Not That Kind of Doctor - Revising Your Syllabus for the New Semester

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11/11/2024 Added

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Revising Your Syllabus for the New Semester - Not That Kind of Doctor with Nick Husbye and Guy Trainin www.youtube.com/@tltenotthatkindofdoctor

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[00:00:00.270]Does your syllabus set your students up
[00:00:02.730]for success or stress?
[00:00:05.550]This is the big question that we're gonna tackle today,
[00:00:08.340]and we're diving
[00:00:09.570]into how setting realistic time expectations
[00:00:14.100]in your syllabus can make a huge difference
[00:00:16.830]in your students' experience.
[00:00:18.930]I'm Nick.
[00:00:19.763]I'm an associate professor
[00:00:20.730]of Elementary Literacy Education here at UNL.
[00:00:23.670]And I'm Guy Trainin, a full professor here at UNL,
[00:00:26.610]and this is "Not that Kind of Doctor."
[00:00:29.700]Today we're going to break down some practical strategies
[00:00:33.030]to help you think about
[00:00:34.050]how time estimates in your syllabus makes it into you,
[00:00:37.800]not just a list of assignments,
[00:00:39.990]but a genuine tool to really support student learning
[00:00:44.490]and balance.
[00:00:46.620]So let's jump in
[00:00:48.420]and see how a few changes can really have an impact
[00:00:52.560]on the experience our students have, and we have,
[00:00:55.500]teaching our classes.
[00:00:56.670]Let's go.
[00:00:57.612](upbeat electronic music)
[00:01:06.120]Okay, so Guy.
[00:01:07.950]Yeah.
[00:01:08.820]Talk to me a little bit about
[00:01:12.060]how setting some realistic time estimates matter
[00:01:17.160]for students,
[00:01:17.993]and how do you think that that impacts student experience?
[00:01:20.880]So I think that many of us have noticed,
[00:01:23.880]especially since the pandemic, but even before,
[00:01:26.220]that our students are really stressed,
[00:01:30.360]maybe even anxious.
[00:01:32.610]And so they need a little bit of support
[00:01:35.790]and a lot of help from us just setting boundaries,
[00:01:40.350]but also realizing what is expected.
[00:01:42.930]And I think they come to college
[00:01:44.490]and we expect them to know what does the syllabus mean,
[00:01:48.180]and how to go through a syllabus
[00:01:50.640]and infer how much work is going to come their way.
[00:01:55.770]But what we've learned,
[00:01:57.090]what I've learned over 23 years of doing this,
[00:01:59.610]or actually more, probably,
[00:02:01.140]is that it's actually really hard
[00:02:03.450]and that their experience is very different
[00:02:06.150]depending on what subjects they are taking,
[00:02:09.240]who's the professor.
[00:02:10.680]And so they actually often don't have tools
[00:02:13.830]to evaluate what's going on.
[00:02:15.390]And this is one of the ways to reduce unnecessary anxiety.
[00:02:19.800]I always talk to my students and I say there are two kinds
[00:02:21.810]of anxiety in the classroom.
[00:02:24.090]One is the unnecessary anxiety.
[00:02:26.880]Anything about planning.
[00:02:30.390]Anything that you're just worried
[00:02:32.490]because you don't know what's coming.
[00:02:34.230]That's unnecessary anxiety.
[00:02:36.030]I want you to have the anxiety of,
[00:02:37.957]"Am I doing everything I'm supposed to do
[00:02:40.740]to learn everything I'm supposed to learn in your classes?"
[00:02:43.650]And we both teach a similar class, for example,
[00:02:46.050]about teaching elementary teachers
[00:02:48.600]how to teach reading and writing.
[00:02:50.010]So I think we both share the ideas.
[00:02:52.140]I want you to have the anxiety,
[00:02:53.467]"Can I teach kids how to read?"
[00:02:55.230]Right. That's the anxiety
[00:02:56.220]I want you to have.
[00:02:57.053]Not, "What do I have to do next week,"
[00:02:59.160]and, "Do I have enough time?"
[00:03:00.555]And one of the other things we've learned
[00:03:02.820]about our students is students are much more likely
[00:03:05.070]to have multiple commitments.
[00:03:06.840]Classes, practicum, and volunteer work.
[00:03:11.370]Work.
[00:03:12.510]And so they need help in making decisions
[00:03:15.690]and they really need to understand
[00:03:17.700]what we're actually asking them to do.
[00:03:19.830]Right, and they need to...
[00:03:22.350]There's an assumption of class time is the only time.
[00:03:26.550]Yes. Right?
[00:03:27.810]But there's also this notion of time on task
[00:03:30.810]that's embedded in something called the Carnegie Hour
[00:03:33.570]that is essentially for every hour you spend in class,
[00:03:38.010]you're spending two hours outside of class,
[00:03:41.070]planning for things.
