Faculty FAQ

We offer real-time online appointments via Zoom for writing, oral, and visual communication projects. Also, we now offer asynchronous services! Students who are unable to attend a real-time session can submit their project draft along with your assignment instructions and information about their progress to us via WCOnline, and a mentor will review the materials and return feedback in the form of a cover sheet to the student. Plus, for students who prefer to work things out on their own, we also offer a number of self-guided resources.

For more information on any of these services or to learn more about our Studios and hours, check out our resources page. 

CxC offers 1-1 writing support, oral project support and visual project support for undergraduate, graduate, and ESL students. We offer both real-time online appointments via Zoom and asynchronous services through our WCOnline portal. 

Our mentors do:

• Help students during all stages of the composition process, from planning and drafting to revising.
• Discuss options to improve various features of a project such as development, organization, audience adaptation, and clarity and coherence.
• Work with students to set long-term goals that will transfer to future communication tasks.

Our mentors do not:

• Copy-edit or co-create student work.
• Evaluate grades the student has received from you or estimate/guarantee what grade a student will receive from you in the future.
• Report sessions to you, other faculty or staff, or any party outside of the CxC team (except for disclosures related to Title IX reporting).

Nope, not at all. We work with folks who run the gamut of experience, skill and confidence levels. Every session focuses on meeting the communicator where they’re at and helping them foster their skills at their pace. The best communicators embrace feedback and know they always have room to grow. 

Our mentors are prepared for all stages—from brainstorming, to getting stuck, to final revisions. However, we recommend encouraging students to come early in the process so they can create a solid foundation and follow-up as needed throughout the process.

Our communication mentors are trained to first help the student ensure that they are addressing the overall idea and organizational concerns of the project. Together, the student and mentor will check to make sure the thesis/main argument, support, and overall aspects of the project are in accordance with your assignment and their goals for the project. 

From there, time-permitting, the mentor and student may review some finishing touches like punctuation and grammar to identify patterns of error. Most writers make the same types of errors when they write. Once patterns of error are identified, the mentor can help a student learn how to proofread for and correct that error. The mentor will guide students through the first examples to clarify the rules and then encourage them to proofread the rest of the text independently. 

Keep in mind, CxC communication mentors are trained to help students as communicators rather than to fix a paper or assignment, so that as their communication assignments and goals continue to develop, they are setting themselves up for future success.

We are excited to offer a number of different faculty services; these include:

• Class presentations/visits 
  • See section on in-class services for more info
• Syllabus/assignment workshops
  • You can meet with our mentors and staff to discuss your syllabus/assignment materials. This can be a helpful resource for faculty to gain insight into how students engage with their assignments. Plus, these conversations give our mentors more exposure to your expectations, which better equips us to assist your students. 
• Studio 151 Space
  • You can also utilize our studio space! Our staff can offer guided peer reviews, or you can take advantage of our presentation practice spaces. We can also deliver sparkshop presentations to demonstrate what services and resources are available, such as our Podcasting presentation! If you are interested in bringing your class to Studio 151 (in Coates Hall), please contact Christina Rothenbeck at [email protected].

Looking for something else? Reach out! We are always open to exploring new means of connecting with faculty and students and would love to hear your ideas. 

Absolutely, and thank you! Here is some suggested language, but we also encourage you to ID language that best fits your writing style.

Feel free to copy/paste or edit this blurb as you see fit if you want to include it in your syllabi or course materials:  

CxC offers free 1-1 writing support and communication mentoring for all LSU students in the following areas: writing (all genres and disciplines), oral communication (presentations, pitches and other forms), and visual communication (presentations, posters, other forms). CxC support caters to the individual student’s skill and comfort level, which means that they work with students who have a brought gamut of strengths and challenge areas and know how to help you identify tools and tactics to cultivate your work and growth. They welcome folks at all stages in the creation process—from brainstorming and getting over a moment of inertia to making final revisions. For Spring 2021, they’re offering real-time 1-1 Zoom sessions with a mentor as well as asynchronous support where you can upload/share a link to your work, answer some questions for them, and a mentor will get back to you quickly.

All materials posted on our website or social media platforms are free to use for your classes! You do not need to secure permission from us to utilize these resources. However, if you have any feedback on them or are interested in seeing something from us that we do not currently offer, feel free to get in touch!

Here are a few places where we publish resources for faculty and students:

• Faculty Resource Page
• CxC Blog 
• LSU Experimental (Podcast) 
• CxC Youtube Channel

If you are interested in having one of our mentors visit your classroom, we are happy to provide an overview of what resources CxC can offer your students. We can also deliver one of our Sparkshops to give your students communication tips relevant to your course material. Topics we have covered in the past include:

• The Rhetorical Triangle
• Elevator Pitches
• Email Etiquette 
• Overcoming Writing Anxiety
• Descriptive vs Creative Language
• … and more!

