Help me make sense of the pedagogical impact of the pandemic
January 4, 2023 9:46 AM Subscribe
I am looking for specific reports of experiences and strategies that deal with difficulties in pandemic-era college teaching.
I am a US-based college professor at a reasonably elite R1. Since the pandemic but especially this past semester, anywhere from a third to half of my students have been unable and/or unwilling to complete basic course requirements, including at the graduate level. The experience of teaching has become so demoralizing that I am actively burning out as a result. Neither "soft" nor "hard" approaches to things like deadlines have helped. For this question I am primarily interested in answers from people in the education field; I am seeking reports of experiences and specific strategies that have worked for you to improve student engagement and performance in this new context. I am not interested in answers along the lines either of "deadlines and course requirements are ableist and your obligation is to be infinitely accommodating" or "students these days are coddled and need more discipline." I am also not interested in medical or sociological speculation about the causes of this phenomenon, except insofar as it's directly linked to a pedagogical strategy.
Here are some of the issues I've been experiencing:
Eager for your suggestions!
I am a US-based college professor at a reasonably elite R1. Since the pandemic but especially this past semester, anywhere from a third to half of my students have been unable and/or unwilling to complete basic course requirements, including at the graduate level. The experience of teaching has become so demoralizing that I am actively burning out as a result. Neither "soft" nor "hard" approaches to things like deadlines have helped. For this question I am primarily interested in answers from people in the education field; I am seeking reports of experiences and specific strategies that have worked for you to improve student engagement and performance in this new context. I am not interested in answers along the lines either of "deadlines and course requirements are ableist and your obligation is to be infinitely accommodating" or "students these days are coddled and need more discipline." I am also not interested in medical or sociological speculation about the causes of this phenomenon, except insofar as it's directly linked to a pedagogical strategy.
Here are some of the issues I've been experiencing:
- Complete disengagement from class discussions. This semester I taught a large survey class, an undergraduate seminar, and a graduate seminar. In both the survey and the grad seminar, I've had an unprecedented number of periods of complete silence in answer to fairly basic questions, reflecting both not having done the reading and being unable to follow its argument. Moreover, students seem buried in their phones and laptops to a much greater extent than I'm used to. Weirdly, my undergrad seminar did not have this issue--discussion there was excellent.
- More cases of blatant, wholesale plagiarism and cheating, including on low-stakes assignments.
- Inability to meet deadlines, especially in seminars. This happens even to otherwise bright and engaged students who appear to really want to be able to make the deadline but are unable to budget sufficient time to complete work.
- Apparent inability or unwillingness to take specific feedback on previous assignments into account for subsequent ones.
- Difficulty with following and constructing moderately complex lines of argumentation.
Eager for your suggestions!
I don’t have any advice (I am not a teacher) but I do have a clarifying question — what is the nature of the shift? I could imagine “performance still follows a normal distribution of the same shape, but everybody is shifted way down” or “It’s still a normal distribution with the strong performers as high as ever but the variance is now much higher” or “performance is now bimodal, with the strong performers as high as ever but a much larger lump of weak performers at the bottom.” I ask because my guess is the answer might affect the best strategy.
posted by eirias at 10:05 AM on January 4, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by eirias at 10:05 AM on January 4, 2023 [5 favorites]
Response by poster: I don’t have any advice (I am not a teacher) but I do have a clarifying question — what is the nature of the shift? I could imagine “performance still follows a normal distribution of the same shape, but everybody is shifted way down” or “It’s still a normal distribution with the strong performers as high as ever but the variance is now much higher” or “performance is now bimodal, with the strong performers as high as ever but a much larger lump of weak performers at the bottom.” I ask because my guess is the answer might affect the best strategy.
Great question. My unscientific sense is that the whole distribution is shifted downwards except for the top 10-15% or so (more in the case of grad students), who are as strong as ever.
posted by derrinyet at 10:12 AM on January 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
Great question. My unscientific sense is that the whole distribution is shifted downwards except for the top 10-15% or so (more in the case of grad students), who are as strong as ever.
posted by derrinyet at 10:12 AM on January 4, 2023 [3 favorites]
I’m also teaching at the graduate level and first just want to validate that the burnout is real and this is not a You problem. I have seen similar levels of burnout, missed deadlines, lower engagement, and “ambient grumpiness” from students this year, unlike anything I’ve seen previously (including at the height of the pandemic). Below is a list of strategies that I and some of my colleagues have used, with the caveat that my classes are capped at 20, so I’m not sure how well these would work with larger class sizes.
- Making class materials available and accessible as much as possible (I email out a detailed syllabus & timeline of assignments/due dates at least two weeks before the start of the semester and include reminders of upcoming due dates in every class session).
- I try to set expectations early on and am very clear with students about what will earn them an A in the class. I emphasize the importance of communication (about absences/needing extensions, etc). If students do request an extension with reasonable notice, I generally grant it if I’m able to (i.e. if I don’t have a tight grading deadline).
- I post my slides to blackboard right before class each week, with mixed results. Some students like to download the slides and follow along on their own laptops, but others are definitely surfing/not paying attention. This one is kind of a toss-up, but enough students were using their laptops appropriately that I let it go, and for students who were not paying attention I docked class participation points (and they got lower grades anyway because their assignments reflected their lack of engagement with the material).
- Next semester in my advanced seminar course I will be instituting a firm no laptops/phones visible in the classroom rule.
- Student reading presentations - each student is responsible for giving one brief (5 minute) presentation on a reading at some point in the semester.
- Small group discussion whenever possible, less lectures/large group discussion
- Smaller, more frequent assignments (a few 1-page reading reflections scattered throughout the semester) - takes a little extra time to grade but I don’t give feedback on these, just assign credit for completion.
- Due date “windows” of about a week (this one was variable tbh, most students still submitted on the last day but it gave them the illusion of having more of control/options).
- In one class, I had 3 assignments of which students had to choose 2 to complete. This gave them more options in both content and due date for the assignments.
- More options for assignment format (i.e. students may submit a PowerPoint presentation with voiceover narration in lieu of a paper).
I realize you may already be doing many of these and/or may not be able to do some of these based on your class sizes and content. In general, I found a combo of giving more options/choices to students helpful when possible (something about the feeling of powerlessness during the pandemic has made students hungry for a sense of control), coupled with frequent reminders of due dates and gentle but firm expectations that are communicated clearly and re-iterated throughout the semester. Feel free to DM me if you want more specifics, and just know you are not alone! It is tough out here.
posted by sleepingwithcats at 10:39 AM on January 4, 2023 [9 favorites]
- Making class materials available and accessible as much as possible (I email out a detailed syllabus & timeline of assignments/due dates at least two weeks before the start of the semester and include reminders of upcoming due dates in every class session).
- I try to set expectations early on and am very clear with students about what will earn them an A in the class. I emphasize the importance of communication (about absences/needing extensions, etc). If students do request an extension with reasonable notice, I generally grant it if I’m able to (i.e. if I don’t have a tight grading deadline).
- I post my slides to blackboard right before class each week, with mixed results. Some students like to download the slides and follow along on their own laptops, but others are definitely surfing/not paying attention. This one is kind of a toss-up, but enough students were using their laptops appropriately that I let it go, and for students who were not paying attention I docked class participation points (and they got lower grades anyway because their assignments reflected their lack of engagement with the material).
- Next semester in my advanced seminar course I will be instituting a firm no laptops/phones visible in the classroom rule.
- Student reading presentations - each student is responsible for giving one brief (5 minute) presentation on a reading at some point in the semester.
- Small group discussion whenever possible, less lectures/large group discussion
- Smaller, more frequent assignments (a few 1-page reading reflections scattered throughout the semester) - takes a little extra time to grade but I don’t give feedback on these, just assign credit for completion.
- Due date “windows” of about a week (this one was variable tbh, most students still submitted on the last day but it gave them the illusion of having more of control/options).
- In one class, I had 3 assignments of which students had to choose 2 to complete. This gave them more options in both content and due date for the assignments.
- More options for assignment format (i.e. students may submit a PowerPoint presentation with voiceover narration in lieu of a paper).
I realize you may already be doing many of these and/or may not be able to do some of these based on your class sizes and content. In general, I found a combo of giving more options/choices to students helpful when possible (something about the feeling of powerlessness during the pandemic has made students hungry for a sense of control), coupled with frequent reminders of due dates and gentle but firm expectations that are communicated clearly and re-iterated throughout the semester. Feel free to DM me if you want more specifics, and just know you are not alone! It is tough out here.
posted by sleepingwithcats at 10:39 AM on January 4, 2023 [9 favorites]
If it helps your burnout, I will humbly report that my experience is that it's same as ever: every class is a different one. Some classes you just cannot get to talk, and as you know, the only real answer is to start over next semester. This fall I had a mixed UG/grad seminar class with a bunch of great talkers, students who improved a bunch based on feedback, etc. I honestly don't know why, and I handled the class the same as I've done for a decade now. But I've come to think there's not a uniform "here's what the pandemic did to students", and that helps me to think I won't have to work double hard to get it all across forever; it's just another semester, weird in its own unique way that will not repeat.
I'll throw some ideas out in case helpful:
One thing that I think helps is getting them to explain things to each other. I tell them that's what I'm doing, I nudge and coach them through it, give feedback etc., but I also tell them their classmates and I are all relying on them to explain it.
