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HCDE Intranet

Instructor Handbook

Resources and policies and practices for instructors teaching courses in the UW Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering. For new hire information, please view HR policies for instructors first.

Department Basics  Teaching Resources  In Class  Safety and Commuting  Calendar  

For answers to frequently asked questions about managing courses, view our Course Management FAQs.

Department Basics

HCDE Pedagogical Philosophy

Core HCDE pedagogical principles.

Part-time instructor's & TA supervision and assessment policy

The purpose of the Part-time Instructor or TA Supervision and Assessment Policy is to provide guidance for Lecturers, part‐time, Temporary (LPTTs) and teaching assistants (TAs) who are teaching HCDE courses, establish strong communication between the instructors and the department, and ensure quality instruction.

HCDE location and hours

The HCDE main department offices are located in Room 428 of Sieg Building. Office hours during the regular academic year (mid-September–mid-June) are 9 a.m.–6 p.m. During the summer, office hours are 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

The building hours for Sieg Building are from 7:30 a.m.–9:00 p.m. Weekend hours may differ; please ask at the front desk. Outside these hours you will need to swipe your Husky Card to access the building. The front office staff can activate your Husky Card via email or in person.

Important contacts

Visit the HCDE staff webpages to find staff contact information. See the HCDE staff page to learn who does what in the department. If confused, the Office Manager is always a good place to start to get your questions answered. Below is information about who to contact for general questions:

  • Contact the Office Manager, Jane Skau, with questions about office assignments, keys, Husky Card programming, access to the building, access to the HCDE lounge and conference room, meeting room or equipment reservations, mailbox locations, supplies, or the copier code.
  • Contact the Program Coordinator, Alanna Daniels, if your classroom is an uncomfortable temperature, if you have concerns about your classroom that are not related to classroom equipment, or if you have questions about class evaluations.
  • Contact the Department Chair, Julie Kientz, with questions about course grading, syllabi, teaching feedback, or mid-quarter evaluations.
  • Contact the Undergraduate Advisor, Meghan Oxley, with question about online grading or the grade change process.
  • Contact the Master's Advisor, Alex Llapitan, with question about online grading or the grade change process.
  • Contact the PhD advisor & Director of Academic Services Kathleen Rascon, with question about online grading or the grade change process.
  • Contact the Fiscal Specialist, Allen Lee, with any questions about payroll or getting a UW NetID.
  • Contact the Communications Manager, Leah Pistorius, with any newsworthy outcomes from your class, of if you would like an event added to the HCDE Events Calendar.

Where do I get supplies?

The HCDE front office staff can assist you with supplies.

How do I reserve meeting rooms, department equipment, or the educational labs?

To reserve HCDE meetings rooms or equipment, visit the Meeting Rooms and Equipment Resources section of myHCDE.

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Teaching Resources

Contact HCDE Student Services with questions about content on this page.

Textbooks

The HCDE Program Coordinator will contact you with a request for textbook orders. Orders are generally placed three months before the start of a quarter. Textbooks are ordered through the University Bookstore. The Program Coordinator may also be able to order a desk or review copy of a book from a publisher, if needed; please remember to tell her that you want a desk or review copy.

The Faculty Council on Instructional Quality is currently working on a policy that would protect faculty members' ability to teach using their own textbooks while also protecting them from a violation of the Ethics Act.

Faculty should take steps to comply with the Board's interpretation. Alternatives may include:

  • Exclude any faculty member who is the author or publisher of a textbook from participating in any decision to assign the faculty member's book to his or her class
  • Donate to the institution an amount of money roughly representing the "profit" that comes from the author's or publisher's own students (e.g. determine number of students in class who bought new books, determine the royalty the author would receive, then donate this money to the department or a scholarship fund, etc.)
  • Contact the publisher to make arrangements not to receive royalties on textbooks purchased by students in the author's classes.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Secretary of the Faculty.

NOTE: The Washington State Executive Ethics Board states that it is a violation of the state Ethics Act for a faculty member who is a state employee to make a profit on the sale of their textbooks to their students at their own educational institution. This further extends to a faculty member who owns a publishing company that manufactures and ships textbooks. A violation of the Ethics Act can result in significant financial penalties as well as adverse publicity and other consequences.

