Administrative Calls for Empathy and Student Assessment

[downer]

I just added to a couple of syllabi a paragraph saying that except for certified disability or student illness, I will not be making any accommodations for student problems except in extraordinary circumstances.

I guess that goes against the spirit of flexibility that the administrations are calling for. I've send the syllabi off to the chair, so I will see if I get any comment about that. I want to avoid lots of students saying they want online options half way through the course.

[Caracal]

I just added to a couple of syllabi a paragraph saying that except for certified disability or student illness, I will not be making any accommodations for student problems except in extraordinary circumstances.

I guess that goes against the spirit of flexibility that the administrations are calling for. I've send the syllabi off to the chair, so I will see if I get any comment about that. I want to avoid lots of students saying they want online options half way through the course.

Seems like you could accomplish your goal by just saying that the course is going to be in person unless the school says otherwise and students should be aware of that. It seems unpleasant and unnecessary to have a blanket statement expressing your general inflexibility.

[Hegemony]

Downer, I don't think you want to pressure students with symptoms of illness to come to class. That could backfire for the rest of you. "Extraordinary circumstances" sounds as if regular illness will not be excused and they'd have to be in the hospital with both legs broken to be excused — or maybe not even that? So maybe you need to define "extraordinary circumstances" more clearly. To me it sounds as though you are saying "I am hardass so don't even ask, just show up to class no matter what." And when students may pass on a potentially dangerous disease, I'm not sure that's what you want to be saying. Remember that in many universities, numbers of students live with their families, including people with health vulnerabilities children under 12 who can't be vaccinated, etc. So even if you think the odds are good for the students, allowing further transmission endangers people.

[downer]

Downer, I don't think you want to pressure students with symptoms of illness to come to class. That could backfire for the rest of you. "Extraordinary circumstances" sounds as if regular illness will not be excused and they'd have to be in the hospital with both legs broken to be excused — or maybe not even that? So maybe you need to define "extraordinary circumstances" more clearly. To me it sounds as though you are saying "I am hardass so don't even ask, just show up to class no matter what." And when students may pass on a potentially dangerous disease, I'm not sure that's what you want to be saying. Remember that in many universities, numbers of students live with their families, including people with health vulnerabilities children under 12 who can't be vaccinated, etc. So even if you think the odds are good for the students, allowing further transmission endangers people.

You make a strong point Hegemony. Yes, the aim is definitely to discourage students who committed to the classroom from retreating to online for less than medical reasons. Then the issue is: what counts as a medical reason?

So when students say that they are worried about catching and spreading the virus, and don't want to come to class any more, what to do?

Options:
1. Be a hardass and say you have to come to class until you actually get the virus. (Dangerous for everyone.)
2. Be flexible and provide online options for them so they don't need to come to class. (More work for me.)
3. Move the class online. (Against university rules, certainly unpopular with some students).
4. Cancel classes and give everyone an A. (Possibly questionable academic practice).

Right now I'm thinking of some combination of 2 and 4.

It will also depend on the particular classroom set up -- how much ventilation is possible will be a big factor. If the school doesn't provide a good set up, then I will lean more towards 4.

[Zeus Bird]

Downer, I don't think you want to pressure students with symptoms of illness to come to class. That could backfire for the rest of you. "Extraordinary circumstances" sounds as if regular illness will not be excused and they'd have to be in the hospital with both legs broken to be excused — or maybe not even that? So maybe you need to define "extraordinary circumstances" more clearly. To me it sounds as though you are saying "I am hardass so don't even ask, just show up to class no matter what." And when students may pass on a potentially dangerous disease, I'm not sure that's what you want to be saying. Remember that in many universities, numbers of students live with their families, including people with health vulnerabilities children under 12 who can't be vaccinated, etc. So even if you think the odds are good for the students, allowing further transmission endangers people.

You make a strong point Hegemony. Yes, the aim is definitely to discourage students who committed to the classroom from retreating to online for less than medical reasons. Then the issue is: what counts as a medical reason?

So when students say that they are worried about catching and spreading the virus, and don't want to come to class any more, what to do?

