Office of Curriculum and Instructional Support Blog

Author: Dr. Sarah Learman, Teaching and Learning Consultant, Office of Curriculum and Instructional Support

 

After teaching in so many different modes and spaces these past few years, the time has come for us to go back to our face-to-face/on-campus classrooms again. But the word “back” doesn’t quite fit here, does it? “Back” implies that things will return to “normal”, back to the way they were before the pandemic before remote instruction and hybrid learning monopolized our educational lexicon.

 

Recognizing the more visible differences between our past and what we’ll face in the fall is (hopefully) fairly straightforward. However, subtle distinctions presents more of a challenge. From what “effective” teaching looks like now (which of our practices can we carry forward, which should we leave in the past?), the interactions we’ll have with our new(est) learners, to managing our expectations of them and addressing their expectations of us, how can we begin to prepare?

 

If not “back”, where? And how do we get there? Over our last 3 blog post, we’ve discussed the discomfort we feel when we think about the upcoming fall semester. To ease us forward, we must acknowledge and empower our own resilience, confidently address the scattered responsibilities, mismatched expectations, and trending disengagement we’ve recently observed, and we’ll identify some practical steps for purposeful teaching preparation.

 

Practical Applications to Start Moving Forward.

In this series, we’ve acknowledged and empowered our own resilience as we addressed the value of clear, prioritized, expectations in combating increasing student (and instructor) disengagement. In the final article of this series, we’ll look at some strategies to begin cultivating the momentum that will ease us forward toward a smooth(er) transition back to in-person learning.

 

Purposeful and practical teaching preparation starts broad and then focuses in.

Every fall, countless teaching support outlets publish articles and other resources offering new tricks, new tools, new ways to reach today’s students, and telling us what we should do “to start your semester strong”; this year is no exception. But in reality, instructors may not have the time or cognitive space to sort through (or really consider implementing) a bunch of new tools or techniques. So, what’s the bottom line?

 

Once you’ve identified your teaching priorities and made a game plan for communicating and maintaining accountability surrounding your expectations (see our previous blog post: Falling Back Into Our Classrooms: Expectations are the Antidote), take a step back to gain a broader view of your course and instructional timelines and orient yourself. Assess where you are, reflect on what worked well (or didn’t) in the past, and purposely plan how to move forward. Purposeful planning means being strategic about course design, materials, and time. It means intentionally targeting and framing your instruction around strategies that will make things easier for you without detracting from the students’ exposure to your content. What might that look like for you? Here are some considerations that will support your practical, purposeful, teaching preparation from the ground up.

 

1. Use expectations to inform your practice.

We’ve already talked a lot about the importance of establishing (and communicating) clear expectations in our courses. The next step towards implementing these expectations effectively is to construct your course materials to reflect and help students meet those expectations. This means intentionally basing policies (and consequences) on your expectations and integrating them into your course’s framework, your syllabus, and the rest of your materials. To do this:

• Make the link between your expectations and the possibility of success as straightforward and obvious as possible. For example, you might consider providing early and frequent assessments that underscore expectations and the path to success. Then, when students disengage, “Draw [students’] attention to their silence, inactivity, and unresponsiveness, and tell them they must do better” (Isaacs, 2022). If student attendance and engagement during class is an expectation of yours, design your lessons and activities to have students interact and collaborate frequently. Remember, students are less likely to engage if a course component isn’t linked to any accountability. Especially those students that don’t grasp or appreciate the rationale behind the component (or our expectations).
• Take a step back and review your course expectations and your policies (i.e., attendance, participation, late work). Then ask yourself (as applicable) the following questions. Your answers here should provide some perspective and perhaps guide you toward where you might focus next.
  • Do my materials accurately and clearly reflect what I want my students to do? If not, what needs to change?
  • Is what I am asking of my students reasonable or is it too much? Are they set up for failure? What needs to change to ensure that today’s students are positioned to succeed in my course?
  • Is accountability considered? Is this appropriately weighted/incorporated into course assessment? Are the consequences for noncompliance clear, reasonable, enforceable, and straightforward for me to implement?
  • If students miss class (or if class is canceled for some reason), how might they still gain exposure to your content so they can still succeed?
  • Where might I add more details or rationale to support my students in meeting my expectations?

