Dear Colleagues,
We are dusting ourselves off, one more time, and getting back to work. In the process, many of us are modifying our course syllabi. March is always a good time for mid-semester adjustments, but the recent storm has made these updates even more pressing. As we make changes, consider checking in with your students to inform and guide your decisions. Here are some ideas for gathering input from students as you update your course.
Gather input about assignments. There are a variety of ways to gather student input, such as using the Canvas discussion board, an anonymous Canvas survey, a Google doc or by email. Thea Woodruff with Texas Well-Being suggests asking these two questions:
1. If you were teaching this class, what one assignment would you take off the syllabus to make the workload more manageable?
2. What one change would you suggest to make things a little less stressful?
You may be surprised to learn which assignments stress your students out and which are less daunting. If one particular assignment seems challenging to many of your students, a few simple adjustments can lessen their anxiety. For example, offer an exam as a group exam, open-book or take-home. Give students options. Let them decide whether they’d rather write a paper, create a video or use some other method to demonstrate their learning.
With student feedback in hand, consider what students want you to stop doing, keep doing, and start doing.
Let your goal be your guide. Use the main purpose of the assignment to drive your decisions about how to change it. What is your objective with this assignment? What will students learn? What skills will be developed? How are those skills applicable outside of your classroom?
Explain your decisions. When you make changes to the syllabus, explain your goals and reasons for the change. Let them know why the assignment is valuable to you. Describe the assignment in terms of the skills that are developed and how those skills can help them later in life.
Check in about mental health. This is also a good time to check in about mental and physical health. Take time in class to talk about healthy coping mechanisms when stress increases or fatigue sets in. This Self-Care Guide from the Counseling and Mental Health Center may be helpful. These CMHC resources help nurture well-being in your classroom, even in the virtual setting.
Share what you’re learning. Join your colleagues to consider what is working in your teaching right now. The Provost's Teaching Fellows are gathering experiences among faculty from the past year to develop ideas for a better future (see below for more information).
Upcoming Event: The After Times
What is the future of the post-COVID university? What changes can we make, or keep, or undo, to make our community better serve our students, staff, and faculty? Join the Provost’s Teaching Fellows and the Academy of Distinguished Teachers in this series of discussions aimed at forming and enacting a new set of principles by which campus bodies and organizations can enact change.
Across the three sessions, participants will have access to:
- An open listening session to develop key areas in small groups
- Opportunities for key stakeholders across the undergraduate, graduate, faculty, and staff bodies to respond and formulate themes
- Crafting of a final report for the campus community to respond to and, potentially, employ
To participate in these conversations, please join us in one of the following methods:
- Complete this anonymous survey. We welcome your input that will help guide the in-person conversations.
- RSVP for one or more of the remaining in-person sessions, happening on these dates (RSVP is for all three sessions):
Sincerely,