Options:
1. Be a hardass and say you have to come to class until you actually get the virus. (Dangerous for everyone.)
2. Be flexible and provide online options for them so they don't need to come to class. (More work for me.)
3. Move the class online. (Against university rules, certainly unpopular with some students).
4. Cancel classes and give everyone an A. (Possibly questionable academic practice).

Right now I'm thinking of some combination of 2 and 4.

It will also depend on the particular classroom set up -- how much ventilation is possible will be a big factor. If the school doesn't provide a good set up, then I will lean more towards 4.

My uni is trying to get faculty to do #2.  Admins won't put that in writing, but in one-on-one conversations they are strongly pushing that.

[Caracal]

Downer, I don't think you want to pressure students with symptoms of illness to come to class. That could backfire for the rest of you. "Extraordinary circumstances" sounds as if regular illness will not be excused and they'd have to be in the hospital with both legs broken to be excused — or maybe not even that? So maybe you need to define "extraordinary circumstances" more clearly. To me it sounds as though you are saying "I am hardass so don't even ask, just show up to class no matter what." And when students may pass on a potentially dangerous disease, I'm not sure that's what you want to be saying. Remember that in many universities, numbers of students live with their families, including people with health vulnerabilities children under 12 who can't be vaccinated, etc. So even if you think the odds are good for the students, allowing further transmission endangers people.

You make a strong point Hegemony. Yes, the aim is definitely to discourage students who committed to the classroom from retreating to online for less than medical reasons. Then the issue is: what counts as a medical reason?

So when students say that they are worried about catching and spreading the virus, and don't want to come to class any more, what to do?

Options:
1. Be a hardass and say you have to come to class until you actually get the virus. (Dangerous for everyone.)
2. Be flexible and provide online options for them so they don't need to come to class. (More work for me.)
3. Move the class online. (Against university rules, certainly unpopular with some students).
4. Cancel classes and give everyone an A. (Possibly questionable academic practice).

Right now I'm thinking of some combination of 2 and 4.

It will also depend on the particular classroom set up -- how much ventilation is possible will be a big factor. If the school doesn't provide a good set up, then I will lean more towards 4.

You seem to be really going for the dramatic options and skipping the obvious things you can do without too much extra work.

1. Allow more no fault absences than you usually do. Usually in a MWF class, I give students three absences before it starts effecting their grade. TR, I do two. This semester I'm going to up that to six and four. I don't want to encourage students with minor cold type symptoms to come into class.

2. If it works, have some sort of scheduled make up exam. I've been doing this for years and it saves a lot of trouble. Miss one of the first three exams? Just take a standard make up right after the final. It's slightly more work to make something extra but much easier than having to create custom exams for everyone.

Alternatively, just have online exams.

3. Perhaps, think about organizing the students to do some of this on their own. Often students create groups to communicate about classes. Perhaps ask on the first day of class if someone wants to set something like that up and make sure everyone gets in. Then suggest that it might be a good idea for students who take good and detailed notes to post those on request there. Then you can tell students that they should look at those notes and if anything isn't clear, or they have follow up questions, or even if they just want to go over it, you are available (online or in person) to do that. That way, you aren't disengaging, but you also aren't in charge of making sure all the information gets to absent students.

4. Some flexibility, like offering dual modalities, is hugely time consuming. However, there are lots of things where being flexible doesn't really cost much. Letting students turn in assignments late when necessary is probably not going to increase your workload much.

5. You can do all this and still make clear at the beginning that you can't offer the course in an online format and that you can't change that. If a student has concerns about that, it might be a good idea to take another class.

[downer]

Thanks for the suggestions, Caracal. I use some of those ideas already. I might try the scheduled make up exam option, though I'd have to think about how that would actually work.

My main emphasis right now is on your #5. I want to encourage those students with unrealistic hopes to drop the class.

[Morden]

I don't think you want to pressure students with symptoms of illness to come to class.

^This.
I added a statement to the syllabus explaining that I didn't want them to come in if they (or their family members) had symptoms. They have to let me know, and they can still get notes from classmates and participate on the discussion boards (in a way that is more work for them, but easier to grade for me).

[Caracal]

I don't think you want to pressure students with symptoms of illness to come to class.

^This.
I added a statement to the syllabus explaining that I didn't want them to come in if they (or their family members) had symptoms. They have to let me know, and they can still get notes from classmates and participate on the discussion boards (in a way that is more work for them, but easier to grade for me).