 

2. Weave flexibility into your course (where it works for you).

From late policies to your course calendar, spacing your course with margins for flexibility can be a semester-changing strategy (in a good way) (McMurtrie, 2022a; McMurtrie, 2022b).

 

Above all, we must remember that flexibility doesn’t have to be a free-for-all. It is appropriate to create structure and enforceable boundaries within whatever flexibility that you build into your course. Incorporating flexibility in one aspect of your course does not mean that it’s all flexible. For example, flexibility applied to a late work policy doesn’t automatically make deadlines irrelevant or allow students to submit all their work late without penalty. Instead, consider a policy that offers the student a buffer where minor deductions are applied to late work at first, but then deductions increase over time (per the instructors’ discretion and what works best for the course). In this case, you might apply a 10% deduction if work is submitted within the first 24 hours of the due date, but after 24 hours, deductions will be significantly higher.

 

Flexibility should not undermine your priorities. Make your course policies and the flexibility within work for you. Continuing our example from above, if calculating such deductions isn’t something you want to do, this type of policy may not be for you. Instead, you may not accept late work but build flexibility in as “drops” where a specified number of assignments don’t contribute to students’ grades. In this case, they can’t submit their work late, but if they miss or score poorly on a specified number of assignments, it won’t negatively impact their grade. If a flexible late/missed work policy is a deal-breaker for you, consider another strategy to create space within your course.

 

Weaving flexibility into your course doesn’t require an instructional overhaul. Adjusting course policies to be more flexible might involve a simple shift in language and a few clicks in your Blackboard shell. Look at the policies you’ve already implemented and identify what adjustments you might make to boost the flexibility, without overextending yourself or making things overly complicated. If incorporating flexibility into your fall semester course(s) doesn’t seem feasible right now, that’s ok! Another option is to teach this semester as you typically would, but identify and note any potential opportunities where flexibility could be incorporated next time you teach the course. This type of real-time reflection (and record-keeping) can save you time in the long run and will allow you to make more strategic and informed alterations to your course policies in the future.

 

Advocating for “flexibility with guardrails”, faculty developer Andrea Aebersold says:

 

“I agree that too much flexibility (no deadlines, redo everything, no attendance policies, etc.) can lead to students not doing the work or feeling like there is no accountability… Flexibility with guardrails means you have flexible deadlines, like a three-day grace period for turning something in. It means the lowest quiz score is dropped. It means students get choices on how to do an assignment every now and then (like written versus oral presentation). It means an attendance policy that allows for some missed days without penalty. Basically, [the goal is to] make policies that make room for the unexpected to happen without ruining a student’s chance for success in the course. I don’t think we did that well before the pandemic. I’m honestly not sure we did it well during the pandemic either… the answer isn’t to return to toxic rigor. It is to make sure that we are doing things in the classroom that students can’t get anywhere else” (McMurtrie, 2022b).

 

3. Envision your course schedule

One element that facilitates such flexibility, communication, and more, is our course schedule. Allowing instructors to visualize and plan course organization and content flow, the course schedule (sometimes called a course outline, map, or calendar) is a structured and often underutilized tool in our teaching arsenal. When developing an effective course outline, several aspects and strategies can expedite and streamline course planning and ensure a smooth(er) journey through the semester.

 

Map out your (tentative) schedule now. Whether you’ve taught the course before or not, it is always helpful to map out the topics you plan to cover (in advance) based on the class meeting schedule. Working your planned assignments and deadlines into your course calendar is valuable, both for instructors and students. Isaacs (2022) recommends that instructors “tentatively finalize your course schedule before the semester begins, [to] help you avoid mid-semester tinkering and provide greater stability for your students (Isaacs, 2022). With your course outline, it’s also recommended to include a disclaimer or statement indicating to your students that the schedule is tentative and may change based on external circumstances and at the instructor’s discretion.

 

The course schedule is an excellent tool to create space and incorporate flexibility into your course. Building opportunities into your schedule to shift content between days as needed can help accommodate unexpected changes. How might a snow day, for example, impact the schedule? Is there room to accommodate such interruptions to the course meeting calendar? Speaking to the value of a strategically planned course schedule, Schiano (2021) says:

“…if [one day] you don’t have the time or capacity [to teach some planned content], then you can always address it in a later session. If you design a class so that the topics need to follow a certain order, such as A-B-C-D, then that constrains you if the B portion takes a little longer than expected or there is a compelling opportunity to move from B to D” (Schiano, 2021).

