Administrative Calls for Empathy and Student Assessment

[Zeus Bird]

Past threads in the Fora have touched upon "Jedi Mind Tricks," (e.g. pedagogical tactics that faculty can use with students to enhance student learning while also deflecting possible resistance to course requirements). 

My question for you all has to do with "Jedi Mind Tricks" that faculty can use with administrators who apply soft pressure to faculty members to loosen or tacitly abandon standards for student work.  I think that all faculty must always have a certain amount of flexibility with students in the face of life's challenges, and should have been much more flexible with students when the pandemic hit.  Nevertheless, both at my uni and in opinion pieces in the academic press I'm seeing an increasing number of calls by administrators for what amounts to individualized open-ended schedules of assignments for students, regardless of class size, course format, or degree programs.  In short: Hi-Flex for all.  There seems to be a presumption in these administrative calls that most faculty are full-time TT faculty teaching upper-level seminars for full-time residential student majors at selective institutions.  There is often a simultaneous lack of acknowledgement that faculty have also been suffering during the pandemic, and that we also have family and personal matters that preclude semester-long stays in grading prison.  This goes double and triple for contingent faculty.

Many of us are familiar with direct challenges to faculty decision-making in the area of student assessment, but how can we respond with indirect challenges to our qualifications, especially when an appeal is made to compassion at a time when the empathy meter is running on fumes?

[Hegemony]

It's actually a kindness to the student not to drag it on too long. I've actually had very poor success at getting lagging students to turn things in, and the more behind they are, the less the likelihood that they will catch up. When students beg me for an Incomplete, I let them know the truth: that despite every opportunity to make up an Incomplete, and a year to do the work, in thirty years of teaching I have never had a single student actually make up the work. Given that students find it so difficult, I think if the administration were pressuring me to accommodate a lot of late work, I'd suggest to them that the simplest way of being student-friendly in the pandemic would be for them to extend the deadline for course withdrawals to [whatever the current date is]. If it's important to be flexible and accommodating, that's one way they could easily do it. And if they're not willing to do that simple thing, it's unclear why I should do the one that's harder for both me and the student.

[arcturus]

I agree with Hegemony - incompletes are rarely in the student's best interest. I have never had a student finish an incomplete. For a student with challenges already, they just do not have the time to do the work associated with their new classes and finish the work for their prior classes. In other words, rather than solving the problem, an incomplete usually exacerbates it. I have the same policy with late work in my large gen-ed classes. Just by their nature (not in the student's major), the coursework for these classes is the lowest priority for students. Building up a large pile of late work just makes it more difficult for a student to complete the current work, so they get further and further behind. One of the benefits of academia is that the slate starts clean at the start of the next semester. Sure, if a student has not mastered the material they may need to re-take the class, but I view that as better than stringing out the pain for an extra year just to have the same result.

[Ruralguy]

We only allow incompletes to continue very briefly into the next term, and they tend to only be granted if the student missed work due to illness or some other factor beyond their control. Most at my school finish them fine. Many get D's, but there are some OK grades too (if they were doing well when interrupted).

[downer]

I've seen emails asking for flexibility and understanding for dealing with student problems from some deans etc.

A little of that need not mean abanoning standards. But a lot of it does make a nonsense of holding students to the same standards.

It does also take up more of my time. My time is limited, so the more time I spend on those kinds of issues means less time on other teaching efforts, such as reading student work carefully.

I am more inclined to encourage students to withdraw if they are struggling. I also make some effort at the start of the semester to scare away students who are hoping for an easy course.

[fishbrains]

Hegemony pretty much articulated my "Jedi Mind Trick": Just give the Incompletes if the adminicritters insist on them. I'd put my students' Incomplete remediation rate at about 15%, so it doesn't really add much to my workload other than a few forms. If the student completes the work, I'm a hero; if the student doesn't complete the work, then that's on the student and I gave them the chance. 

The same goes for extending deadlines and such. I could probably extend all my deadlines to the hour before my death and have about the same number of students complete the work. Give them enough rope and all that jazz.

Not a hill to die on for me (I'm at a CC).

[Zeus Bird]

Thanks all.  One complicating issue is that there is no option for "incomplete" at my uni.