Course packs

A course pack is a set of articles or book chapters that are photocopied and bound for students to use in class. The HCDE Program Assistant can assist you with compiling a printed course pack, getting copyright permission, and submitting it to a copy center for publishing and student orders. Common outlets for course packs are the Ave Copy Center and the UW Copy Center (in the Communications Building).

UW Libraries

Your Husky Card is your library card; you will use your UWNet ID for library account access. UW Libraries maintains detailed information about library privileges.

Instructors may place course-related materials on reserve for students including any combination of the following material types: Electronic Reserves (E-Reserves; UW NetID required to access), UW Library Books, Personal Copies, Media materials (e.g., Videotapes, DVDs, slides, and audio recordings).

UW Bookstore

The University Bookstore offers an annual rebate (currently 10%) to all UW students, faculty, and staff for eligible purchases made at any UW Book Store location or online; see UW Customer Rebate FAQs.

How do I get copies of materials?

Depending on your needs, there are options for copying and disseminating materials:

  • There are departmental copiers and copiers throughout campus for small copy needs. HCDE has a copy machine in Sieg. Ask the Office Manager, Jane Skau, for more information; she will email all instructors each quarter about this.
  • UW Creative Communications can handle large print/copy requests.
  • An alternative to printing/copying is to use e-reserves from the library.

Teaching Support

The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at the UW provides very useful teaching resources. The CTLwebsite provides a vast array of teaching resources as well as many links to other resources within the UW community.

The Office for the Advancement of Engineering Teaching & Learning (ET&L) offers instructional services to all UW engineering educators.

Writing an Effective Syllabus

Instructors must design their own syllabi. Often they will be given materials and syllabi from previous quarters by the supervisory faculty member that they can adapt.

View the College of Engineering Syllabus Template.

An effective syllabus will usually include the following information:

  • General course description
  • Course goal(s) and course objectives (i.e., what should students specifically expect to learn?). Stated course objectives are a critical component in evaluating student learning.
  • List of course materials: books (including edition and publication date), course pack (and where to purchase it), online resources
  • Instructor contact information (avoid giving students your mobile phone number)
  • Office hours and/or appointment procedures
  • Schedule of topics, readings, activities, and due dates for the quarter
  • A list of assignments with a short description of each assignment and your grading criteria
  • The grading weight of assignments, plus any other descriptive information about the grading policy
  • Procedures for disputing a grade
  • Policy for late assignments
  • Policy about plagiarism: e.g., “You must do your own work. If it is determined that you have plagiarized, you may receive a zero for the assignment, and the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for the College of Engineering will be notified. The Dean may assess further penalties, such as disciplinary probation or dismissal from the university. Plagiarism is a serious offense that the College of Engineering is determined to eliminate." See Faculty Guidance for Promoting Academic Integrity.
  • Any additional student responsibilities or instructor expectations

Of note, UW classes are based on a quarter system. The number of credits per class relates to the number of hours an instructor can expect a student to spend on the class, including in-class and out-of-class time. The UW credit/hour ratio is 1:3. So a four-credit class is a 12-hour class; a five-credit class is a 15-hour class. This hour load includes in-class and out-of-class time dedicated to the class.

The Center for Teaching and Learning maintains resources on writing syllabi. 

Grading policies and procedures need to be planned in advance and communicated in writing to students. Grading rubrics, which clearly state the criteria used for grading, can help instructors grade consistently across students.

Note: Grading based on attendance is against UW policy. You may, however, grade on class participation.

Constructing Effective Assignments

Generally, assignments should have a written description or instructions to which students can refer. An effective assignment description includes:

  • The objectives of the assignment, including how this assignment relates to overall course objectives.
  • A description of assignment requirements.
  • Possibly some tips about the process of completing the assignment or warnings about typical problems students might have with the assignment.
  • Some indication about how the assignment will be evaluated--grading rubrics or criteria.

Additional information is in the Center for Teaching and Learning and Office of Educational Assessment.

Creating a Class Website

You will need to create your own class website. There are a number of ways class web pages can be created. UW IT has excellent web publishing resources.

Creating Accessible Course Content

The University of Washington is required by law to provide programs and services that are accessible to all qualified participants, including those with disabilities. Get started on creating accessible content.

Tutorials for creating accessible content: 

Document Conversion Service
This service is provided in order to help students, faculty, and staff at the University of Washington to produce alternative versions of documents quickly and easily. Please note the following limitations of this service.

  • The source file needs to be of good quality in order to maximize conversion accuracy.
  • Some file outputs may require additional editing after conversion.
  • This service is intended to provide a quick temporary solution, but is not the final solution for accessibility. For faculty and staff who are producing documents, please see Creating Accessible Documents on the UW Accessible Technology site.
  • Students requesting alternate materials as an accommodation, please contact Disability Resources for Students.
     

UW Learning and Scholarly Technology Resources

UW Learning and Scholarly Technologies provides helpful information for creating class resources.

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In class

HCDE Student Rights Policy

The Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering is dedicated to protecting student rights. Please review the HCDE Student Rights Policy.

Class Lists through myUW

The UW has a web-based system called myUW in which instructors can access a wealth of information about students who are registered in their classes. This system can be used to display the current class list for a course, to download a class to an Excel spreadsheet, or request a class mail list be sent to him/her in a variety of formats.

HCDE Grading Policies

HCDE Grading Policies outline grading practices at UW and HCDE, including how to share grades with students. Grades may not be distributed to students orally in front of other students, by email, or by leaving graded papers in hallways.

Feedback/Complaints from Students

You should always make it clear in the syllabus and in your classroom demeanor that you are available and willing to listen to feedback from students. Goals for the class should be clearly spelled out as well as the means for achieving those goals, student responsibility and instructor expectations. If you want to evaluate how your class is doing at a specific point in time, Catalyst web tools has helpful evaluation resources.

Mid-Quarter Evaluations

If this is the first time you are teaching an HCDE class, you should administer mid-quarter evaluations and collect them in class. You are welcome to administer mid-quarter evaluations every time you teach. Please contact the Department Chair, Julie Kientz, with questions about mid-quarter evaluations.

End-of-Quarter Course Evaluations

The HCDE department requires that all courses be evaluated about two weeks before the end of the quarter by students with forms provided by the Office of Educational Assessment. HCDE Student Services orders course evaluations and delivers them to your HCDE mailbox.

The instructor and TA (or Support Lecturer) may not remain in the class while evaluations are being filled out. Further, the instructor must designate a student to administer and turn in the evaluations at either a UW CAMPUS mailbox (NOT a US Post office mailbox) or at an open office on campus where a UW staff member has access to campus mail.

The HCDE front office has pencils that you can borrow for student use to fill out the evaluations. Please stop by Room 428 in Sieg Building to check out the pencils.

Registration

The HCDE Academic advisers send quarterly emails to students about course selection, the registration process and academic deadlines. If an instructor receives an inquiry from a student about course entry or add codes, send the student to their respective advisor for details about NotifyUW or the non-HCDE course waitlist. HCDE policies prohibit overloading above the course capacity. In addition, advisors will not distribute add codes to override course pre-requisites without instructor permission. 

BS Advisor: Meghan Oxley

MS Advisor: Alex Llapitan

PhD Advisor: Kathleen Rascon

Plagiarism and Academic Conduct

HCDE adheres to the College of Engineering's and the UW academic misconduct policies with regard to plagiarism. Effective August 18, 2017 an updated Student Conduct Code went into effect. Please review the updated Plagiarism and Academic Conduct Policy.

Students with Disabilities

The UW Disability Services Office (DSO) provides a number of resources for working with students with disabilities:

Guidelines for In-class Presentations by Outside Organizations

A set of guidelines called the Washington Administrative Code for the Use of University Facilities was crafted to help faculty members handle requests by off-campus, for-profit organizations, student groups, and other parties requesting class time to solicit student involvement and personal information.

Classroom Location and Time

For the most up-to-date information, class meeting day(s), time, and location can be found on the time schedule.

If your assigned classroom is not suitable for any reason, please contact the Program Coordinator as soon as possible.

To find your campus, refer to the University of Washington campus map.

Access to Buildings for Evening Classes

UW buildings are open to the public. Each building has open hours posted on all exterior doors. Be sure to check your building hours and understand what you will need to access the building at the time of your class. You will be able to access many buildings (including Sieg Building) by swiping your Husky Card if you have been granted access. You will need to ask the HCDE front office staff to activate your Husky Card so it will open the Sieg exterior building doors.

Most buildings lock at 9 p.m. during the week. For classes that get out at 10 p.m., everyone should make sure they have all belongings before they leave the building. If someone does get locked out, please contact the UW non-emergency number: 206.543.0507.

Office Hours and Office Space

It is up to each instructor as to whether they will hold office hours and when. Contact the HCDE Office Manager, Jane Skau, with questions about office space.

Classroom Support

For help with classroom equipment or classroom lights, contact UW Classroom Support Services (CSS). 

Department laptops and LCD projectors are available for check out by instructors for class use. If you would like to check out the equipment, contact the Office Manager or visit HCDE Equipment Resources online.

Classroom schematics and included equipment is also available on the Classroom Support Services website, with photographs of the room. If you find that the room needs to be changed, please contact the Program Assistant as soon as possible. Please also contact the Program Assistant if you have any concerns about your classroom that are not related to classroom equipment or lights.

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Safety and commuting

Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) recommends that you do not distribute your phone number on syllabi or coursework. You may also choose whether you wish to publish your UW email in the UW directory so that students and other faculty can find your contact information.

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Counseling and Safety Information

HCDE maintains resources and information regarding counseling services and safety. Please familiarize yourself with our Counseling and Safety Information before teaching.

In addition, UW Safe Campus provides excellent safety resources.

Urgent and Imminent Threats

  • Call 911.
    During daytime office hours, if the situation does not allow you to dial 911 (e.g., situations where dialing 911 could further increase the chance of violence), contact the HCDE main office (206.543.2567) and ask if "Eva Black" can assist you at your current location. This will signal the department staff to call 911 on your behalf. 
  • Once safe, call the Violence Prevention and Response Team at 206.685.7233 (206.685.SAFE).
  • Report the situation to your supervisor or the department administrator.

Potential or Suspected Threats

  • Call 206.685.7233 (206.685.SAFE) to report the situation to the Violence Prevention and Response Team.
  • Report the situation to your supervisor or the department administrator.

Parking Options and Rates

UW Facilities and Services provides all the answers to your commuting questions:

Bus Commuting

The University of Washington is well-served by buses. Detailed information, including schedules, stops, and fares can be found on:

Campus Safety at Night

The UW Police provide a service called Husky NightWalk, 206.685.WALK (9255). Uniformed security guards operate 6:00 pm–2:00 am, seven days week.

Canceling class

Classes are not usually canceled except in cases of inclement weather.

Inclement Weather

Always use your best judgment about traveling in inclement and dangerous weather. Pay attention to radio announcements for school cancellations. For information about suspended operations (including inclement weather, emergency situations, public health) go to:

If operations are normal at the school and you cannot get in due to weather please do the following:

  • Contact your class
  • Contact HCDE Chair, hcdechr@uw.edu, and her assistant, 206.221.1666

Personal Emergencies

HCDE strongly discourages the canceling of classes. In the event that you know in advance that it will impossible for you to teach a class, you should make arrangements for someone else to cover your class: for example, you could secure a guest lecturer or offer some alternate learning experience. In the event that something happens unexpectedly, you can contact the HCDE Chair or the Assistant to the Chair to discuss options. Ultimately, however, it is up to you to find a way to address the situation.

If class will be canceled for an unavoidable reason, please respect the students by notifying them in advance (e.g., email) as early as possible.

Academic calendar

Dates of Instruction

The UW academic calendar includes deadlines, dates of instruction, and holidays. A summary of academic calendars for years 2018–2024 is also available.

Final Exam Schedule

The academic calendar summary for 2018–2024 shows the final exam schedule. Note that there is no week for final exams during Summer Quarter. Most summer quarter finals are given on the last day of instruction.

Grading Deadlines

Grades are due on the Monday immediately following final exam week; instructions for submitting grades come with the online UW Catalyst tool called Gradebook.

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