrollment into graduate level course by undergraduates is requires the completion of Petition to take Graduate Courses. Instructors should sign such a petition only after approval by the UG Advisor (Raya Feldman).
After finishing your time at UCSB, you need to follow our department record protocols.
Please submit to the Staff Undergraduate Program Advisor: