Last week was our spring break and it is important to take breaks, so I took a break!
In my last post, I discussed whether or not I thought I was coddling students using flexible approaches to teaching. I argued that I was not. I might have also argued that it is not my role to do whatever the opposite of coddling is…
In that post, I listed a bunch of course policies that I think could be seen as coddling but I see as tools for maximizing learning. This week I thought I’d back myself up a bit and describe why I think those policies are beneficial. I think I could write a whole post on each but I will try to keep it super brief.
No-questions asked if students ask for extensions for reasons they feel should be excused. Students do not need to tell me their reasons.
The reasoning for this is two fold. First, I HATE being an arbiter of what a sufficient excuse is. I also don’t want to try to figure out if an excuse is real. It would make me feel very icky, for example, to ask for the program from a student’s loved one’s funeral to prove their absence should be excused. I know faculty do this because students frequently send me these assuming I want to see them. I apologize to them that anyone asked them for it.
The second reason is that if a student can’t come to class for a reason that is embarrassing to them, I’d rather spare them that / I don’t want them to NOT get an extension or whatnot because they didn’t feel comfortable asking. Examples of what I mean are things like court dates, mental health episodes, etc.
I record and post all lectures/live coding exercises.
I started doing this during the height of the COVID pandemic, but have continued because I think it is good. You would think that this would just cause a drop in attendance, where students just figure they can watch the videos and not come to class. However, I have found that if you design your class in a way where there is a defined benefit to being there in person, this isn’t a problem. The benefit is twofold. Students who had to miss class can do so and still get caught up on the material. And students who missed something or found a topic confusing can revisit the in-class activities to re-engage. This second use of recordings is the one I get the most comments about on student evals: students thanking me for giving them a way to revisit topics.
All slides/notes are posted before class.
Diligent students sometimes like to review material before class. Students with certain disabilities also benefit from this approach. The biggest hurdle for me with this was having it not be a huge and stressful time sink. To solve that problem, all my notes/slides are on either internet-hosted slideshows (google slides, for example) or on a website (vt-hydroinformatics.github.io, for example). So I can just make links to them in my Canvas course. I tell the students that the slides/notes may sometimes be updated up until right before class, but that the updates will not be substantial enough to cause problems. I haven’t had complaints about me changing things up until the last minute. If I am revamping an entire lecture, I do that ahead of time and don’t post the old one…
All information about deadlines, assignments, etc is on Canvas.
I think in most cases, relying on in-class announcements of deadlines and stuff is a path to frustration and loss of time! Sure, it incentivizes attendance, but when students can’t attend AND/OR when they don’t write something down, you get emails. Lots of emails. I think it’s just better for ensuring people don’t fall behind for logistic reasons and to keep my email inbox more manageable!
Two-stage testing (for here just think: two attempts on all tests).
I’ll write more in-depth about this for a future post but in short: Tests are a powerful tool for learning. If students take a test once, I think they benefit from that experience. But they also may disengage from the things they got wrong on the test because they feel embarrassed or don’t have the time to go back and be sure they understand them. If you give them a second chance to correct those answers for points, they re-engage! They will likely learn more. Make that second chance collaborative with other students and you add benefits like becoming more comfortable asking questions and the benefits of peer-teaching.
Non-punitive in-class work: If we do an activity in class and you turn something in, you get all the points.
I wrote about this a few posts ago. But in short: students are more likely to TRY in-class activities if they know they will get credit even if they are wrong. Trying helps them learn. Also, if you are giving credit for completeness, grading is WAY faster.
Maximum late penalty on any assignment is 30% off. You can turn things in SUPER late with no excuse and still get plenty of credit.
If my goal is for students to meet the learning objectives for the course, then I want them to engage with as much of it as possible. If I have a “no late work”
policy or a late work policy where students need to ask to be able to do it, then I am disincentivizing students from doing work they missed. This may teach them a life lesson, but it also hurts their ability to learn the material.
I actually do no-deadlines in my small upper level class, and that works fine, but in larger classes I have found (through painful experience, separate post later) that deadlines are a necessity. So instead I implement a penalty, but not an especially harsh one. Students are encouraged to turn work in on time because there is a penalty. But the penalty is not very severe (10% off each day until a max of 30%), which makes it worth it to do the work. If students just didn’t get work done, or if they were too shy or embarrassed to ask for a no-cost extension, then they can still engage with that course material with a relatively small penalty.
I’d love to hear about little tweaks or policies you have that promote learning in your classroom!