[00:03:41.940]That's why 12 credits is considered a full-time load
[00:03:46.140]because you're really spending 36 hours total
[00:03:50.700]doing that work.
[00:03:51.720]And because students do have
[00:03:54.900]a really large amount of other things
[00:03:57.720]pulling out their time,
[00:04:01.020]laying out the time on task,
[00:04:04.260]laying out the kinds of things that we're asking them
[00:04:07.080]to spend time on is really important.
[00:04:09.750]Because one of the things that we know about us as humans,
[00:04:12.810]research backs this up,
[00:04:15.540]we think things are going to take less time
[00:04:19.140]than they actually do. (Guy chuckles)
[00:04:21.060]We're hopelessly optimistic about time.
[00:04:23.733]Hopelessly optimistic
[00:04:26.130]when we're planning for time.
[00:04:27.870]And so this is one of those reasons
[00:04:30.210]why providing students with some kind of sense
[00:04:34.920]of how long they should be spending on something.
[00:04:37.890]Mm-hmm.
[00:04:38.723]Reading, an assignment,
[00:04:40.800]whatever is really helpful
[00:04:44.760]for helping them think through.
[00:04:46.987]"Okay, in my schedule,
[00:04:48.360]this is the time I need to devote.
[00:04:51.600]Here's what I'm doing."
[00:04:52.433]It also,
[00:04:53.670]also from an instructor standpoint,
[00:04:56.730]keeps us from assigning-
[00:04:58.230]Yeah, too much. Too much work.
[00:04:59.790]Like it forces instructors, professors,
[00:05:04.350]who are all convinced that this is the most important thing.
[00:05:09.150]Okay, but what's most important
[00:05:10.140]about that most important thing?
[00:05:11.040]'Cause you only have this many hours.
[00:05:13.080]I always tell my students,
[00:05:15.240]I am not going to ask of you anything more
[00:05:18.060]than what I am entitled to
[00:05:19.980]because you're paying me to teach you this class.
[00:05:22.470]Mm-hmm.
[00:05:23.303]Right? Like you're paying me to teach these things.
[00:05:27.570]This is the time that you are telling me
[00:05:29.340]that you're giving me,
[00:05:30.990]this is how I'm structuring it the way I'm structuring it.
[00:05:34.170]And the really important thing,
[00:05:35.790]and this is why we tie it to the syllabus,
[00:05:37.620]is the syllabus is the planning document.
[00:05:40.050]It's also almost always the first document we share
[00:05:43.170]with our students.
[00:05:44.190]So it's about setting our students on a path to success
[00:05:49.200]by putting it in front of them early on and say,
[00:05:52.687]"This is what we're expecting.
[00:05:54.810]This is how much time it's going to take.
[00:05:57.390]And I have carefully..."
[00:05:58.980]I mean, we're sending the message.
[00:06:00.330]I have carefully thought about this
[00:06:02.960]and I'm not asking you, back to your point,
[00:06:06.000]I'm not asking you to do more than is reasonable.
[00:06:08.730]I'm not asking you to read 17 books every week.
[00:06:11.760]Mm-hmm.
[00:06:12.593]I can.
[00:06:13.440]I'm not going to because it is unreasonable.
[00:06:15.690]And if you do actually the math of how much work that is,
[00:06:19.920]then you have to come to the conclusion
[00:06:21.960]that we have to think about the work we're doing
[00:06:25.830]in setting those boundaries, again, for our students,
[00:06:29.820]here's what we want you to do,
[00:06:31.140]but also for ourselves.
[00:06:32.430]Here's what's reasonable to expect.
[00:06:34.080]And if we ask them to do more than that,
[00:06:36.690]then they're probably going to have to take some shortcuts.
[00:06:39.240]And we know some students don't read
[00:06:41.430]and they feel that's too much.
[00:06:43.830]We know some students do assignments late.
[00:06:46.470]We know some students don't follow up
[00:06:49.290]on certain things they're supposed to be doing.
[00:06:51.390]And the goal is to set expectations
[00:06:55.200]and then let them go at it.
[00:06:58.110]So how do you do that?
[00:06:59.818]How do you do that?
[00:07:00.651]Great. (Guy laughs)
[00:07:01.560]So there's a couple of things that I've done
[00:07:04.050]for several years,
[00:07:05.070]and one of them is,
[00:07:06.750]I put in parentheses within my syllabus
[00:07:11.580]how long a reading should take, right?
[00:07:13.980]We also know that college students tend not to read.
[00:07:17.183]Yes. Or they tend to skim,
[00:07:18.870]or again, they think
[00:07:20.280]that the reading is going to take less time
[00:07:24.000]than it actually does.
