Teaching at Oakridge
Out of character. This page is written to you, the player, if your character teaches at Oakridge.
Getting a course
If you'd like your character to teach, talk to whoever holds the Oakridge Faculty seat in the Briarmont Group Leads group. Come with an idea of the subject and the times you're usually online. The college administration sets the course up in Munibase and names you its instructor of record. You can't create a course yourself, and you don't need to.
The faculty titles are on Departments, and Majors and Programs shows the majors your students are working toward.
Running a class
A class session is a roleplay scene with you at the front of the room. Be in the classroom a little early, in character, and open with something to get your students talking: a question, a short reading, a problem on the board.
Keep it in character from there. You can lecture, take questions, set work in pairs or walk everyone outside, and students answer in kind. Typing takes longer than talking, so plan on covering less than you would out loud. The general rules, such as where out-of-character chat goes, are in How to roleplay at Briarmont.
Close the session in character too. Say what comes next, set any assignment and give people a minute to finish their last posts before you go.
The course tools
Your tools are in the Oakridge College group room on Munibase, on each course you teach. Only you, as its instructor of record, and the college administration can give grades on a course.
- Home shows the course summary, the college's announcements and the list of assessments.
- Assessments is where you set up what gets graded: exams, assignments, quizzes and participation. Each one has a weight, an optional due date and a setting for whether students can see it.
- Gradebook is where you give each student a letter on each assessment.
- Roster shows who is enrolled and who has withdrawn. From it you can drop or reinstate a student and open their file.
- Meetings holds the weekly time and room, plus any dated meetings you add, edit, cancel or restore. It also shows who came: an enrolled student standing in your classroom during a scheduled meeting is recorded automatically in world.
Munibase has no way to message the students of one course, so settle with your class in the first session how they'll hear from you.
Grading
Each student gets a letter on each assessment: A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, D- or F. The letters are averaged by weight into the student's GPA for the term and a cumulative GPA, and there is no separate grade for the course as a whole. Attendance never counts toward a grade, so don't tell a class that it does.
Who to ask
In character, take academic questions to the Dean, who stands in for the president in scenes, and anything about enrollment or student records to the Registrar's office. Out of character, ask the Oakridge Faculty seat holder, or staff on Discord.
The faculty roster shows who else teaches. Your students have a page of their own in the Oakridge College Student Handbook, and it's worth reading before your first class, so you know what they've been told.