Demystifying Expectations and Creating Structure: Weekly Overviews for Pandemic & Post Pandemic Learning
Rachel E. Nickens, Ph.D.
Instructor of Sociology
University of California, Davis
As we know by now, the shift to remote teaching and learning challenged students and educators alike. On top of the stress, loss, and uncertainty of a global pandemic, students suddenly had to create structure without the weekly rhythm dictated by Monday/Wednesday/Friday or Tuesday/Thursday classes. Meanwhile, we, as well-intentioned educators seeking to promote high-quality learning, created more “things” that students had to do: videos to watch, short quizzes, discussion boards, and applied projects.
It very quickly became apparent that students needed support in this adjustment. In response, starting in Spring 2020, I reconfigured my learning management system course sites so students were automatically directed to a weekly overview page. The purpose of these weekly overviews is to create structure and explicitly relay my expectations.
At the top of each weekly overview page, I embed a weekly welcome video of 3-5 minutes in length. In each video, I introduce the topics for the week, discuss upcoming assignments, and provide any other important announcements or reminders. I also mirror the video dialogue in text form for students who prefer or need to read the information. On every weekly overview page I also include a simple table with four columns: task, due date, suggested competition date, and estimated competition time. The Course Workload Estimator and updated Workload Estimator 2.0. developed by Rice University and Wake Forest University, respectively, are useful tools. Throughout the quarter, I encourage students to download each weekly overview to their desktop or print off that page and hang it by their workspace so they can enjoy the visceral pleasure of “crossing off” completed tasks.
During the pandemic, these weekly overviews addressed a few specific needs. They provided students with an “at a glance” overview of required (or recommended) tasks for the week, without necessitating clicking through various modules, videos, pages, and assignments. Because everything was laid out clearly, this minimized administrative emails and let me and my TA(s) focus on teaching content and mentoring students through writing and projects. There were very few cases of students missing assignments because of forgotten deadlines. Most valuably, I believe, the weekly overviews helped students visualize the rhythm of the class and create structure and routines. Most of my classes met synchronously just once a week, so students valued the suggestions on how to distribute the rest of their coursework throughout the week. The weekly overviews were consistently praised in student evaluations, such as by the student who wrote, “The weekly schedule provided in the weekly welcome is truly appreciated. I think that is a great resource, especially during the pandemic, to really gauge and distribute time when you have the capacity to do work.”
Though I’ll be back in the classroom in Fall, I plan to keep these weekly overview pages. As sociologists, we know that students enter college with varying levels of cultural capital and informal knowledge. Many students, especially first-generation and first-year students, are unaware of the “out of class” expectations for college-level learning. These overviews demystify how much time students should plan to spend reading, studying, or writing; as well as create a natural starting point for office hours conversations about study strategies and course expectations. As educators, we also know that many students struggle with time management, and that these challenges can be especially pronounced for learners with disabilities and students juggling employment, care-taking, and other responsibilities. Providing “suggested completion dates” is an easy way to help this group of students, while those who already excel at time management can simply ignore the suggestions. Finally, these weekly overviews also serve as a check on my expectations of students. If I am going to explicitly state the workload for the week, including time for notes, studying, brainstorming, and writing; I must ensure my expectations are reasonable and aligned with university and departmental guidelines.
Over the past year and a half, conversations with colleagues and students alike have focused on the benefits of creating structure and demystifying expectations in times of uncertainty. As we return to normal or the “new normal,” I hope we continue to engage in teaching practices that create structure and provide transparency for students. Weekly overviews are a simple and quick addition that support student learning in our classes, while also modeling time management strategies that students can apply elsewhere.