[00:07:25.500]And so I've gone back,
[00:07:27.660]I've dug into
[00:07:29.880]what we know about reading comprehension and reading speed,
[00:07:34.050]particularly for university students
[00:07:36.810]and at the level at which we're teaching,
[00:07:40.200]which is junior year.
[00:07:41.760]Yeah.
[00:07:42.870]When you're encountering new content,
[00:07:45.750]your reading speed slows down
[00:07:48.180]to as low as 150 words per minute.
[00:07:51.900]And that's really different from where they are normally.
[00:07:56.310]Right? Yeah.
[00:07:57.143]That's a nearly 75% decrease from average.
[00:08:01.890]'Cause, normally, they can just zip through something,
[00:08:04.200]'cause they're skilled readers.
[00:08:05.730]But when you're encountering new content,
[00:08:08.880]you slow down quite a bit.
[00:08:10.740]So I've gone through,
[00:08:13.410]created an average of how many words are within each piece
[00:08:17.970]that I have students read,
[00:08:18.840]and then I divide it by that 150 words per minute.
[00:08:22.440]And that's the timing that I give them.
[00:08:25.842]I have a follow-up discussion after that.
[00:08:28.920]So I've learned to do that from you.
[00:08:30.420]So, thank you.
[00:08:31.253]You're welcome.
[00:08:32.086]And because I've never done it,
[00:08:34.080]I have thought very carefully about the reading load,
[00:08:36.840]but I've never done it quite as precisely
[00:08:40.650]and explicitly.
[00:08:42.300]So I love that because it does give boundaries,
[00:08:44.910]but the follow-up conversation that I have
[00:08:46.890]with my students is know thyself.
[00:08:48.900]So some of our students are a little bit slower in reading.
[00:08:53.520]They know who they are.
[00:08:54.870]They've been in college now a while,
[00:08:56.610]so they know this takes me a little bit longer.
[00:08:59.340]And I say, know thyself,
[00:09:02.790]and then make a plan about how,
[00:09:05.670]if it takes you a little bit longer than everybody else,
[00:09:08.880]how are you going to tackle that?
[00:09:10.920]How are you going to make a little bit more time
[00:09:14.130]so you can get through all of that,
[00:09:16.290]and whatever strategies you have,
[00:09:19.710]have to be in place.
[00:09:21.630]So, that happens.
[00:09:22.770]So that's a good conversation to have early.
[00:09:25.290]For us, also,
[00:09:26.250]I think it's a really good way to model how to work
[00:09:30.420]with a group of students that have variability
[00:09:34.890]in their ability to do something specific,
[00:09:38.520]which doesn't reflect in any way in their ability
[00:09:40.650]to do anything else,
[00:09:41.610]but it is something that needs to be considered
[00:09:44.370]and be aware of.
[00:09:46.470]Yeah, well, and that 150 words per minute,
[00:09:48.810]really, is like the typical reading speed of a third grader.
[00:09:54.450]Right?
[00:09:55.283]So when I'm thinking about adaptability,
[00:09:59.700]I'm trying to aim for that.
[00:10:01.800]This is the most time it should take you
[00:10:04.320]to read this article.
[00:10:05.520]I'm trying to plan for the very most that's there.
[00:10:09.660]And so students can find,
[00:10:11.550]based upon their differing abilities as a reader,
[00:10:15.330]space within that, it might take them shorter.
[00:10:18.330]I'm hoping that it won't take them much longer,
[00:10:22.680]but I'm trying to aim for what that number is.
[00:10:26.520]And I'm clear about that in the upfront.
[00:10:30.240]The other thing that this allows me to do is highlights
[00:10:33.210]for students.
[00:10:34.830]I can kind of give them an idea of the flow of the class.
[00:10:39.000]Like, these are the weeks where,
[00:10:41.130]and I literally, on my syllabus, have a...
[00:10:45.030]I teach a six-credit class,
[00:10:47.280]so that's really five hours in class,
[00:10:51.720]10 hours outside of class.
[00:10:53.850]Here's how I want you to break this down.
[00:10:56.190]Here's the time you're in class.
[00:10:57.780]Here's the time you're reading.
[00:10:59.250]Here's the time I want you spending on group work.
[00:11:00.990]Here's the time I want you.
[00:11:05.881]It allows students to have a sense of
[00:11:07.440]what are gonna be high-effort weeks
[00:11:09.990]and collaboration weeks,
[00:11:11.880]and gives them a way to begin planning
[00:11:17.850]into that future space, right?
[00:11:20.310]And give up some of that executive functioning
[00:11:23.070]that they have to sometimes attend to,
[00:11:24.647]'cause I've already laid out some of that.
[00:11:26.940]Yeah, and to piggyback a little bit on that,
[00:11:29.550]so one way is to talk about how long does a reading take.