I have them post questions to a forum the night before class, and in class I call on students to repeat their question and explain a little about where it came from, why they asked that. Seems to work.
posted by Dashy at 10:41 AM on January 4, 2023 [9 favorites]
I'll throw some ideas out in case helpful:
One thing that I think helps is getting them to explain things to each other. I tell them that's what I'm doing, I nudge and coach them through it, give feedback etc., but I also tell them their classmates and I are all relying on them to explain it.
I have them post questions to a forum the night before class, and in class I call on students to repeat their question and explain a little about where it came from, why they asked that. Seems to work.
posted by Dashy at 10:41 AM on January 4, 2023 [9 favorites]
I've had to flunk multiple graduate students for the first time in my decade-and-a-half teaching life in the last year. I concur with sleepingwithcats that this is Not A You Problem.
So as not to repeat sleepingwithcats's excellent suggestions, I'll give you some language I am adding to my syllabus for a discussion-based in-person course:
Attendance and engagement
This course is held in-person, and class meetings will involve a lot of interactive discussion and activity. If you are not present and participating, you are not actually doing the learning work of this course. That said, we are well aware there is still a lot of infectious-disease activity circulating through communities, and we pledge to work with students who encounter illness first- or secondhand.
You may not divide your attention between class and your phone/laptop. You may use a device for class-related reasons (including note-taking) only. We will occasionally pass through the room during class to assess this.
We reserve the right to lower individual grades for non-attendance or disengagement from in-class work (including irrelevant phone/laptop surfing). We regret this, but we do think it necessary under present circumstances.
posted by humbug at 11:54 AM on January 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
So as not to repeat sleepingwithcats's excellent suggestions, I'll give you some language I am adding to my syllabus for a discussion-based in-person course:
Attendance and engagement
This course is held in-person, and class meetings will involve a lot of interactive discussion and activity. If you are not present and participating, you are not actually doing the learning work of this course. That said, we are well aware there is still a lot of infectious-disease activity circulating through communities, and we pledge to work with students who encounter illness first- or secondhand.
You may not divide your attention between class and your phone/laptop. You may use a device for class-related reasons (including note-taking) only. We will occasionally pass through the room during class to assess this.
We reserve the right to lower individual grades for non-attendance or disengagement from in-class work (including irrelevant phone/laptop surfing). We regret this, but we do think it necessary under present circumstances.
posted by humbug at 11:54 AM on January 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm primarily a researcher, but I teach one undergrad class and work closely with some junior faculty who teach a few courses as well as a lot of the PhD students who TA/run labs. So I have some observations that may or may not be generalizable.
One thing we've all noticed since the pandemic, many students really like the hybrid approach (recorded lecture with a separate synchronous discussion) and thrive with it. But there's are still some who really want that more traditional lecture format. When I had to still do remote in 2021, the student reviews loved the hybrid model so much they recommended keeping that approach even once in-person lectures resumed, and a lot of my coworkers have continued that model. However, my undergrad class last spring, really wanted the traditional format. It's a small class that I can easily adapt either way, so I've been lucky to be able to go with the flow (and lucky there's been fairly unanimous preferences).
I'll also echo that this past fall (I did not teach) a lot of people* were seeing increased disengagement, especially around mid terms: failure to turn in assignments, no shows for lab time, etc. All with no contact from students. And some of these students were consistently high performers.
Especially with some of the high performers, it seems like they hit a point of needing a break, figured out where they could take a 0 without breaking their GPA, and just took the week off from that particular class, as they were back to showing up and turning in good quality work a week later.
I'm not sure if that's a sign that students are all on the edge of burn out, or have learned that they don't have to excel at everything all the time? Or a mix of the two?
*People aren't naming students to me, just to be clear. The teachers/TAs we're just venting to me about generalities (half my students didn't show, even the A students, I must be doing something wrong!). So you are not alone on burn out and this past term seeming weird.
posted by ghost phoneme at 11:55 AM on January 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
One thing we've all noticed since the pandemic, many students really like the hybrid approach (recorded lecture with a separate synchronous discussion) and thrive with it. But there's are still some who really want that more traditional lecture format. When I had to still do remote in 2021, the student reviews loved the hybrid model so much they recommended keeping that approach even once in-person lectures resumed, and a lot of my coworkers have continued that model. However, my undergrad class last spring, really wanted the traditional format. It's a small class that I can easily adapt either way, so I've been lucky to be able to go with the flow (and lucky there's been fairly unanimous preferences).
I'll also echo that this past fall (I did not teach) a lot of people* were seeing increased disengagement, especially around mid terms: failure to turn in assignments, no shows for lab time, etc. All with no contact from students. And some of these students were consistently high performers.
Especially with some of the high performers, it seems like they hit a point of needing a break, figured out where they could take a 0 without breaking their GPA, and just took the week off from that particular class, as they were back to showing up and turning in good quality work a week later.
I'm not sure if that's a sign that students are all on the edge of burn out, or have learned that they don't have to excel at everything all the time? Or a mix of the two?