 

So, look at the existing space you’ve built into your course schedule. Does the spacing of your content or the time you allot for teaching each topic make sense? Are there certain points in the semester where you often find yourself behind, trying to catch up, or perhaps even having to skip content because time ran out? These may be good areas to target and manipulate your schedule for more flexibility. Again, these alterations don’t have to be large structural adjustments; such revisions can vary from rearranging your content, to offloading some content delivery to be covered outside of class via a reading, video, or alternate learning exercise.

 

Look also at the spacing of your assignments. Are your assignments spaced out enough for the students to invest enough time to complete the work but also to give you enough time to grade? Are there assignments that overlap (meet learning objectives that are also covered elsewhere in the course)? These are excellent candidates for removal, thus creating space in your schedule.

 

“Sometimes deadlines fit so perfectly into the rhythm of a class schedule that it can feel like putting one off will derail the rest. But most deadlines can be altered ever so slightly without wreaking havoc, particularly if you plan for this possibility ahead of day one. For example, maybe you normally assign four projects to be completed over the course of the semester (all of which, of course, you have to grade in a timely fashion). This creates a delicate balance in your syllabus: If one of those deadline balls drop, so do the rest. If you feel that your syllabus leaves no room for a pivot or a last-minute change—perhaps you need to care for a sick child, or your best friend is in town for a long weekend—you may want to consider dropping that fourth assignment and restructuring your deadlines” (3 questions to ask yourself when planning your next course, 2022).

 

If you are interested in learning more, this article offers more about flexibility in our courses, and this article speaks to effective course planning and provides readers with a sample course outline (McMurtrie, 2022a; Grushka-Cockayne, 2020).

 

4. Put your plan into practice through the syllabus and course Blackboard shell.

As you plan your instruction, the syllabus is the natural place to start. One way to start building an effective syllabus is to pull from your past experiences, collect your expectations, and use them to inform your document (Srinivasan, 2019). Once you’ve got a working draft, review it from the student’s perspective to identify gaps and clarify any ambiguity. It is important to note that depending on where you are in your course preparation, working on your syllabus will be heavily planning, revising, and editing. You are working on it “now”, but you likely won’t publish (or finish) your course syllabus until the end of your course prep process, just before class starts. This distinction is important because it illustrates the iterative and revision-based process of developing a course, writing a strategic syllabus, and designing a course (Aucejo et al., 2020).

 

Employ Blackboard as your (free) instructional assistant. As a valuable instructional tool, Blackboard can be the hub for your course materials, an effective communication tool, and so much more- for any course modality. As simple as it may seem, how your course materials are presented in Blackboard can dramatically impact student connectedness to your course, and ultimately their success. This could be as simple as organizing posted materials in an intuitive, navigable way and providing contextual information directing students to how they should interact with these materials. Such organization, as applied to course materials within and outside Blackboard, can dramatically reduce cognitive load, prevent confusion and errors, decrease student stress, and empower them to find answers to their questions themselves.

 

5. To transition forward: use your resources and allow your past to inform your future.

When we look forward to this new (intimidating) semester, we must remember where we’ve been. Brookfield (2021) recommends that instructors regularly and critically reflect on their past practices to recognize and adjust based on whether they are working (for you or your students). So, take inventory, reevaluating what you’ve done in the past, focusing on what went well and what didn’t. Then tackle one thing at a time. Ask yourself what was the most frustrating about past semesters. How might you alter your practice to prevent or smooth these bumps out (Brookfield, 2021)?

 

The Office of Curriculum and Instructional Support offers numerous resources that have been curated and created to help you in all of these endeavors (and more). Our collection of teaching and learning resources and on-demand materials are available for you 24/7. Check out our syllabus resources, watch our “Transform your Blackboard Shell to Transform your Teaching” videos, or have our CoursePro team build your content (even your course schedule) right into your blackboard shell. CIS also offers diverse services designed to assist instructors in their course prep and practice. Our Syllabus and Blackboard review services (along with our other Teaching and Learning Professional Support (TL Pro) service opportunities) are particularly useful this time of year as you plan and prepare for our semesters to start.