[00:11:33.780]But the other one is to think about how long do assignments,
[00:11:37.980]how long do we expect them to work
[00:11:39.810]on a specific assignment?
[00:11:40.920]Yes.
[00:11:41.753]And that's really, really important.
[00:11:43.530]The thing that I've learned to do over the years is
[00:11:47.160]to really try to put potentially smaller pieces
[00:11:51.630]that support a bigger piece, if there are bigger pieces.
[00:11:54.030]So divide the work into,
[00:11:56.370]let's do this in this week
[00:11:58.080]and kind of even it out a little bit.
[00:12:01.530]And that helps make that a little bit more even.
[00:12:04.920]But there are weeks when there are bigger assignments
[00:12:07.560]and the most important thing is to space things out.
[00:12:11.100]So you're not coming to the end of the semester
[00:12:14.040]and suddenly there are four or five big assignments all due,
[00:12:18.338]and this isn't to protect the sanity of our students,
[00:12:20.820]also to protect our own sanity.
[00:12:22.440]It just creates a tremendous load on us
[00:12:24.510]as the people who have to read.
[00:12:26.190]As I always say to the students,
[00:12:27.900]you're writing just one of these papers,
[00:12:29.640]I'm reading 30 of them.
[00:12:31.200]That feels very, very different in some ways.
[00:12:34.110]And so you are also protecting yourselves.
[00:12:37.380]But the second piece is remembering that,
[00:12:40.530]unfortunately, many instructors
[00:12:43.650]across the universities tend to have end-heavy assignments.
[00:12:47.770]Very. So it's a summative
[00:12:49.980]kind of thing where the big paper or a final,
[00:12:53.490]or whatever it is,
[00:12:54.570]that requires a lot of effort at the end.
[00:12:56.490]So if you're doing that to them,
[00:12:58.440]they are less likely to be successful
[00:13:00.480]and more likely to be stressed.
[00:13:02.100]So I always think about,
[00:13:03.480]are there things that can happen earlier?
[00:13:05.880]Mm-hmm.
[00:13:06.713]Obviously, if there's a capstone experience,
[00:13:09.000]it kind of has to be towards the end.
[00:13:11.640]But if other things don't have to be there,
[00:13:14.850]put them earlier on,
[00:13:16.320]it'll help our students become successful
[00:13:18.900]and us not go crazy at the end of the semester.
[00:13:21.930]Well, and when I talk about this kind of stuff
[00:13:24.180]with other instructors,
[00:13:25.380]sometimes what I'll hear from them is,
[00:13:27.427]"Oh, this feels really inflexible.
[00:13:29.850]This feels like you're micromanaging."
[00:13:32.610]Yeah.
[00:13:33.660]But. But
[00:13:35.340]what I'm really trying to do is lay out the ground rules
[00:13:39.150]so I can understand where I can do some flexibility
[00:13:43.140]in order to make this more manageable.
[00:13:46.410]When you're doing something like this,
[00:13:48.300]you're trying to package it differently for students.
[00:13:51.930]Right?
[00:13:52.770]And so
[00:13:54.600]when we're thinking about being manageable,
[00:13:59.880]there are certain kinds of flexibility
[00:14:01.350]that we can engage in, right?
[00:14:02.610]You were talking about,
[00:14:04.290]if you are doing these kind of capstone things,
[00:14:08.160]how can you build that in across the semester,
[00:14:12.150]across the last half of the semester?
[00:14:14.160]So there are these check-ins that happen,
[00:14:17.430]and that assignment's kind of cumulative.
[00:14:19.770]Yes. Right?
[00:14:20.730]Instead of, boom, it's all at the end.
[00:14:23.340]What if you build it up
[00:14:26.700]as you move through the semester?
[00:14:29.130]That in itself is a form of flexibility, right?
[00:14:31.950]Yeah. And then things happen,
[00:14:33.570]like life happens.
[00:14:36.480]And so thinking about,
[00:14:39.270]like,
[00:14:40.470]instead of due dates, like due weeks, right?
[00:14:44.280]You're gonna have those students who get it in
[00:14:46.590]the first day that that assignment is due,
[00:14:49.260]and then there's seven days.
[00:14:52.350]You got some flexibility in there,
[00:14:54.720]in order to get that in
[00:14:58.560]without penalization or needing to talk to me.
[00:15:02.220]By the end of that, if it's not in,
[00:15:03.960]then we maybe need to have a conversation.
[00:15:06.385]And for me, in conversations with students,
[00:15:09.510]what I love about this idea of a soft zone,
[00:15:12.960]like in a week, where this is due this week,
[00:15:16.770]I will take it from here to here.
[00:15:19.260]The advantage there, I think, is that it is flexible
[00:15:23.910]for students
[00:15:25.440]because they know some of our students work hard
[00:15:28.530]during the weekend.