I'm having to remind myself that this is also going to mean I have to cancel classes more than usual. We have some at home rapid test kits, and I may use those for really, really minor symptoms, but even if I test negative and it seems very unlikely something is Covid, I don't want to come in with a really runny nose or cough like I have in past semesters. Students would reasonably be alarmed-nobody wants their instructor up there blowing their nose-and putting aside Covid, I don't think anyone needs to be infected with anything else right now.

[Hegemony]

There are other options as well. For instance, design the course so that those who miss class sessions have simple ways to learn the material. If they do the reading, they can pass the tests. If they come to class, they get discussion and an in-depth exploration of the reading, but it doesn't mean the difference between passing and failing. This was the British system when I went through it, and I appreciated it. At this point in history, it's not only simpler for you, it's safer for everyone. Grade on mastery of the material and not on having shown up in person.

[the_geneticist]

We are already down to just 8 class sessions for my lab class - that's what you get when you're on quarters & lose 2 weeks due to holidays.  Missing just 1 lab is the equivalent of missing 12.5% of the class.  It's not like you can do a molecular lab at home.  But I could post the raw data & students who are absent could do the analysis.  At this point, I'm willing to bet good money that we'll start in person and end online.  There are too many variables that could tip the class into having to be offered remote - sick students, sick lab prep, sick TAs, reduced room capacity, etc.

[Anon1787]

There are other options as well. For instance, design the course so that those who miss class sessions have simple ways to learn the material. If they do the reading, they can pass the tests. If they come to class, they get discussion and an in-depth exploration of the reading, but it doesn't mean the difference between passing and failing. This was the British system when I went through it, and I appreciated it. At this point in history, it's not only simpler for you, it's safer for everyone. Grade on mastery of the material and not on having shown up in person.

Some students will still want to be able to do better than pass. I'll make some adjustments, but I'm strongly opposed to having to develop some version of hyflex because students and administrators expect it despite the fact that the class is officially designated as in-person.

[Hibush]

There are other options as well. For instance, design the course so that those who miss class sessions have simple ways to learn the material. If they do the reading, they can pass the tests. If they come to class, they get discussion and an in-depth exploration of the reading, but it doesn't mean the difference between passing and failing. This was the British system when I went through it, and I appreciated it. At this point in history, it's not only simpler for you, it's safer for everyone. Grade on mastery of the material and not on having shown up in person.

Paring the class content down to only what can be done in the reading seems to reduce the leaning in the course substantially, and specifically the education that a university education offers over a mail-order/online program.  How do overcome that?

[quasihumanist]

There are other options as well. For instance, design the course so that those who miss class sessions have simple ways to learn the material. If they do the reading, they can pass the tests. If they come to class, they get discussion and an in-depth exploration of the reading, but it doesn't mean the difference between passing and failing. This was the British system when I went through it, and I appreciated it. At this point in history, it's not only simpler for you, it's safer for everyone. Grade on mastery of the material and not on having shown up in person.

Paring the class content down to only what can be done in the reading seems to reduce the leaning in the course substantially, and specifically the education that a university education offers over a mail-order/online program.  How do overcome that?

Sadly, the standard in mathematics throughout K-12 and even much of undergraduate is that the teacher reads the textbook and explains everything step by step to the students, so that the students never have to read.  Hence students never learn to read mathematics (and textbooks are frequently not written with learning (rather than reference) in mind).  All but my best students understand very little from the reading that I require them to do before class, though having seen the material once does help them understand what is happening in class better.

[Hegemony]

Paring the class content down to only what can be done in the reading seems to reduce the leaning in the course substantially, and specifically the education that a university education offers over a mail-order/online program.  How do overcome that?

You don't have to give them an A if there are some parts of the material they didn't master well. But I'd guess that a dedicated student who has the materials in hand can learn enough to pass the course respectably. What is this course content that can't be written down, but can only be conveyed by word of mouth in person? If it's a dance class or something, maybe they can film themselves and submit it. But most subjects can be learned to a substantial degree without in-person access to a professor. We're not magicians, we're just guides. And if the student is eager to avoid exposing a class full of students to a dangerous disease, why not support them in this effort?