[dr_codex]

Thanks all.  One complicating issue is that there is no option for "incomplete" at my uni.

Hmmm... That might be something to propose. Not pandemic specific, not open-ended, and not outside the norms of other institutions. You don't even need to start from scratch; you just need to find a good template.

If you are in the US, there are lots of reasons to have finite limits on courses. Student success and faculty (and staff!) workload should be the priorities, of course, but other factors to consider include:
* Financial aid. Students start to lose eligibility if they haven't earned enough credits. Students without financial aid will often become ex-students.
* Student visas. Same as the above.
* Accreditation. Time to degree matters, and a lot of open accounts won't help.
* Administrative workload. Somebody has to process all of this data, and it's harder when it dribbles in over time. Many reports (internal and external) either cannot be run, or will be incomplete, if there's a lot of open boxes to tick.
* Staffing and course population. With no sense of when students might pass prerequisites, it's hard to plan rationally.
* Adjuncts and other contract instructors, retirees, deceased/sick faculty. When the last paycheck is cashed, these folks are off the clock. Some of this happens anyway -- people cannot continue, and others pick up the slack -- but extending the time frame compounds the problem.

While Incompletes were the worst thing that I ever discovered in Grad School, they set up a process that is flexible, consistent, humane, and predictable. You don't get forever to complete one, and if you need more time than you probably should consider something else, like a formal Leave of Absence.

[Caracal]

I agree with Hegemony - incompletes are rarely in the student's best interest. I have never had a student finish an incomplete.

Never? I only allow them when the student was passing the course, but some event largely outside of their control keeps them from turning in the final paper or something. I'd say most of the time, students finish within a couple weeks and it doesn't go into the next semester.

[Caracal]

Honestly, the message I take from those messages is that some faculty members a-holes who refuse to be at all flexible no matter the circumstances. I didn't need some email from administrators to get me to be more flexible when I could the last couple of semesters. I told students I would be flexible if there were issues and in return asked for their patience if I was slower on grading or things got messed up in some other way.

[the_geneticist]

Thanks all.  One complicating issue is that there is no option for "incomplete" at my uni.

Are there options other than assigning a letter grade?  We have "grade delay", "in progress", and "incomplete".  They are for: no grade yet due to alleged misconduct or faculty didn't get grades in on time, course runs over extra time (issue for study abroad), and student is passing but has been granted more time due to an emergency.

I agree that "incomplete" should be granted rarely and only if the student was passing before the emergency.  I think there are timing restrictions too. A student that wants to get an incomplete in week 2 should probably take a leave of absence.

[Zeus Bird]

Thanks all.  One complicating issue is that there is no option for "incomplete" at my uni.

Are there options other than assigning a letter grade?

A letter grade must be given.  My sense is that some faculty find ad hoc workarounds by changing final grades during succeeding semesters when students have done either some or all of the assigned work missed.

[kiana]

A letter grade must be given.  My sense is that some faculty find ad hoc workarounds by changing final grades during succeeding semesters when students have done either some or all of the assigned work missed.

Huh. What do they do when you have something like an emergency hospitalization during finals week? Say, something like appendicitis or a car accident? Just grade based on previous work?

[marshwiggle]

A letter grade must be given.  My sense is that some faculty find ad hoc workarounds by changing final grades during succeeding semesters when students have done either some or all of the assigned work missed.

Huh. What do they do when you have something like an emergency hospitalization during finals week? Say, something like appendicitis or a car accident? Just grade based on previous work?

Furthermore, is there a statute of limitations on grade changes? It would seem very fishy for a grade to be changed a couple of terms, or a year, after a course was "finished". (Imagine a scenario where a student due to graduate has several grades from earlier terms changed during their final semester, which allows them to graduate.)

[the_geneticist]

A letter grade must be given.  My sense is that some faculty find ad hoc workarounds by changing final grades during succeeding semesters when students have done either some or all of the assigned work missed.

Huh. What do they do when you have something like an emergency hospitalization during finals week? Say, something like appendicitis or a car accident? Just grade based on previous work?

We specifically ban updating a letter grade after the end of the term unless there was a clerical error in calculating or reporting their grade. Otherwise the term never ends!  I don't want students from X terms ago begging to turn in a missed assignment.
You place ought to consider Incompletes as an option.