Looking for something else? Reach out! We are always open to exploring new means of connecting with faculty and students in the classroom and would love to hear your ideas. Some of these resources are also available for asynchronous delivery. You can review what prepackaged resources are available here. If you have any questions about what resources are best suited for your class or if you want to book a class visit, please reach out to your CxC College Representative.

Spring 2021 Note: Due to COVID-19, we are not able to guarantee that a CxC team member will be able to come to your class in-person to deliver these materials; however, if you are interested in them, we are happy to work with you to make arrangements to present any of our sparkshop presentations over Zoom in real-time or direct you to asynchronous resources to meet your needs.

Please reach out to your CxC College Representative to get more info and get scheduled! 

Thank you for referring your students to CxC resources! We ask, however, that you do not require your students to make an appointment with us as this may overwhelm our resources. Further, it also often makes for unproductive sessions as the students focus more on documenting their attendance for credit than they do on cultivating their communication skills and learning goals. We emphasize “opt-in” practices to help the student take ownership of their goals and what skills they want to develop to achieve them. 

We are happy to support your goal in offering extra credit for your classes by presenting 1-1 mentoring sessions as a bonus activity or optional assignment. While our protocol is not to sign off on attendance sheets or recommend students print a meeting confirmation as proof of attendance (this latter practice fosters no-shows), we do suggest asking the student to submit to you their own reflection or report-out from their session. Our sessions are aimed at helping students grow as communicators, so one of the best ways to verify that a student has earnestly engaged in a session is to ask them to reflect on their experience. For example, you may ask the student to reflect on what skills they intend to work on, or what they have learned about their strengths and weaknesses as a communicator. Here are a few sample questions you can ask the student to answer in order to earn extra credit (though feel free to make up your own!):

• During my 1-1 session I learned that X about myself as a communicator. 
• One habit I have that works for me in preparing my draft/project/etc. that I’l like to keep developing is X.
• One area that I want to work on not only for this project, but for the long-term, is X
• After reviewing my project with a mentor, here are the top three things I will focus on/I worked on to improve this project. 
• After I reviewed my assignment guidelines with a mentor, I realized I need to take time to further understand the following things in order to successfully complete this assignment.

We are excited to hear that you are interested in certifying your course! C-I pedagogy promotes deeper learning of course content and provides advanced instruction on effective, discipline-specific communication. 

To get started, check out our C-I overview and list of criteria for your course here. This page also includes a planning worksheet and a link to apply for C-I certification. Additional faculty resources related to C-I are also available (including course design examples, sample rubrics, tips on teaching remotely, and more).

Absolutely! We are committed to ensuring that our online students receive equitable access to our services. Currently, we offer real-time online appointments via Zoom for writing, oral, and visual communication projects. Also, we now offer asynchronous services for students who are unable to attend a real-time session. With this service, you can submit your project draft along with assignment instructions and information about your progress to us via WCOnline, and a mentor will review the materials and return feedback in the form of a cover sheet. Plus, for students who prefer to work things out on their own, we also offer a number of self-guided resources.

Our communication services are open to all LSU students, and that includes ESL students! We ensure each of our staff members are equipped to deliver equitable service by conducting annual training that specifically addresses best practices for serving ESL students. Additionally, our booking site allows users to filter based on their specific communication needs. For example, a student could select “ESL- Writing- Undergraduate” to find the mentors best suited to assist them with their project. 

As a part of our mission to serve the campus community, CxC is committed to ensuring that all students have equitable access to our services and resources. We work continually to improve the accessibility and usability of our spaces, consultations, and materials to create an environment that is accessible and provides a welcome and rewarding experience to everyone who visits either in-person or online. Here are a few measures we have taken to ensure accessibility:

• All of our public-facing materials and remote services, including video resources, handouts, website, and email communications conform with LSU’s accessibility and ADA standards           
• Our asynchronous mentoring services allow students to receive feedback on their communication projects in an accessible PDF format (compatible with screen readers). 
• Our team is currently working on including real-time closed-captioning for our Zoom consultations. Stay tuned!
• Both the A&D Studio and Studio 151 are wheelchair accessible. Unfortunately due to its location, the Chevron Center is not easily wheelchair accessible. However, our staff members are always available to provide additional accommodations or assistance with any of our equipment. 

If you are seeking additional accommodations, please contact your CxC College Representative. We will work with you to ensure that you are able to secure equitable access to our resources. 

A learner with a disability is entitled by law to equal access to university programs. Two federal laws protect persons with disabilities in post-secondary education: the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Pub. L. No. 93-112, as amended), the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (Pub. L. No. 101-336) and the ADA Amendments Act (Pub. L. No.110-325). If you want to know more about what accessibility assistance is available to you at LSU, please visit this page. Or, for more general information on LSU’s compliance procedures, you can check out the accessibility page.