Flexible Instructional Strategies to Meet Students Where They…

Overview

Instructors and students alike benefit from approaching their course design with some room for flexibility. As Beth Buyserie, Rachel Welton Bryson, and Rachel Quistberg (2021) explain, “pedagogies of productive disruption seek to create learning opportunities and spaces that engage with and respond to evolving and unpredictable disruptions in the virtual, material, and psychosocial landscapes in which teaching and learning take place” (p. 37). Even if future disruptions are not as widespread as those of the pandemic, students and instructors alike may face disruptions in their personal lives, such as unexpected illness or a care-taking event for a family member or friend, that could impact their abilities to engage with their educational experiences.

History professor Kevin Gannon (2019) writes that “If we want our students to learn, we have to pay attention to all of the things that either assist in or interfere with that learning” (Gannon, p. 59). Part of paying attention to those things is proactively anticipating what students might need to be successful in a course.

Provided below are four evidence-based approaches designed to help you meet students where they are in their learning.

Collect Student Feedback

Collect student feedback at strategic points in the semester to learn more about your students' needs and use this information to inform changes to your teaching practice and course plans while the semester is ongoing.

• Gather student feedback at the mid-semester point to determine whether students are learning as expected.
• CTL offers a Mid-Semester Inquiry (MSI) consultation service to help instructors collect anonymous student feedback using a focus group approach.
• Use the survey features in the RTL Core Template to gather students' feedback using bCourses. Both survey features include pre-populated questions for you to use and adapt to your own teaching context.

Revise Your Evaluation Tools

• Evaluation tools are designed to communicate how students are expected to demonstrate their learning. Rubrics are used on both high- and low-stakes assignments, such as homework, in-class participation, research papers, and project work.
• Develop a rubric for assessments in your course(s). Explore example rubrics for group projects, brief written assignments, and participation (see Carnegie Mellon's Eberly Center resource.
• Consider using alternative approaches to grading. Given our general shift to remote teaching and flexible course designs, instructors might consider contract grading strategies like specifications grading.
• Read about the advantages of alternatives to traditional testing and explore examples to adapt for your teaching context.

Design Self-Assessment Activities

• Explore metacognitive strategies and classroom examples to adapt for your teaching context (see Yale's Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning resource.
• For high-stakes assessments, strategies like exam wrappers can help students meaningfully reflect on their performance by unpacking what grade they expected to achieve vs. actual result, what this grade means in the context of their learning in your course, and how they can prepare differently before the next big assessment (see Carnegie Mellon's Eberly Center resource).
• Offer students opportunities to practice their skills on low-stakes assignments and during class, particularly before high-stakes assignments. For example, concept map or concept test questions can help instructors gather a baseline understanding of students' prior knowledge.

Prioritize Depth Over Breadth

With many unexpected changes to our teaching contexts, consider prioritizing depth over breadth as a strategy for designing flexible and inclusive courses. Provided below is a non-exhaustive list of resources to help you design equitable learning experiences for your students.

• Oftentimes perceptions of learning loss are symptomatic of inequitable learning experiences. Consider incorporating values affirmation and sense of belonging interventions into your course plans to support students who may feel out of place or excluded from your classroom, discipline, or higher education more broadly.