Skip to main content

As we know, there may be disruptions that affect teaching and learning. It’s important to keep appropriate flexibility in mind as you design and teach your courses. Such a course does not mean the absence of standards or structure. Instead, designing with flexibility in mind allows students and faculty to adapt to changing circumstances, while maintaining a commitment to academic excellence, even in difficult times. Research has shown that not having structure or expectations can place a burden on our students to provide that structure for themselves. It’s important to think about flexibility in service of the structure and expectations you’ve established.

Implementing “structures of care” is more important than ever. As Professor Mimi Khúc, Scholar/Artist/Activist in Residence in Disability Studies at Georgetown University, noted in our CNDLS podcast episode on accessibility, “if we define and then create structures of care simply to help us work better, or be more productive, or be excellent, we’re actually not caring for ourselves as full humans. We’re caring for ourselves as producers only. And students feel that they are pushed to be producers, in terms of excellence.”

At Georgetown, we hope to inspire rather than push. And _cura personalis _asks us to address students’ whole selves, including both academic excellence and personal well-being. As you design your courses, we encourage you to think about how flexibility with content, assignments, and class time might support your overall goals and expectations for your students.

Strategies

Flexible approaches to teaching can support excellence and rigor by reducing barriers so that all learners can engage in deep, meaningful learning. The approaches below can be used to design a course and class climate that incorporates flexibility, care, and academic excellence. Not all of these will be effective or useful for your goals, but you can consider adopting one or more of these approaches to plan for a course and class climate that is one of, care, and rigor.

Recognize that faculty also have access needs. If many students are asking for a three-week extension, that’s burdensome on the faculty and ultimately not possible. Faculty are part of the class norms. See below for where you can assert what works best based on your expertise, schedule, and teaching style.

Course structure and management

StrategyWhyRecommendations
Actively think about the class environment you want to create from Day One.Building a trusting foundation and intentional culture helps everyone navigate surprises throughout the semester.
  • Visualize the ideal classroom procedures when things don’t go according to plan. What would you want to happen?
  • Get student input on what their ideal classroom culture would look like and how you can codify it.
Through your syllabus design, strive to convey explicit structure to create buy-in.Clear structure encourages engagement and participation from the beginning of the semester.
  • Check out this presentation on syllabus design guidelines.
  • Establish a weekly rhythm through displaying your course schedule in a way that lets students visualize the timeline.
  • Use a calendar for students.
Create a ‘Class Norms’ document.These documents give students a chance to see your expectations and priorities and add others.
  • Spend the first (or part of the first) class session working together on preferred norms. These can include attendance, Zoom, and device policies, as well as guidelines for difficult discussions.
  • List your own preferences as the faculty member as well, so students can see your priorities.
Prioritize health and wellbeing.Research has shown that attending to wellbeing improves academic outcomes, including motivation to learn, actual learning, academic achievement, satisfaction, and even more general benefits that extend beyond the classroom.
  • Make explicit reference to the “Health Resources” tab that is standard in the left sidebar of the Canvas course interface.
  • Consider partnering with the Engelhard program at CNDLS to infuse health and well-being into your course design.
  • Take a listen to the “From Accommodations to Accessibility” podcast episode from CNDLS.

Student engagement

StrategyWhyRecommendations
Recognize that everybody has access needs which differ over time.Recognition enables you and the student to work together to meet access needs.
  • Stating this idea directly at the beginning—in your own way—goes a long way with students who will hopefully receive the message that “this is a class and a professor who is willing to think about me as a person, as a human.”
  • Consider sharing a beginning of course survey which allows students to voice any access needs they have.
Provide students a preview of class sessions.Preparing students with details about class helps them create structure in advance.
  • Articulate your learning goals. Help the students understand why you are doing particular activities and reading particular texts.
  • Create a visual presentation like PowerPoint and post on Canvas before class.
Mitigate the effect of absences.Supporting absences establishes care for one another and helps to create an inclusive space.
  • Consider collaborative note-taking. Require all students to volunteer to take notes on at least one day of the class. Develop a Google Doc with all the dates of the class that they can sign up for, then that Google Doc becomes the running notes for the class.
  • Consider how to maximize class recordings or engagement and functionality when watched asynchronously.
Meet with students individually or in small groupsMeetings in any form can help you determine “access needs” and learning goals and ask students questions directly.
  • Pre-semester checks can even just be Google Forms where you ask students about their needs, which can lead to further conversations.
  • Throughout the semester, consider creating smaller teams or groups of students who can work together on reading or study questions in-class and virtually, as needed.
  • Make yourself regularly available in office hours.
Show students your plan for their successSometimes, students need assurance from professors that the learning they’re doing is in fact difficult, and that the class is built to support them through that difficulty.
  • Explain to students that learning is difficult and that you have high standards for them. Then, give them insight into how the course is structured in such a way that supports their learning and makes it possible for them to succeed.
  • Prof Abby Marsh recommends you convey to students care deeply about their success and that you see them as a person and a student.

Assessments and access

StrategyWhyRecommendations
Time your assessments with wellbeing in mind.Intentional timing supports student wellbeing and rest during busy times.
  • Whenever possible, aim to avoid having assignments due after long weekends.
  • You might survey students on their busiest times and try to schedule assessments around these, or at least let students know you understand it is a busy time.
Build assessments for formative, iterative use.This strategy relieves too much emphasis on a particular time period of the semester.
Option for occasional, flexible deadlines.As professionals, we need flexible deadlines all the time. Students tend to strive to meet the norms of the class and take care of each other.
  • Adopt a ‘time bank’ system, whereby students can draw one two-day extension, or one-day extensions on two separate assignments.
  • Consider offering due-windows as opposed to due-dates.
Consult with the Academic Resource Center.The ARC can aid your decision-making around flexibility that makes sense for the students and the standards of the class.
  • Pose the question to students with accommodations: “How can this class be accessible to you? I know you’re working with the ARC, so how can I make this class accessible to you?”

References

Back to top arrow_upward