Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ Categories

For Faculty

Please read Registration Resources for Advisors, Faculty, and Staff for the registration procedure timeline and additional registration guidance and tutorials, including but not limited to the following topics:

  • Student Services Center Information
  • Student Specific Permissions
  • Waitlist
  • General Class Permission Information
  • Service Indicators/Holds
  • Change of Major Information
  • Student Registration Resources
  • Prerequisites and Enforcement
  • Quick Links to Forms

Faculty can locate their weekly teaching schedule in the my.SDSU Faculty Center. Learn how to access the course schedule.

Faculty who wish to update their personal information should reach out to Human Resources (HR); that updated data will then populate in my.SDSU and other SDSU systems.

Please note that, if you update your personal email and/or phone number, you must also update your SDSUid password recovery options. Support for updating your password recovery options are available online at Manage My SDSUid.

Class Rosters are available in the my.SDSU Faculty Center and include student identification numbers, student level, major, grading basis and course unit, along with key course information.

The waitlist in my.SDSU is a first come first served system. In accordance with Senate Policy, faculty retain the discretion to add students. For more information, please see the Office of the Registrar’s Waitlist page.

After the 5th instructional day faculty will provide students with permission numbers to add them to their course(s).

For more information about permission numbers, view the faculty guides on Student Specific Permissions and General Permission Numbers.

Grading

Faculty have the option to import grades from Canvas or manually update grades in my.SDSU.

If you need to update grades outside of the grading period, please submit an AdobeSign Grade Change Request. For additional guidance on how to change grades, please review How Do I Change Grades Once They're Posted?

Please refer to the managing incompletes guide.

Yes, and they will need to coordinate through the Office of the Registrar.

The entire academic history, including all past grades, of students who were enrolled in Fall 2022 and after will be available in my.SDSU starting October 26. Grades for previously enrolled students, or students who have graduated from the university prior to Fall 2022 will remain available in WebPortal Archive. Please work with your college or departmental coordinator to request this data.

The Office of the Registrar provides an Explanation of Grades page that offers faculty and staff clear and concise grading information.

Both Curriculum Services and the Registrar's Office offer instructors comprehensive guidance about grades, including the point value associated with each grade and the method by which the grade point average is calculated.

This scenario is handled “locally” at the time a course is set up. Instructors should contact their Department/School or College Class Schedulers for information specific to their classes. In some cases, multiple instructors are able to enter, approve, and post grades.

The instructor can download the entire grade roster, which contains student grades for all sections, and upload it to each section one at a time. my.SDSU will ignore the grades for any students who aren’t on the class roster.

Yes; each is a useful resource for learning more about grade sets (for example: letter grades, credit/no credit, etc).

Other topics include the grade point scale itself, University Senate-defined grading deadlines (and how to locate them on the Academic Calendar), and when (and how) to assign the grade of Incomplete (I)—as well as the process for removing an Incomplete.

Please refer to the Faculty Handbook and Temporary Faculty Handbook as needed.

This form is used to change a grade (due to an error in data entry), remove an Incomplete, or remove the Report of Progress (RP) grade. The form is completely automated; one simply follows the prompts and then submits the form when requested. The completed/signed form is directly sent to the Registrar’s Office for processing.

No, the grade import will not override any grades that were already manually entered.

Course Evaluation / Student Feedback

Students will receive an email from “[email protected]” to their student SDSU email address prompting them to complete their feedback surveys. They will also be prompted to access their feedback surveys in Canvas via direct messaging and a link on the navigation bar.

By design, student input is anonymous. However, students may inadvertently “self-identify” via their responses to open-ended questions. Please remind students not to reveal identifying information when completing their surveys.

No, completion and submission are voluntary. That said, students are eager to share their class experiences, so encourage them to do so.

Your Explorance dashboard will track response rates. To remind students to respond within the two-week time period, you may:

  • Log into your Explorance dashboard and use the embedded messaging tools.
  • Use Canvas to communicate with your students.
  • Hold 10 minutes of class time for students to complete the survey.

Each survey is uniquely linked to a student and a particular course, so there isn’t a “general” link to share. However, faculty can send reminder messages through their Explorance dashboards to supplement automated messaging that Explorance already provides via email and Canvas. Faculty can also encourage survey completion via Canvas Announcements. If a student cannot find their survey, ask them to search their student email for a message from “[email protected]” or look for Student Feedback Surveys in their Account menu in Canvas. You may also remind them to check Canvas via direct messaging and/or a link on the navigation bar.

Students will not receive a survey for any classes where only one student is enrolled, such as thesis or independent study. If you don’t see survey results for a class with multiple students, please contact [email protected].

We recommend that users clear their cache, use a different browser, or use a different device.

Each instructor can access the dashboard and report areas via this link: https://sdsu.bluera.com/sdsu. You or your students may initially be asked to authenticate using Duo.

No.

No, TAs receive the same survey distribution and report messages from Explorance, so they can log in independently.

If TAs inadvertently delete those messages, they can log in via https://sdsu.bluera.com/sdsu. Users may initially be asked to authenticate via Duo.

Instructors will have the opportunity to submit final grades after the student feedback survey window ends.

Neither statistic is presented in Explorance reports, and faculty were no longer required to provide this information beginning Fall 2022.

Yes. Candidates up for review can import and reuse materials from past Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion (RTP) packets when assembling a packet for a current or upcoming review. When up for an important review, such as  tenure or promotion to full professor, materials that have previously been submitted for routine reviews, such as annual reviews, can be easily added via Interfolio.

All faculty can access evaluations prior to Fall 2022 in the legacy version of WebPortal Archive. It is strongly recommended that faculty download their evaluations as soon as possible to avoid any delays.

A note for Tenure/Tenure Track Faculty:

The California State University system is required to keep course evaluations and student feedback surveys for five years beyond Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion (RTP).

A note for Temporary/Lecturers:

Course evaluations/student feedback surveys are stored for six years (until establishment of a three-year contract), and then for at least three years after a subsequent contract is issued.

General

An activation email was sent to the personal email address you provided to SDSU. The message was branded with the SDSU Logo and was sent from [email protected]. If you cannot locate the email, please make sure it was not sent to SPAM. Please reference this SDSUid Activation Page for more information.

Both the SDSU Human Resources system and my.SDSU use the same domain space (cms.sdsu.edu). Therefore, you cannot access both systems in the same browser session.

To use both systems at the same time, you can use one browser type for my.SDSU (e.g., Google Chrome) and a different browser for HR (e.g., Firefox) to avoid this error. Alternatively, you can login with Incognito/Private Browsing mode or clear your browser’s cache.

For this academic year, faculty will have access to past evaluations through WebPortal Archive. After this academic year, that access will occur through administrative contacts in colleges and departments. As always, faculty can choose to download that information at any time before the close of the academic year.

For questions and clarifications, you can email [email protected].

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