August 27, 2021
Congratulations CNS Instructors for making it through week 1! I draw this week’s teaching tip from the article by Matthew R Johnson titled “10 Course Policies to Rethink on your Fall Syllabus” (08112021 Chronicle of Higher Ed) (see the attached file for details). The article focuses on how to support our students during a third semester of uncertainty and complications as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. The author is a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, Central Michigan University. Dr. Johnson cites results reported in several recent articles indicating the pandemic has disproportionately negatively impacted students of color and lower income and students with disabilities and mental health issues (Soria et al., 2020; Goldrick-Rab et al. 2021; Horgos et al. 2020). These results also suggest longer term detrimental effects of COVID-19 infection on student (Goldrick-Rab et al. 2021). The author provides ten suggestions for reevaluation of course syllabi. I feel their suggestions are relevant to our teaching policies and mindset throughout the fall 2020 semester.
Ten things to reconsider for teaching your courses this fall:
No. 1: Attendance policies.
Consider reworking your attendance policy in one of these ways:
- Expand the number of classes a student can miss.
- Develop alternative assignments to in-person attendance.
- Leverage technology to deliver content remotely and in person simultaneously.
- Drop your attendance policy altogether.
No. 2: Group work.
Consider offering students a choice: Work alone on a project or in a group. Perhaps even recast your course’s “indispensable” group project into something less burdensome on students.
No. 3: Late assignments.
Consider these alternatives:
- Set target dates instead of firm due dates.
- Have a “consequence free” late policy on one or more of your assignments (e.g., if an assignment is fewer than five days late, it will be considered as submitted on time).
- Offer incentives for early submissions (e.g., five extra points for an assignment submitted five days early, four extra points if it’s four days early, and so on).
No. 4: Workload.
Try to find places in your courses where you can achieve the same learning outcomes yet lessen the workload.
No. 5: Where to find help.
List resources on your syllabus for students who are struggling — things like a campus counseling office, teaching center, financial-aid program, or local food pantry. You should also link to those support services on the course website in the learning-management system. Talk about them on the first day of class and throughout the semester.
No. 6: Tone.
Have someone else read your syllabus to look for ways to make you sound less like a crotchety faculty member hardened by long years of service and more like a human being invested in your students’ success and well-being.
No. 7: Office hours.
Don’t just list office hours on your syllabus. Be specific about their location and purpose. For example:
- Provide examples of why students might visit your office hours.
- Hold them virtually, in the student union, or outside (weather permitting).
- To convey their purpose, call them “student office hours,” “student success hours,” or “hangout hours.”
- Use a free scheduling service like Calendly so students can book appointments with you automatically (to reduce the amount of email you get trying to schedule meetings with you).
- Remind students about your office hours each week as you end class.
No. 8: Course costs.
Instead of asking students to purchase an expensive new edition of a textbook, see if a cheaper, older version will suffice. Make free copies of texts available at the library or in your office.
No. 9: Camera policies.
Rather than require all remote students to be on camera, find ways to incentivize and invite camera usage or other forms of participation (iClicker Reef).
No. 10: Grading policies.
Some academics have opted for “ungrading,” an approach that minimizes or eliminates grades in favor of other forms of feedback (Supiano, 2019). If you’re not ready to join the ungrading movement, you do have other options:
- Offer students a choice of assignment options that allow them to play to their strengths.
- Give students an opportunity to revise and resubmit their work.
- Consider dropping their lowest grade for an assignment or a test.
A little flexibility will go a long way in relieving both students’ stress and your own and may provide significant boosts to their confidence and learning.
I hope that reason will prevail and through vaccination and mask use we can avoid going back online and over burdening our health care workers. Based on that optimism the CNS MTI has three workshops planned for this fall semester:
9/14/2021 10 AM to 12:30 PM Introduction to the First Four Weeks Initiative
10/13/2021 11:30 AM to 1 PM Digging deeper into the First Four Weeks Initiative
11/17/2021 11:30 AM to 1 PM Growth Mindset
Lunch will be provided (thanks Jan). Please mark your calendars, look for details from CNS Info and RSVP. I hope to see you all there.
All the best, Paul
Literature Cited
- Soria, K. M, Roberts, B. J, Horgos, B., & Hallahan, K. (2020). Undergraduates’ Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Disparities by Race and Ethnicity. UC Berkeley: Center for Studies in Higher Education. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1rf4p547
Goldrick-Rab, S., Coca, V., Gill, J., Clark, K., Looker, E. and Peele, M. (2021) Self-Reported COVID-19 Infection and Implications for Mental Health and Food Insecurity Among American College Students. The Hope Center for College, Community and Justice August 2021 Research Brief.
Horgos, B., M. Soria, K. M, Chirikov, I., & Jones-White, D. (2020). The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Undergraduate and Graduate Students with Emotional or Mental Health Concerns or Conditions. UC Berkeley: Center for Studies in Higher Education. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/83m75056
Soria, K. M, Horgos, B., Chirikov, I., & Jones-White, D. (2020). The Experiences of Undergraduate Students with Physical, Learning, Neurodevelopmental, and Cognitive Disabilities During the Pandemic. UC Berkeley: Center for Studies in Higher Education. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8gd1v4mt
Supiano, B. (2019) Grades Can Hinder Learning. What Should Professors Use Instead? The Chronicle of Higher Education Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/grades-can-hinder-learning-what-should-professors-use-instead/.
Paul Laybourn (he/him/his)
Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Director, W2R S-STEM Program
Director, NoCo B2B Program
Director, REU Site in Molecular Biosciences
paul.laybourn@colostate.edu
970-491-5100
