POD instructor resources
Table of Contents
Create or revise course material
Ensure a safe, respectful and inclusive learning environment
Overview
As a POD instructor, you help develop and deliver courses that play an integral role in the continued success of the University of Washington. Sharing your expertise allows UW staff to further develop their professional skills and contribute to the overall excellence of the University. We value your contribution as we continue to develop and deliver vital, useful, and timely curriculum for POD courses.
Please review our practices and policies and use the information on this page as you plan, develop, and deliver your course. We value our partnership with instructors and are eager to assist you. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions.
Create or revise course material
Our participants typically receive a printed set of course materials, which includes the main booklet as well as any supplemental handouts, exercises, or other printed material provided as a take-away resource.
If teaching an existing course, you’ll have the opportunity to review existing content and make minimal changes to the course materials. If developing a new course, the publications and logistics specialist is available to help you edit, proofread, and format your materials.
Review the timeline below to determine when you need to submit any course materials you plan to use when teaching a course.
Before quarter begins: submit classroom logistics survey
About 10 weeks before the beginning of the academic quarter, we’ll send you a Classroom Logistics Survey (PDF). In the survey, specify any equipment or material you’ll need to teach the course. This helps us prepare for the course in a timely manner and make sure everything is ready for participants on the first day of class.
Return your completed survey to us within 14 days of receiving it.
8 weeks before class: submit new or heavily revised materials
If you are creating materials for a new course or heavily revising materials for an existing course, submit a draft in the form of a Word document at least eight weeks before the first day of class. We’ll then edit and format your draft. Make sure you use the materials template.
If you plan to give class participants new supplementary material, such as handouts or exercises, these are also due at least eight weeks before the first day of class. Include any special instructions about how these materials should be printed and/or assembled.
You’ll have a chance to review the material and approve changes before we send it to be printed.
4 weeks before class: revise existing materials
Minor revisions (e.g., insertions, deletions, updating sources, or minor textual edits) are due four weeks before the first day of class. If you plan to make minor revisions, please specify this on the classroom logistics survey.
Make any revisions using Track Changes in Word. You’ll have a chance to review the materials before we send them to be printed.
2 weeks before class: provide copy-ready material
If you select “I will be providing a copy-ready Word Document or PDF,” your file will be due two weeks before the class. “Copy-ready” means that:
- The file is already formatted using POD’s materials template.
- The file is a clean copy and is ready to go directly to the copy center without any further changes (in other words, it can be copied “as is”).
The first day of class
We’ll assemble all your course material before the first day of class. When you arrive for class, the material will be in the classroom along with any equipment that you specified in the classroom logistics survey.
Ensure a safe, respectful and inclusive learning environment
As employees at the University of Washington, our participants have the right to a safe, respectful, and inclusive workplace—and this right extends to our classroom training spaces, virtually or in-person.
As an instructor, you may need to balance the right of participants to express their views and share their truth with the need to ensure all feel welcome, respected, included, valued and safe.
Creating a brave space for learning
Our objective is to ensure an optimal and respectful learning environment for all participants, yet we recognize that learning is not always easy or comfortable.
We encourage you, as an instructor, to be comfortable with discomfort, with acknowledging your own missteps, and with learning in public. (For more on learning in public, please see this article on gracious space by our external partner Patricia Hughes.)
You should allow for silence, discomfort, disagreement and uncomfortable conversations — as long as others are not being disrespected, marginalized, or (directly or indirectly) intimidated or threatened.
We suggest the following norms or agreements as a starting point for creating a brave learning space for you and your participants:
- Avoid the impulse to fix everything
- Listen wholly and openly
- Allow silence and discomfort
- Take risks
- Speak your truth
- Stay engaged
- Show grace for yourself and for each other
- Keep conversations confidential
If you’d like to learn more about some of the diversity, equity and inclusion work being done at the UW, please see:
- UW Human Resources’ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion site
- Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity
- Race & Equity Initiative
Managing disruptive, disrespectful or antagonistic participants
As an instructor, you may need to find tactful ways to deal with participants who are argumentative, ask excessive questions, or monopolize discussions. That said, if a participant is creating a poor experience for others, you may tactfully ask the participant to leave and we will issue a refund.
If a participant exhibits any of the following behaviors:
- is openly disrespectful or discriminatory towards others, combative, or otherwise inappropriate or disruptive, or
- makes statements or exhibits behavior that makes others feel harassed, intimidated, or otherwise unsafe
You should notify POD immediately:
- Contact Lisa Lewis, or another member of our staff who may be providing Zoom or classroom support (if onsite, room 120C).
- If no one is on hand, please call our main number at 206-543-1957.
A member of our staff will join the classroom or Zoom session, observe and assess the situation, and engage with the participant as needed.
