Support for Instructors

As instructors in WATS, you enjoy the support of the SU School of New and Continuing Studies staff and systems. In turn, those services and individuals can direct you to an even larger community of support around the SU campus. Take a moment to learn about some of the useful support services and professionals who can help you with your teaching work.

Student Support

One of the primary reasons to reach out to the broader WATS, NCS, and SU communities is to get help for a student. As an instructor, you are in the position to observe any issues a student is encountering and to help them seek assistance.

Any questions you have about student support can be directed to Suki Kwon, the NCS Student Success Specialist. You may email her at kwonsu@seattleu.edu. Suki is a longtime student support professional who can both provide you guidance if you have questions about talking or working with a student, and who can work directly with the student to guide them to support services all around campus.

In addition to our professional staff, SU faculty is able to use the Starfish system to help track issues. The Starfish system allows you to register an alert if students fail to participate in class, if their work is not up to par, or if there are any other issues. When you report issues through Starfish, the student receives a notification as well as NCS and WATS staff (including the WATS Program Director and the Student Success Specialist).

Instructor Support

Instructors are required to complete a basic online training through the SU Center for Digital Learning and Instruction (CDLI). This training is required for state authorization compliance, and it is a valuable introduction to the practice of teaching courses in online and hybrid formats.

You will receive a notification about the required CDLI training for instructors in your SU email. Please keep an eye out for that.

In addition to the CDLI required training, there are opportunities for further training and one-on-one training and support sessions with CDLI staff. The CDLI staff are trained instructional designers who are happy to discuss many aspects of managing a hybrid course.

If you are encountering any issues with your teaching, please reach out directly to the Director of WATS. We take instructor success as seriously as we take student success, and there are many services on campus that can be arranged to help you improve your process and results. Issues like time management, communicating with students, building presence, or managing behavioral problems in the classroom are all commonly experienced difficulties for faculty, and we can put you in touch with people who can help work through those things.