Geared especially for instructors new to teaching at Montclair, this page offers key information to help you as you prepare to teach.
Preparing to Teach at Montclair
Adjunct faculty who are new to Montclair are required to attend the Adjunct Orientation: Required Information Session for New Adjunct Faculty.
Other instructors who are new to Montclair are encouraged to attend Montclair Essentials: Informational Session for New Instructors, a workshop offered frequently each summer. It is designed to provide essential information and useful tips to make the transition to Montclair manageable and successful.
OFE offers a moderated asynchronous, at-your-own-pace mini-course, Montclair Teaching: A Mini-Course for Teachers (MTMI), that introduces new instructors to the university and reviews supportive pedagogies, syllabus and assignment design, and lesson planning. Please self-enroll here if you’d like to participate in the course.
For practical information (ID cards, parking, payroll, technology, etc.), see Practical Information for Instructors.
For more information to help you plan and teach your course, check out our Teaching Resources or professional development workshops.
Plan your course
Academics/Curriculum: To see where the course you are teaching fits into the overall curriculum, take a look at the University Catalog. Here is a sample. Your department chair or program coordinator should be able to guide you with a sample syllabus or information about how your course fits into the major or minor.
Montclair Syllabus: A template, updated each semester, that ensures instructors provide all the essential elements for their students in a consistent way. This enables students to understand the expectations for each course they are taking and helps them find the information they need more easily. Many Montclair students report that they have trouble finding the information they need, often because their instructors organize their syllabi differently. The Montclair Syllabus also contains links to campus resources that are updated regularly so that you can direct students to them without needing to research them yourself–or copy and paste bad links from past semesters. The Montclair Syllabus is available in Canvas in the left-nav.
To work on your syllabus first in a Google Doc and then copy and paste into the online template, choose your version below:
Check out Reserves information from the University Library for electronic resources and ways to make print and other materials available on reserves. Consult your department’s liaison librarian for more tailored support identifying library materials for your course(s).
Consider a pre-semester survey that provides students with essential course and modality information and gives you some basic understanding of who your students are. A model survey is also on Canvas Commons [Links require Canvas log-in. For more about Canvas Commons, see this short video].
Use the OFE Pre-Launch Teaching Checklist to make sure you get everything ready.
Important University Policy Information
- Montclair State University’s Grading Standards: Set by the Provost’s Office/Academic Affairs. Plan for Grading provides further information about grading at Montclair.
- Academic Dishonesty Policy: Set by Academic Affairs, this policy is useful to review with students at the beginning of and during the semester. Use this form to report violations.
- Attendance Policy: The University has no official attendance policy. Departments and programs may set their own; otherwise this is left to instructor discretion. Be sure to specify your attendance policy on your syllabus. See Attendance: Options and Considerations for ideas.
- Mandatory Academic Engagement Activity: Automatically pre-loaded into your Canvas course. For more information see Practical Information.
- Navigate: Platform accessed via NEST that enables communication among faculty, advisers, and students. There are two mandatory progress reporting periods (around weeks 3 and 7) for undergraduate students; instructors can issue alerts throughout the semester as needed.
- Student evaluations. The university automatically runs student evaluations in most classes. To review these evaluations, go to the “Account” setting in Canvas and select “EvaluationKIT.” Surveys results for several semesters should be available to you. For more information, see Course Evaluations; contact IT at itservicedesk@montclair.edu for help accessing your results.
Get comfortable (enough) with Canvas: Try the self-paced faculty orientation to Canvas or an ITDS workshop or consultation.
Use of Canvas is required: All courses should have a Canvas site that includes a comprehensive syllabus, schedule, and information on course content; instructors should make regular use of the Announcement function, and full use of Assignments and Gradebooks. See Canvas Universal Guidelines for more information.
- Canvas and Library Integration: Information on integrating library resources into your Canvas course for easier student access.
- Canvas Page Add-Ins to Course.[Confused by Canvas Commons? See this short video].
- Montclair Zoom Etiquette — Let’s raise the expectations together, across the University ( See also these funny student-produced videos that you can show in your classes that underscore the point.
- Nuts and Bolts of Research — Catherine Baird, University Libraries. Through videos and slideshows, this module introduces students to the basics of finding library materials, searching, and reading citations. Log into Canvas, choose Commons on the far left-nav, and search for “Nuts and Bolts of Research” for a module you can import into your Canvas course.
- How to Read Journal Articles/Scientific Papers — Catherine Baird, University Libraries. A short module that includes a video, reading, and discussion. Log into Canvas, choose Commons on the far left-nav, and search for “Nuts and Bolts of Research” for a module you can import into your Canvas course.
Other Resources
Student Support Resources for the academic, social, psychological, and practical resources and referrals instructors need to know.
Teaching FAQs, revised every semester, these are the questions we anticipate you have yet to receive answers on.
Internal Guest Speakers: Certain campus partners are available to give presentations and workshops to your class. Among these are:
- Center for Academic Success and Tutoring (CAST): Instructors can request a class presentation on student success skills.
- Center for Writing Excellence: Instructors can request a class workshop on aspects of the writing process, including citation.
- University Libraries: A research librarian can lead a workshop for your whole class on general topics (such as general introduction to research) or one tailored to your course and/or assignment.
- Career Services: Instructors can request a class workshop.
Last Modified: Wednesday, May 28, 2025 11:22 am
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