[00:15:29.730]Right. And so for them,
[00:15:31.740]the fact that you made it due on Sunday night
[00:15:35.850]is really unhelpful,
[00:15:37.080]because Saturday and Sunday, they're working full time
[00:15:39.930]and they really don't have the bandwidth,
[00:15:41.970]while others are working during the week
[00:15:44.370]or they're busy during the week
[00:15:46.230]and the weekend is the golden time.
[00:15:47.700]So putting these kind of confidence intervals
[00:15:51.810]to borrow from another place and say,
[00:15:54.217]"This is when we need it."
[00:15:57.030]And you can plan based on the way you know yourself.
[00:16:00.870]Don't put yourself in a bind.
[00:16:02.340]Don't wait till the last minute.
[00:16:03.960]But if the weekend is your jam,
[00:16:05.850]do it during the weekend, if it's not...
[00:16:07.740]So we're helping them create that better practice
[00:16:11.880]where they can start being planful.
[00:16:14.400]And if we do it throughout the syllabus
[00:16:17.520]and not just towards the end.
[00:16:18.840]So I think we both have courses
[00:16:21.450]where there are a lot of assignments throughout,
[00:16:23.940]also in a six-credit class, that's more likely,
[00:16:26.730]instead of just a midterm and a final,
[00:16:28.830]because that helps students spread
[00:16:31.650]and be able to get that feedback.
[00:16:34.110]Going back to the reasons you want to do that plan
[00:16:37.260]is support the students, also support yourself,
[00:16:39.570]and make sure that they actually get feedback on the way.
[00:16:41.760]Because if all of the assignments are at the end,
[00:16:44.910]by the time they get the feedback,
[00:16:46.470]they're out of your class.
[00:16:47.460]They can't fix anything. Yeah, it's too late.
[00:16:48.840]And they actually stop caring in many ways
[00:16:51.540]because they're like, "Well, that class is over.
[00:16:53.940]I got the grade I got." Check.
[00:16:55.867]"And there's not much I can do with it."
[00:16:58.680]Right? With feedback, no matter where it goes.
[00:17:00.930]So spreading it
[00:17:02.850]and providing that flexibility within is really amazing,
[00:17:06.840]I think.
[00:17:07.673]Well, and I think weekends are a kind of a sticky wicket.
[00:17:11.250]Right? Yeah.
[00:17:12.660]I try to make sure that I schedule things not on weekends.
[00:17:20.160]Yeah. Right? Just like-
[00:17:21.510]Yeah.
[00:17:22.343]I don't check email on weekends.
[00:17:24.690]I work Monday through Friday.
[00:17:26.670]This is how this works.
[00:17:27.810]I assume the same thing about my students, right?
[00:17:29.283]Yes. So I try to set a due date.
[00:17:32.100]I like to go a Wednesday to a Tuesday,
[00:17:35.460]'cause it can- So it includes the weekend
[00:17:36.960]without specifically indicating that the weekend is there.
[00:17:39.810]Yes, it includes the weekend
[00:17:41.670]if they choose to use their weekend in that way.
[00:17:45.780]I don't want to convey this expectation that,
[00:17:50.557]"Oh, you're gonna use this weekend
[00:17:52.350]to get your assignment done."
[00:17:54.450]Nope.
[00:17:55.380]You can choose Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
[00:17:58.290]take your weekend off,
[00:17:59.190]and then you still have Monday
[00:18:00.360]and Tuesday to get stuff into me.
[00:18:02.130]Like, that's something
[00:18:04.770]that I want them to be thoughtful with.
[00:18:09.360]Yeah. Right?
[00:18:10.193]Because just as I am trying to respect their time,
[00:18:12.990]I want to respect my time as well.
[00:18:14.460]It's this really interesting, interesting dance
[00:18:18.690]around how all of that goes.
[00:18:21.690]So what are some ways
[00:18:23.310]that you can help students see the bigger picture
[00:18:28.560]on time investment?
[00:18:30.270]So I think one of the really helpful things is
[00:18:37.470]it allows you to make connections
[00:18:39.240]to your learning objectives within your course
[00:18:43.770]and this idea that no one learning objective is
[00:18:48.630]ever achieved in just a class.
[00:18:51.540]It's going to take an accumulation of experiences
[00:18:56.430]and there's going to be some failures along the way,
[00:19:01.050]and thinking through and about how we can engage
[00:19:07.830]in that time together, right?
[00:19:09.390]So it very much sets up
[00:19:14.040]some pretty realistic expectations around,
[00:19:19.410]you can approach this course as a checklist
[00:19:21.870]or you can approach this course
[00:19:23.250]as something that's trying to teach you something.
[00:19:26.550]And teaching takes time.
