The Ethics of Restructuring
As we go through this historic and largely unprecedented event, full of fear about job security, money, family, and health, it seems rather petty, but I've been thinking a lot about the ethics of restructuring a classroom (especially this late in the semester).
A few weeks okay, the instructor that I TA for (a non FYC class) told me that it would be unethical to change the point total of an assignment after the students had already completed it (there was a discrepancy between the points on the answer key and the points on the assignment actually given to them, and we were trying to figure it out) and before that, I had never considered something like this to be an ethical issue.
Obviously I think constantly changing point values and assignment weights to fit a need is unethical, but I hadn't considered adjusting something on this small of a scale to be an issue (she did).
So, when we are confronted with a pandemic like we're facing, and we're confronted with a changing situation and a classroom that may need entire restructuring, how do we do this ethically?
I am considering dropping my final project (the remix after the paper that was going to fill 2-3 weeks of our time) and lengthening the time that they get on the paper so they can just spend the semester working on that. But then what do I use to grade that leftover 15% of the course? I have a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. If I engage in contract grading, is this a violation of the contract? So many thoughts!
This is certainly a difficult question to ask in this difficult time. Personally, I hadn't really thought about restructuring my course in a major way, but it makes sense that this is something you're considering. Students are in a time of crisis in many ways (some we may be completely unaware of) and it just may make sense. I mean, many of my own professors are drastically adjusting our class formats and assignments right now.
ReplyDeleteI think maybe a good way to approach this in terms of ethics would be to have an honest conversation with your students. Maybe send out a survey. You could also do some hypothetical math to see if it would really hurt some of your students in terms of their grades to not have that final project--that could be an issue.
You want to consider the needs of your students, and I can see that you're already doing that--that's why you're even thinking about restructuring the course in the first place. In terms of what we're experiencing right now (as you've said--it's unprecedented) I don't know that rules really exist anymore. We have certain standards we're "supposed" to meet, I guess, but we're all just trying to figure out how to get ourselves and our students through it. I wish I had an outright answer to offer. Props to you for caring about your students enough to put what they need at this time at your highest level of priority.
Shelbi
I have to agree with what you said Shelbi, that the rules are somewhat out of the window at this point. I think that as long as we are honoring our students and ensuring that we are not going to do anything that hurts them, everything should be on the up-and-up.
DeleteI am also curious about how many people are changing their courses in any big way (in terms of modifying or even dropping assignments). I had a few of my students pushing me to get me to drop the last assignment altogether so that they could just work on their major research paper for the rest of the semester. I personally felt like this was too much and that they were just trying to take advantage of me and the situation. I am giving them more time to work on their major research paper, but I am concerned that they may not remain motivated enough to get things done. Ethically, I don’t know that I feel comfortable with what I see as (for lack of a better phrase) “letting them off easy” despite the overwhelmingness of the situation. In essence, I feel fine modifying things, but not to the point where they become no longer recognizable.
Hey friend,
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up a great point. I myself have had to make a few changes in terms of where points will be distributed for my class. I have planned a presentation for the end of the semester that was worth about 5% of the grade. I decided to drop this for understandable reasons. Instead, what I am doing is reassigning those points for low-stakes check-ins every one to two weeks going forward for the rest of the semester. I will be giving my students open-ended questions that they can answer to tell me about how they are doing, what’s working the this online format for them and what is not working. Essentially, I am using it as a sounding board for ideas on how we should proceed with the situation in a way that will be the best for everyone.
Although, I would definitely have to agree with the unnamed Dr. you mentioned. I personally would not feel morally okay with willy-nilly re-assigning points (and especially not changing points on a specific assignment). I feel like the syllabus is in many ways a contract (one that I have to hold by as well as my students). Even, if I made a mistake on an assignment sheet with a different number of points, I think I would to go with what it said on the assignment sheet (part of the reason I don’t include this information there = less room for mistakes).
Of course, in this situation it’s a challenge. I am being confronted with (in some ways) creating more work for my students to do online so that they can learn everything we can no longer learn together in the class. Sure, I’ve reassigned attendance points for that and it makes sense, but I am left wondering if I could have saved myself a lot of trouble and the ethical dilemma had I been using the contract grading style….
