Document Tag: faculty

Structure and flexibility: systemic and explicit assignment extensions foster an inclusive learning environment (2024)

Many educators strive to create inclusive classrooms where students receive not only knowledge but also empathy from their instructors. When students face unexpected challenges due to illness, academic pressure, or exhaustion, they often seek extensions on assignments. Instructors insert their own biases when they decide who is eligible for an extension. An explicitly communicated penalty-free extension system can eliminate this bias, create an inclusive learning environment, and disinter extension requests from the hidden curriculum. Students used an “extension without penalty” system (EWP) in a large introductory biology course. Mid-semester qualitative data collection helped design an end-of-the-semester quantitative survey about students’ perceived benefits. Assignment submission data, EWP use frequency and grades were directly extracted from the learning management system. Students preferred a two-tier extension system with ideal and extension due dates. The EWP system was used by 78% of the students, but half of them only used it once. Students reported benefits in stress reduction, handling of sickness and emergencies, and improved performance in other courses. Exploratory results indicate there were additional benefits in some areas for first-generation college students. Using the extension due dates did not impact student grades. This study uses evidence to debunk common misconceptions about assignment extensions.

“The struggle bus is full.”: How College Faculty Interpreted and Navigated Institutional Policy Shifts Amid COVID-19 (2024)

Perhaps no other time in United States higher education’s history did institutional policies change as quickly as they did during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, no studies have emerged from the pandemic era that address how faculty members navigated these changing policies, many of which were meant to increase safety and student success. This study examines weekly meetings of eight faculty teaching a course for students on academic or financial aid warning during spring 2021. In meetings, faculty reflected on institutional policies as it impacted safety and student success, and findings suggest policy intent was good, but the impact of the policies was not conducive to faculty mental health or student success. Additionally, many COVID-era policies conflicted with existing policies, especially financial aid, placing faculty in difficult situations as policy interpreters. Finally, many new policies had no precedent, therefore, faculty had no guidance on policy interpretation or implementation. Implications for research, policy, and practice are addressed.