[00:19:28.080]Learning takes time.
[00:19:29.340]Here's how much time
[00:19:32.100]I am going
[00:19:34.140]to say that you need to do this
[00:19:38.070]as someone who's done this before.
[00:19:40.350]Yeah.
[00:19:41.183]And one of the tricks around teacher education I find is
[00:19:45.060]our students have been students before.
[00:19:48.210]They have very large opinions on like,
[00:19:52.297]"Well, this is what's valuable in education,
[00:19:54.240]this is what's not."
[00:19:57.420]So it's interesting when they think they know something.
[00:20:01.710]Yes.
[00:20:02.543]And then when they realize that they don't,
[00:20:05.580]and how you then have to like go back and reteach,
[00:20:10.590]and rethink that with them to scaffold that bit of learning.
[00:20:15.810]And so building that into,
[00:20:18.540]kind of, how you are thinking about that time.
[00:20:21.720]I find it, it really helps students see
[00:20:27.750]what they're getting within their course, right?
[00:20:31.380]One of the big things
[00:20:32.880]that we're always wrestling within higher ed is
[00:20:35.550]what is the value of a class?
[00:20:37.350]What is the value of a degree?
[00:20:41.130]And I think that makes it really, really clear
[00:20:45.720]how that all works for students.
[00:20:49.740]Yeah.
[00:20:52.440]So there's the clarifying.
[00:20:55.260]I spend some time with my students talking through,
[00:20:59.400]for example, reading assignments,
[00:21:02.070]and clarifying that there are some readings
[00:21:04.950]we're going to discuss in class,
[00:21:06.270]but not everything that we assign gets discussed.
[00:21:10.080]Because some things,
[00:21:11.010]if you read them and I get no questions,
[00:21:13.440]I'm moving on as if you understood.
[00:21:15.690]It is gonna show up in assignments,
[00:21:18.120]it is gonna show up in other places,
[00:21:20.850]but I expect you to read this.
[00:21:23.220]Because I found very many times
[00:21:25.980]that if I go over all of the reading in class,
[00:21:28.320]first of all, there's not enough time.
[00:21:29.880]And the second thing is,
[00:21:30.990]that just encourages students to not bother reading,
[00:21:34.050]because if you're gonna just give us the highlights
[00:21:36.180]in everything that we, quote, unquote, "need to know,"
[00:21:39.360]which is never enough,
[00:21:41.820]then what's the point?
[00:21:42.990]And I've had students that actually did not buy the book.
[00:21:46.020]Right. Which is a challenge.
[00:21:47.580]Right now, I'm working with open educational resources,
[00:21:50.220]so they don't have to buy the book,
[00:21:52.050]but they cannot access the materials.
[00:21:55.791]It's just as easy.
[00:21:56.970]And so those are the things that are on my mind.
[00:21:59.190]And I think that writing the minutes
[00:22:01.470]or the time on the syllabus is a great start.
[00:22:05.430]There's also the ability to use some graphics
[00:22:08.940]to just talk about how many hours will be
[00:22:12.000]in a specific week for reading
[00:22:15.090]and then how many minutes for the assignments.
[00:22:18.780]So they have something visual that goes with them.
[00:22:21.870]And what I love about that is it helps them to go back
[00:22:24.660]to the syllabus,
[00:22:25.493]which is a really important indicator.
[00:22:27.780]We did a study a few years ago to see
[00:22:30.900]when students are using their materials online,
[00:22:34.410]what are some indicators of being successful?
[00:22:36.300]And one of the indicators of being successful,
[00:22:38.250]actually the strongest signal is
[00:22:40.080]how many times people look at the syllabus digitally.
[00:22:43.740]It is where everything is.
[00:22:45.420]Which is interesting because as we're moving,
[00:22:47.670]as things are moving onto Canvas or your LMS,
[00:22:51.420]sometimes there's this tension
[00:22:53.370]between how Canvas represents time
[00:22:56.550]and how a syllabus can represent time.
[00:22:58.290]I've run into a little bit of that this semester.
[00:23:00.630]Oh.
[00:23:01.463]How so?
[00:23:02.430]Well, so one of the things what I do,
[00:23:04.860]and I'll send a screenshot so we can get this in the video,
[00:23:09.870]is I do break down those 15 hours visually
[00:23:14.340]using color coding around,
[00:23:18.090]here's how I'm thinking you're going to be using your time.
[00:23:20.880]And then the other thing that I do is lay out,
[00:23:23.700]here's some considerations you might wanna be thinking
[00:23:25.710]about this week.
[00:23:26.543]Here's stuff that's coming up.
[00:23:27.930]Here's concepts you're gonna come back to.
[00:23:30.510]Here are some ways for you to solidify your learning.
[00:23:35.220]Yeah.