I think this is a great question, as we're in such a chaotic time of change right now. I agree with Shelbi and Cassia: the rules are up for change now that all of the circumstances surrounding them have changed. We created these syllabi and assignments with absolutely no idea that a pandemic was coming, so it seems feasible, if not necessary, to change them now. Although this isn't really the situation I imagined to try out how adaptable of a teacher I am, we are pretty much forced to step up to the plate and adapt regardless of previous rules.
ReplyDeleteI've also been struggling with how to rework my final assignment. I originally had my students revising their assignments and uploading them onto a website as an online portfolio with a revision statement for each and a final letter of reflection to be given to future students. There is absolutely no way I can think of for easily teaching web design (other than those Lynda/LinkedIn Learning videos), so I've already told my students that I will be reworking our final project. I think I am going to have them translate their research into a multimodal element of their choice (depending on what they are comfortable with) like an infographic, video, PowerPoint/Prezi presentation, etc. I'll be sending out another survey for them to tell me their feelings about this change and will be using their feedback to adjust the project from there. I'm not sure if it's really "enough," but with Jennifer's email that we should be lenient with our students and that revision is okay, I feel like I am at least supported in this decision to change my final project.
I think keeping the lines of communication open and acting with full transparency with our students is the most important thing in this situation. If the professor you are working with opens up this re-assignment of points to student input and revises based off of that, I don't see an ethical problem. I agree that re-assigning those points with no warning or input from students could be a problem, especially in a contract situation. This is such a weird, anxious time for all of us, so I think students would be understanding as long as they knew the change would benefit them, and they were able to have some control over the decision.
Best of luck in this difficult situation!
-Natalie
JJ,
ReplyDeleteIt was nice to hear your thoughts on this topic; I’m in kind of the same boat with my final project, which was a multimodal remix of one of their previous papers. I was relying on them having access to software/etc. available on the computers in the library/digital writing studio if they didn’t have it on their own computers. I was also planning on having the digital writing studio come in to introduce them to video/audio editing software. Now both those options are out the window. Similarly to Cassia, I don’t feel comfortable lessening their work by just eliminating what was a major assignment in the class, but I know I’ll need to do some form of modification.
I have some ideas for how to modify the original assignment, so I think I’ll recycle it rather than toss it out completely – but perhaps if you did feel the need for this, it would be fitting to come up with a series of small-scale activities/assignments to replace that 15% of the grade that the final project. I would feel uncomfortable eliminating those percentage points, as it could potentially hurt some of their grades if you remove a point cushion some of them may have been relying on.
I agree with Natalie that communication is key – they expect change during this time that is nothing but, but making sure they are on board with all those changes is important to making them feel that you’re taking a fair and ethical approach to modifying your class – and also gives them some semblance of control and comfort. I might advise taking extra care to make sure you hear from everyone, even those students who might feel uncomfortable speaking out or see it as some form of “challenging the teacher” if they dislike an option you are presenting. You might think about making a required discussion board response that you assign a few points to so you’ll be sure to hear from everyone.
-Jessie
JJ,
ReplyDeleteI really understand your situation. We all are in the same boat. This is really depressing for all of us, not only the students who are dealing with these but also we who are possessing as teachers and students altogether. None of us was aware of the pandemic situation when we were planning our syllabus and assignments. But sometimes things happen what we never think of and we have to accept that and try to get out of it so far we can.
About your assignment, I would say it would not be unethical to change your plan. As an instructor you have the right to change those at anytime. However, you are not planning to change anything for your own shake but it's for your students convenience. I would just say focus on your students current positions in terms of grades. If you think, your new plan would not affect them anyway, you should go for it. But if you think, it may. I would say to do a survey, talk to your students. Because right now , our main responsibility is to take care of our students concerning the current situation.
In my class, I extended their due dates for assignment. I removed all the "close " dates from recent and upcoming assignments. I'm right now trying to be more than flexible to them. I know some of them may take advantage but again I don't even know who are struggling with what. Probably someone is having internet issues, someone mental distress. And now, they are asked to evacuate the dorms, so the problems are bigger than we thought.
That's why my values and priciples are now more likely to help tham anyway with their learning and reach out to them with all the possible ways they can be helped with.