 

6. Allow yourself to be a priority.

One of the most important things to remember through all this is to prioritize yourself and recognize your capabilities and your limitations. Recognize that we don’t have superpowers (neither do our students). We cannot expect ourselves (or our students) to maintain the pace at which we’ve been working these past few years. To move forward fruitfully, we must accept the limitations of what a human teacher can do. We must work reasonable hours and set parameters around our teaching time (Glazier et al., 2022). Create space in your course schedule and in your day-to-day activities to allow for the flexibility that your mind and body need to do this work, and to do this work well. Because this work- the work of teaching and learning in 2022- is challenging. But it’s also rewarding.

 

As you make these changes to your course, you also incorporate grace. Grace for your students, yes, but also grace for yourself. (Else-Quest et al., 2022)

“Giving grace has been a go-to catchphrase since 2020. What it usually means is kindness and compassion. Indeed, many faculty members have already been giving grace by adapting our courses to be more flexible, incorporating wellness activities into class, and discussing mental health with students… …In giving grace to our students and ourselves, we model for them how to adapt to a challenging circumstance and lead with compassion and kindness. Certainly, the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated many physical- and mental health challenges and disparities. Perhaps the best way that we as faculty members can counter those challenges and disparities is by revising our own teaching policies and practices to better support our students and ourselves.” (Else-Quest et al., 2022).

 

Looking for more or need help? As always, the Office of Curriculum and Instructional Support is here to help. Email us or schedule a TL Pro consultation today

 

 

References:

3 questions to ask yourself when planning your next course. Harvard Business Publishing Education. (2022, May 24). Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://he.hbsp.harvard.edu/2022-05-24-the-faculty-lounge.html

Aucejo, E.M., French, J., Paola, M., Araya, U., & Zafar, B. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on student experiences and expectations: Evidence from a survey. J Public Econ, 191. http://doi10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104271 

Grushka-Cockayne, Y. (2020, August 19). How to Design and Teach a Hybrid Class. Harvard Business Publishing Education. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/how-to-design-and-teach-a-hybrid-class

Else-Quest, N., Sathy, V., & Hogan, K. A. (2022, January 1). How to Give Our Students the Grace We All Need . Chronicle.com. Retrieved July 27, 2022, from https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-to-give-our-students-the-grace-we-all-need?cid2=gen_login_refresh&cid=gen_sign_in

Glazier, R. A., Wilson-Bates, T., Croyle, K., Isaacs, E., Hernandez, E. M., & Green, N. (2022, June 14). Advice: How to solve the student-disengagement crisis. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved June 28, 2022, from https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-to-solve-the-student-disengagement-crisis

Isaacs, E. (2022, May 5). Advice: How to solve the student-disengagement crisis. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-to-solve-the-student-disengagement-crisis

McMurtrie, B. (2022a, June 9). These professors found benefits in pandemic flexibility. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/teaching/2022-06-09

McMurtrie, B. (2022b, June 30). Staying flexible without becoming overwhelmed. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/teaching/2022-06-30

McMurtrie, B. (2022c, June 14). A ‘stunning’ level of student disconnection. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved June 28, 2022, from https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-stunning-level-of-student-disconnection?cid2=gen_login_refresh&cid=gen_sign_in

Schiano, B. (2021, May 7). Give Your Brain a Break—Course Design Tips to Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed. Harvard Business Publishing Education. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/course-design-tips-to-avoid-feeling-overwhelmed?cid=email%7Cmarketo%7C2022-05-24-the-faculty-lounge%7C1424822%7Cfaculty-lounge-newsletter%7Ceducator%7Cvarious%7Cmay2022&acctID=none&mkt_tok=ODU1LUFUWi0yOTQAAAGElLOpBmV6V1chvH3c4FTGTDtxEMl_HGGKVntExNatxYsRKOLzfquprnrm_jQICM7nSFkzdumBtXa9ucNcm8FH5PBL3iq2q-SaP5SOzba9

Srinivasan, S. (2019, August 9). 5 Steps to Designing a Syllabus That Promotes Recall and Application. Harvard Business Publishing Education. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/5-steps-to-designing-a-syllabus-that-promotes-recall-and-application?cid=email%7Cmarketo%7C2022-05-24-the-faculty-lounge%7C1424822%7Cfaculty-lounge-newsletter%7Ceducator%7Cvarious%7Cmay2022&acctID=none