[00:23:36.053]Are you working on your flashcard deck?
[00:23:38.250]Et cetera, et cetera.
[00:23:39.210]So kind of poking and prodding them in some ways
[00:23:44.430]to engage in learning experiences that are useful to them.
[00:23:51.570]And
[00:23:54.600]sometimes, because I haven't figured out how to...
[00:23:58.620]I haven't necessarily figured out how to get that
[00:24:01.020]into the parts of Canvas students pay attention to.
[00:24:03.483]Like it's in my syllabus, it's in my schedule.
[00:24:07.170]And that's LinkedIn canvas, like it's all there,
[00:24:10.770]but it's the to-do list, it's that checkmark.
[00:24:14.040]Yes.
[00:24:14.873]And so it's a slightly different frame of mind.
[00:24:19.920]And I've had a couple of students this semester ago,
[00:24:22.800]I looked at the schedule, and that makes sense,
[00:24:27.300]but I get caught up in checking stuff off.
[00:24:32.730]So I think that's a next kind of step
[00:24:35.970]in terms of thinking through
[00:24:37.470]how to support students in this work.
[00:24:39.960]Mm-hmm.
[00:24:41.040]'Cause they are trying to make the most of their time,
[00:24:43.830]but I don't know what that it's making the most
[00:24:45.630]of the learning experience,
[00:24:47.100]if that makes sense.
[00:24:48.750]Yeah, and the challenge of an LMS,
[00:24:51.900]and this is where us manipulating the LMS
[00:24:55.170]to serve our students what they need,
[00:24:57.150]is to remember that,
[00:24:58.980]and I have two right now, two undergraduates at home
[00:25:03.660]who are taking classes,
[00:25:04.800]and I can see that they go to the LMS
[00:25:07.770]and they say, "What is due this week?"
[00:25:10.110]And that's what guides their primary behavior.
[00:25:13.050]They're not going to the syllabus necessarily,
[00:25:15.330]or they do when they're not sure,
[00:25:17.460]or they want to predict into the future.
[00:25:19.140]But for this week, they're just, "What's next?"
[00:25:21.900]And that presents that checklist mentality.
[00:25:25.320]So how do we embed that in the assignments
[00:25:27.990]so it is clear to them what we're expecting and how.
[00:25:32.100]One of the ways I support this is
[00:25:34.920]I actually start every class with a few minutes
[00:25:38.040]of a check-in on assignments,
[00:25:42.150]just reminding them what's coming up.
[00:25:44.850]Showing them the expectations for this week,
[00:25:49.380]especially if next week there's a big assignment.
[00:25:53.520]So if you're working through that checklist,
[00:25:55.560]just putting on your mind
[00:25:57.240]that there's something coming down the pike.
[00:25:58.920]It's not yet due,
[00:26:00.090]it doesn't mean you should not be working on it.
[00:26:02.490]And that five to six minutes of answering questions
[00:26:07.410]and walking them through it is worth the time.
[00:26:10.920]Yeah, and I- As a piece of support.
[00:26:12.660]I started embedding that in my wrap-up emails.
[00:26:15.150]You do a weekly-
[00:26:16.320]At the end of the class. Wrap-up emails.
[00:26:18.540]Like here's what's coming up,
[00:26:20.010]'cause I know you're not looking at this schedule in the way
[00:26:22.380]that I would like you to be looking at this schedule.
[00:26:24.384](Guy chuckling)
[00:26:25.217]But for the most part, it does...
[00:26:30.570]Also, it helps me as an instructor
[00:26:32.760]in being really specific about what I'm teaching.
[00:26:34.860]Yeah.
[00:26:35.693]I only have this much time
[00:26:38.430]and I build myself a little bit of wiggle room
[00:26:41.430]every so often,
[00:26:42.330]but it really helps me be laser-focused in on those things
[00:26:47.550]that I need students to learn.
[00:26:53.481]I'm trying to think through.
[00:26:54.990]All right.
[00:26:55.823]So, what are some ways
[00:26:58.800]to make the workload feel more manageable for students?
[00:27:03.660]Well, I think that the things that we've touched on
[00:27:07.290]in terms of laying out
[00:27:10.200]kind of how we are thinking through, time-use,
[00:27:14.610]and then helping them think through how they can adapt that
[00:27:17.760]based upon what schedules that they have.
[00:27:20.370]If we lay out,
[00:27:23.760]these are our time expectations for you,
[00:27:27.840]you've entrusted us to teach you within this class,
[00:27:31.140]here's how we want you to organize your activity,
[00:27:34.500]then they can adapt that.
[00:27:36.517]And that, to me, feels more manageable versus a,
[00:27:40.537]"Oh, am I supposed to do this, this week?
[00:27:41.970]Am I supposed to do that this week?"
