Flexibility vs Structure - What do students need?

​In last week's Tech Tuesday post, we altered our student support hours (office hours) to meet students' needs. The change met students where they are in stressing to complete all of the work in the last weeks of the semester while working more to afford the rising costs of 'everything'!
This week, we continue with flexibility and add the consideration of how to balance structure. How do you motivate and support your students throughout the semester, and especially now, at crunch time?

---

​

Striking a Balance
We know students need structure. Structure and deadlines are important for scaffolding students’ time on coursework. It helps students manage their time, stay motivated, and accomplish goals each week. Flexible deadlines and multiple forms of engagement are important for students with health issues, documented or undocumented accommodations, family obligations, or a variety of other concerns.

Below are some considerations for thinking about ways to create both flexibility and structure to support student learning, while keeping your workload manageable.

---

Build Flexibility
Basically, we all need some flexibility. However, too much flexibility means faculty spend a lot of time keeping track of student work. Some examples of building flexibility include:

• allowing one or two late assignments
• giving an extra 24 hours if a student seeks help at the Writing Center
• offering students the option to present in class or record their presentation
• giving students a total number of grace days that they can use strategically over the course of the semester

---

Check Progress
You can check progress and track attendance or participation by building in points connected to student learning such as completing a worksheet, contributing to a Jamboard, or asking small groups to develop a presentation. Allowing for a certain number of absences or giving students an alternative task to complete for attendance credit provides additional flexibility for extenuating circumstances.

Lecture Capture
Recording your lectures creates valuable opportunities to increase the accessibility of course content via captions or transcripts and for student review. Small-group discussions, the use of Poll Everywhere, or in-class reflective writing exercises are ways to ensure that students who come to the classroom have unique, interactive learning experiences that are not available through a recording. Faculty set expectations about the value and use of lecture capture as a review tool and not an in-class replacement. ​

---

---

Please Share!
If you have effective ways to strike a balance and create both flexibility and structure, let us know. We will share your ideas in an upcoming Tech Tuesday. Send your strategies to us at [email protected] and [email protected].
Your CTLA Faculty Liaisons, Jen & Vanessa

---