We will ensure that that the individuals involved have access to any resources or help they might need and that others at the UW are alerted to the situation as appropriate.
Follow our policies
Avoid copyright infringement
To protect yourself, POD, and the University of Washington, it’s important to avoid copyright infringement. You are allowed to incorporate copyrighted information into your materials if:
- It can be considered “fair use.”
- You properly cite the source.
Before teaching a course, familiarize yourself with fair use policies. The UW Copyright Connection provides useful information about the fair use provision, fair use factors, and a litmus test for fair use.
The following websites are also valuable resources on the subject of copyright:
If you determine that the information or material you wish to use may not be considered “fair use,” it is your responsibility to obtain permission for use. We cannot pay permission fees.
Cite your sources
With appropriate citation, you may quote portions of work that you did not create. If you cite an external source in your course materials or PowerPoint presentation, provide us with the following information:
For books:
- Author
- Book title
- Publisher
- Place of publication
- Year of publication
- Page number (if reference is being made to a specific page)
For digital sources:
- Author (if applicable)
- Host name/home page title and URL (e.g., The Adler Group: Performance-based Hiring http://www.adlerconcepts.com)
- Page Title/article title and URL (e.g., “The Best Interview Question of All Time” http://www.adlerconcepts.com/resources/2001/06/the_best_interview_question_of.php)
- Date of publication (if available)
- Date on which you accessed the information
We may request additional information regarding sources during the materials development process. For more information on the use of sources, we recommend The Gregg Reference Manual.
Follow privacy and confidentiality guidelines
You must keep personal information about employees private. For a POD course, you may not use course material that identifies personal employee information including:
- Name
- Age
- Sex
- Race
- Religion
- Marital status
- Occupation
- Mailing address and box number
- Phone number
- Email address
- Social Security number
- UW department
- Employee ID number
- UW NetID
Keep personal information out of all course material. This includes printed documents, presentations, and digital media. Avoid showing UW systems that contain personnel files and employee records.
Employee privacy applies to both current and past employees. In some cases you may be able to use private information if you have that employee’s written consent.
When you need to show examples while teaching, we suggest that you use representative examples rather than actual employee information.
Contact us if you have questions about employee privacy.
PowerPoint presentations
We suggest that you don’t rely solely on a PowerPoint presentation while teaching your course. If you would like to use PowerPoint, use it to supplement or enhance the course.
If you choose to use PowerPoint, please bring a digital copy of the .ppt file with you to load onto the classroom computer. As a backup, you may email us a copy of the .ppt file no later than three days prior to class, and we’ll upload the file onto the classroom computer.
We cannot proofread or edit your presentation. Nor can we print PowerPoint handouts for your class participants.
For additional guidance, download POD’s PowerPoint Tips (PDF).
Classroom location and parking
Roosevelt Commons East is the primary location of the POD classrooms.
Instructor parking for non-UW employees
Instructor parking for Non-UW employees is available at UW Tower Lot W46 . You will need to enter from 12th Avenue, not 11th. Once inside the garage, park in a numbered stall. Once you’ve parked:
- Note the number of your parking space.
- Proceed to Digital Pay Machine
- Enter stall number and pre-arranged parking validation.
- Take receipt.
*Notice – If the pay by stall area is full
Your receipt for parking will be valid to park in any general stall within the W46 side of the garage. Please follow the directions above, enter stall “99”, and place your receipt in a visible place on your dash.
Instructor parking for UW employees
If you are a UW employee and have a valid parking permit, you may park out of area in the W45 parking garage across 11th Ave. NE from Roosevelt Commons East during your class. Once inside the garage, follow the posted parking regulations and park only in a designated permit holder space.
If you are a UW employee without a valid parking permit, we cannot validate your parking. There are metered street parking spaces and several pay lots near Roosevelt Commons.
Submit invoice for payment (for non-UW employees)
After you teach your course, send us an invoice. We’ll process your invoice and pay you in four to six weeks.
The invoice should include the following information:
- Your company name and address (if applicable)
- An invoice number (use a different number for each invoice submitted)
- The tax ID number for your business (if applicable)
- The date(s) of your service
- An itemized list of your service and the price you are charging POD
Download the POD Consultant Sample Invoice (PDF).
Propose a new course
We welcome proposals for new courses, programs, or other events. As you prepare your proposal, here are some guidelines to consider:
- Avoid duplicating current course content.
- Describe how your proposed course is relevant to the UW community. The participants who register for POD courses are a diverse group consisting of UW staff and faculty, including employees of UW Seattle, UW Tacoma, UW Bothell, UW Medical Center and Harborview Medical Center.
- Define the objectives and expected outcomes of your proposed course.
Send your proposal to pod@uw.edu.