[00:27:43.620]But it does require us to not only have a sense
[00:27:46.560]of what's happening from week to week,
[00:27:49.080]but the overall cohesiveness of that semester.
[00:27:53.490]How is that working?
[00:27:55.740]And so there's,
[00:27:57.990]as with anything,
[00:28:00.120]some challenges to this for instructors
[00:28:02.910]because it does ask you to think about your syllabus
[00:28:05.640]in a slightly different way.
[00:28:07.740]And to think more in advance.
[00:28:10.170]You cannot
[00:28:12.120]just do a bare-bones syllabus
[00:28:15.360]and help it come to life throughout the semester.
[00:28:18.120]You've gotta sit before the semester begins
[00:28:21.000]and do some serious thinking if you've never done it,
[00:28:23.640]and start laying those pieces in.
[00:28:26.550]But it is worth it because-
[00:28:28.680]Oh, yeah. It makes the semester
[00:28:30.180]considerably easier.
[00:28:31.320]It makes you also consider the load on you,
[00:28:34.530]which is really important.
[00:28:35.940]I keep going back to this.
[00:28:37.680]And if you are also spacing,
[00:28:40.020]and we talked about spacing,
[00:28:41.940]longer assignments in chunks
[00:28:43.770]so students are building towards them.
[00:28:46.920]But that other advantage of spacing it like that is
[00:28:50.430]you get warning signs
[00:28:51.720]for students who are struggling a little bit earlier.
[00:28:54.180]And you can have those moments where you ask them
[00:28:57.960]to have a conversation with you about progress
[00:29:01.200]because this is not looking well.
[00:29:03.240]And sometimes what they need is they need somebody to say,
[00:29:06.397]"Are you planning your time?
[00:29:08.850]Have you thought about this?" What are you doing?
[00:29:10.290]Yep.
[00:29:11.190]What are you doing with your time?
[00:29:12.930]Is this the best choice?
[00:29:14.340]Yes, you can pick up another 10 hours of work this week,
[00:29:18.420]but there's a price for this.
[00:29:19.980]There's a cost.
[00:29:21.030]Because time is limited.
[00:29:22.830]Time is a resource.
[00:29:23.970]It is limited if you're choosing to prioritize work.
[00:29:27.330]And I understand why,
[00:29:29.130]but that means you're not gonna be doing well.
[00:29:31.620]And if that not doing well means
[00:29:33.300]you have to retake this class,
[00:29:35.190]then that whole financial decision-making has collapsed
[00:29:38.670]on you. Right, right.
[00:29:40.260]And there's no neutral decision, right?
[00:29:42.660]You have to be okay with making those kinds of decisions.
[00:29:45.960]And so laying out time in this way is really helpful,
[00:29:50.310]I think, for students in making those decisions,
[00:29:52.410]both in terms of
[00:29:54.930]just the personal affordances that they need to address,
[00:29:57.510]as well as what's happening.
[00:29:59.280]So to recap,
[00:30:01.560]Yes. Let's talk about recapping.
[00:30:03.750]Building these kinds of time estimates
[00:30:05.790]isn't just a nice touch in your syllabus,
[00:30:08.070]it's really essential.
[00:30:11.040]Time is not infinite, it's finite.
[00:30:13.920]And so by planning around time, we're sending them a course
[00:30:17.370]that's manageable for both us and our students, supportive,
[00:30:21.930]and less stressful overall.
[00:30:24.750]And it starts with the syllabus.
[00:30:26.520]We need to craft a syllabus that really lays it out
[00:30:30.450]for our students,
[00:30:31.740]where we communicate that clearly
[00:30:33.390]and we can send them back to it,
[00:30:34.890]but also for ourselves as a way to make sure
[00:30:39.000]that our semester doesn't go awry either.
[00:30:42.900]And as always, we are here to support you.
[00:30:45.390]We've developed a kind of time-planning template
[00:30:49.560]for your semester that's on Not That Kind of Blog
[00:30:53.760]over at notthatkindofdoctor.net.
[00:30:56.040]So feel free to go over,
[00:30:58.920]download it,
[00:31:00.450]work with it a little bit, adapt it as you need to.
[00:31:02.610]It's meant to be a tool to help you engage
[00:31:04.650]in this kind of work in your own local context.
[00:31:08.040]And remember that your syllabus should work
[00:31:10.740]for your students and definitely for you.
[00:31:13.710]It's a cornerstone of everything that's going to happen.
[00:31:17.370]And so let's make this semester one of mindful
[00:31:21.810]and intentional course planning.
[00:31:25.530]Thanks for watching.
[00:31:27.090]Like, comment, and subscribe,
[00:31:29.070]and have a great spring semester.
[00:31:31.866](upbeat music)
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Not That Kind of Doctor - Revising Your Syllabus for the New Semester

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