Faculty Senate letter to the Mary Frances Early College of Education
Dear faculty,
As we approach the end of this unique semester, the Faculty Senate would like to commend the efforts of our faculty, staff, and administration in maintaining the high-quality learning environment our students expect and deserve. For many of us, our expertise in pedagogy and previous history with online instruction has helped smooth this transition. However, the monumental task of rapidly shifting instruction to an online format comes at a cost to all of us. Our current environment is not one of online education, but instead represents an emergency response to an unprecedented crisis that will require us to approach our assessment of student and faculty performance differently.
In regard to student performance, the Faculty Senate recommends the following:
- Consider removing late penalties for course work with a final deadline for all assignments to be turned in. Assignments will not be accepted after the final deadline.
- Consider allowing students to revise and resubmit assignments for a set amount of additional points.
- Consider weighting final exam questions from content covered after March 13 at a lower percentage (or point value) than those covered prior to spring break.
- Consider making the final exam asynchronous and open-book or optional if learning objectives have been assessed through other means.
- Consider removing any timed components of your assignments and exams. If you have previously completed, timed assessments, consider allowing students to revise and resubmit assignments for a set amount of additional points.
- Consider removing the penalty for wrong answers on questions with low discrimination power and those with unintended distractors.
Our compassion and empathy should also extend to our colleagues during this time. Given that third-year review, promotion, and post-tenure review are peer processes and some departments use peer review for annual evaluations, the Senate recommends the following when interpreting course evaluations:
- Now is not the time to evaluate the quality of instruction in an online learning environment. The Office of Academic Programs has added a statement and feedback area to all spring 2020 course evaluations that states: “The class was taught during a time of global health concern from the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in a disruption to general instruction. Please provide any general helpful comments you would like to share with your instructor about your experience with this course with this disruption in mind.”
- While student scoring and feedback are important, consider providing instructors with opportunities to submit a formal summary of their experience due to the abrupt shift in instruction in spring 2020 and summer 2020 semesters. While still fresh in the instructor’s mind, this summary can highlight the strengths or exceptional efforts with which the instructor modified instruction or challenges that were outside of the control of the instructor.
- Consideration should be extended to courses that were previously online since the impact on our students/faculty is not limited only to those who had to transition from face-to-face instruction.
As we close out this semester and prepare for our summer and fall courses, let us do so with patience, understanding, and the equity-minded focus that makes the Mary Frances Early College of Education stand out as an example to our colleagues across this University. While the guidelines in this letter and the checklist from our Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are only recommendations, let us continue to make choices that ensure the integrity of our programs and recognize the challenges we face. We know we can be successful together and are proud to serve as representatives of our departments.
Respectfully,
The Mary Frances Early College of Education Faculty Senate