Low-cost strategies for syllabus statements, assignments, class time, and advising: Suggestions from colleagues
Syllabus statements and policies:
Remind students that GPA is not the be-all, end-all
Use contract or specifications grading and be transparent about expectations.
Set expectations about email and ask students to follow those expectations, too. For example, “I will try to respond to email within 24 hours.”
Set the example of not responding to email during evenings or weekends. If you are working during those times, considering using “schedule send” (set for a “random” time like 8:23 a.m.) so students don’t get message that we’re available at all hours or that they should give up sleep to work.
Be transparent! Be open about your grading process and policies.
Assignments
Create deadlines that respect time off (school breaks and weekends) and that communicate your respect for their sleep by avoiding midnight or early morning deadlines.
Grant students the flexibility to postpone an assignment or quiz in your class once to balance a non-negotiable deadline in another course.
Give students a certain number of “flexibility tokens” that they can exchange for extensions on assignments, missed classes, etc.
Be very clear about what deadlines are firm vs. more flexible.
If you don’t care about deadlines, you can use “best by” dates.
If you want to give students the option to work on weekends, you can tell them that their work is due on Friday but turning things in on Sunday is also fine. The goal here would be to make clear that you are not expecting them to work on the weekend.
In your LMS, turn off “submit by dates” which will allow students to turn in late work (Moodle, for example, doesn’t accept work if this feature is turned on).
Consider giving two smaller projects throughout the term, rather than one big research paper at the end of the semester.
Allow a choose-your-own adventure for assignments which helps students focus on what they think will enhance their learning the most. You can also have students within a group divide their responsibilities to play to their strengths and interests.
Consider a broader mix of assigned materials: fewer academic articles, more op-eds, podcasts by some authors for lay audiences. Similarly, consider assignments that are not traditional papers, e.g., infographics and podcasts.
Provide lower stakes assignments, and allow some percentage of these to be missed without penalty.
Rather than writing extensive feedback, schedule meetings with students to provide feedback or provide feedback in a separate email so that students aren’t overwhelmed by in-text comments.
Cover less material in more depth.
Help students understand which assignments are most important and which are less critical (including which articles to spend the most time reviewing).
Within the classroom:
Be intentionally open about your own humanity and about students’ humanity. Spend five minutes at the beginning of class to talk about whatever’s going on/announcing concerts, sports events, etc.: “What’s your news?”
Have check-ins where you are honest about your own experiences and reality.
In large classes, hold one-on-one meetings in first week of class during office hours to get to know your students
Have students create name tags (you can make this an event outside of your classroom if your campus has a “maker space”) that will help everyone learn each other’s name.
Rethink class time. Class time could be used to start or even complete homework.
Having a set structure (on Mondays we do x, on Wednesdays we do y,...) can help students stay organized.
Have students create nametags (you can even make this an event at the Idea Lab) that will help everyone learn each other’s name.
Provide multiple modalities for reminding students about upcoming assignments (e.g., announce in class; put on the board; list on Moodle; buddy systems).
Other
Discourage students from loading up on majors, minors, and concentrations. Invite them to think about what they want to get out of their time in college - in the classroom and beyond - and chip away at internalized pressures to “do more.”