University of Iowa Policies & Resources

As the credit & degree granting institution for CIMBA, all courses need to comply with the University of Iowa‘s academic and procedural standards including any special requirements of the department that the course belongs to. Please review the information below about the various policies that should be considered when structuring your course as well available resources. 

Every course must have a syllabus which outlines the class policies for academic integrity, accommodations for disabilities, grade structure, and sexual harassment as well as course dates and attendance expectations. The syllabus should be submitted to the CIMBA staff at least two months in advance of the program. The policies and language vary by academic college; information on your college’s requirements can be found below.

Once your syllabus has been submitted, CIMBA will review the content to make sure all applicable pieces are included. We will then make the syllabus available to our students and advisors for transfer approval.

Please remember to include the recommended grade distribution in your syllabus. The distribution serves as a reminder to both students and faculty that the course will be held to the same standards as on your home campuses; grades will not be inflated because it is study abroad. We understand that in the small classroom environment that CIMBA provides, students often excel more than in traditional classes, so the distribution may not follow the recommendations perfectly. Distribution guidelines can be found below.

In order to ensure students are prepared to participate in their classes from day one of the summer undergraduate program, faculty are required to assign three hours of “pre-work” for students to complete before arriving in Italy. Assignments can include readings, problem sets, case studies, responses, etc. Tracking completion and determining whether to grade the pre-work is up to faculty discretion. Assignments should be posted to ICON for students approximately one month prior to the program.

Lastly, allocation or award of “participation” points can be highly subjective and are often the scores that students challenge during grade appeals.  If you choose to include participation points in your grading process, you must outline in the syllabus how, in detail, those points will be determined (i.e.- verbal participation in course, quantity and quality of participation, paying attention, attendance, etc.).  We also strongly recommend that you keep a document with notes and comments regarding the quantity and quality of participation for each student as well as any notes on how the participation grade was determined for each student.

FERPA is a U.S. law that affords students certain rights with respect to their education records. The University of Iowa requires that all faculty take FERPA training in order to have access to student records in MAUI. This should be completed prior to leaving for Italy. Below are the instructions for how to complete the training. Most of you have likely completed a similar training at your home university. The training lasts approximately 45 minutes.

1. Log into Employee Self-service using your HawkID and password.
2. Under Learning and Development, click My Training.
3. At the top of the page, click Available Online ICON Courses.
4. FERPA will be on the list, alphabetically.

Iowa Courses Online (ICON) is a course management system (similar to Blackboard) that offers a variety of features to enhance the classroom experience. Some of the tools available include a virtual discussion group, Dropbox, online quizzes and tests, announcement board, and content uploading. If you intend to use this system, please keep in mind that many students in your class have not previously used this particular platform. They may need a little time to learn ICON at the beginning of your term.

To login:

1. Go to https://icon.uiowa.edu.
2. Enter your HawkID and password and click Login.
3. You will see your ICON Dashboard, which should display a list of all your courses for the semester. You can select a different semester to view by choosing from the dropdown menu (right).
4. Click the course title to enter the course

To activate your course, which makes it available to students: 

1. Click Edit Course in the NavBar.
2. Click on Course Offering Information.
3. Click to place a checkmark in the IsActive box.
4. Click Save.

For help with how to utilize the various tools, please visit the ICON Instructor Help page.

MAUI is an online academic and attendance management tool. CIMBA professors can use MAUI to track attendance and input midterm grades. Final student grades for the study abroad program must be submitted through this system the Wednesday following the final class. MBA grades should be submitted two weeks after you receive the final exam.

To submit final grades, please follow the directions below.

1. Log into MAUI with your HawkID and password. 
2. Click on My Courses off the homepage
3. Click on Edit for the courses you wish to submit grades
4. Select appropriate grade for each student from drop down list
5. When every student has a grade selected, click Submit Course to DEO. You can also save the grades and submit them later if you would like.

If you need to make a change to a grade after submitting, please email Stephanie Schnicker with the student name, course, new grade, and the reason for the change.