*People aren't naming students to me, just to be clear. The teachers/TAs we're just venting to me about generalities (half my students didn't show, even the A students, I must be doing something wrong!). So you are not alone on burn out and this past term seeming weird.
posted by ghost phoneme at 11:55 AM on January 4, 2023 [4 favorites]
Oh, and one thing I was starting to do pre-pandemic that I really turned up the heat on during: breaking down semesterlong projects into chunks due throughout the semester.
Nearly all my students turn up in my class with little to no knowledge of project management, individual or group. Most of them have gotten through on all-nighters and similar death-marchy stuff. This not only hampers their learning, it's a terrible set of habits to take into work and life. They gotta learn to chunk and schedule and track progress! They just gotta! But examples help, you know?
So I absolutely still assign Big Projects, but both the projects and the associated grades happen in pieces over the course of the semester. For group projects (yeah, I still do 'em), I also insist on Team Compacts and do 360 evals at semester end.
I'm generally transparent with students about my pedagogy and the reasons for it. I take especial care to explain this technique, my reasons for it, and what I want them to take from it into future projects they do. I also find that the gradual accumulation of grade points, instead of "it's a quarter of my final grade and it's due tomorrow ARGH!" is an anxiety-reducer.
posted by humbug at 12:07 PM on January 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
Nearly all my students turn up in my class with little to no knowledge of project management, individual or group. Most of them have gotten through on all-nighters and similar death-marchy stuff. This not only hampers their learning, it's a terrible set of habits to take into work and life. They gotta learn to chunk and schedule and track progress! They just gotta! But examples help, you know?
So I absolutely still assign Big Projects, but both the projects and the associated grades happen in pieces over the course of the semester. For group projects (yeah, I still do 'em), I also insist on Team Compacts and do 360 evals at semester end.
I'm generally transparent with students about my pedagogy and the reasons for it. I take especial care to explain this technique, my reasons for it, and what I want them to take from it into future projects they do. I also find that the gradual accumulation of grade points, instead of "it's a quarter of my final grade and it's due tomorrow ARGH!" is an anxiety-reducer.
posted by humbug at 12:07 PM on January 4, 2023 [7 favorites]
For final papers or other larger research projects (whether individual or group) I have students do an "in progress" presentation in class of their draft paper/preliminary research findings. It helps me give better feedback earlier, flags which students are really floundering, gives a nudge to those who just lost track of deadlines and showcases some of the most interesting student work in a low stakes environment (and hopefully inspires other students to get their butts in gear).
posted by spamandkimchi at 1:44 PM on January 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by spamandkimchi at 1:44 PM on January 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
I have taught at a reasonably elite R1, a very elite R1, and a non-elite SLAC.
Some of these strategies are similar to those above, but anyhow, these are what has worked the best for me:
-Moderate deadlines. I am a big fan of grace periods - so there is a deadline, but students get four days afterwards to turn it in, no questions asked, no points deducted. How much structure students need I think varies institution to institution, but I've found most students benefit from structure with a bit of flexibility carved in.
-Either I've moved away from big end-of-semester projects, or if I do, I scaffold the hell out of them. I make the scaffolded assignments graded as complete/incomplete, and it's really just about me giving the students feedback.
-For discussion, I always assign some form of course prep (which I grade very informally, low-stakes). Maybe it's a reading guide I've prepared that the students have to fill out, or for more advanced students, I will let them do a more free-form reading response, but I provide pretty detailed instructions for how to do this well. I also have students take turns presenting and leading the first half of discussion.
-I do think the pandemic burnout has raised the bar for how engaging a reading needs to be - if some readings regularly aren't working, cut them.
-In terms of "inability or unwillingness to take specific feedback on previous assignments into account for subsequent ones" - sometimes I make students write a paragraph explaining how they incorporated the feedback from either me or from a peer review into their later draft. Or if there are a number of short papers, I ask them to write a reflection on how they are changing their approach to writing, or what they're working on most in terms of their writing. Some of them need to be forced to do this to realize 'Oh, I guess this is something I need to be doing...'
-If your institution has Perusall or Hypothesis, these allow students to mark up a reading collectively - it's great, and I've assigned this as part of their homework (i.e. make 3 comments on the reading) and it gets students discussing the reading before class and it really boosted class discussion.
-While I think it's shitty that professors are now ad-hoc mental health counselors, I've just accepted this. Every semester I build in time around midterms and finals to share with students stress management strategies, and ask that they share with their peers what works for them. And I remind them, many times, there is more to life than grades.
posted by coffeecat at 2:31 PM on January 4, 2023 [5 favorites]
Some of these strategies are similar to those above, but anyhow, these are what has worked the best for me:
-Moderate deadlines. I am a big fan of grace periods - so there is a deadline, but students get four days afterwards to turn it in, no questions asked, no points deducted. How much structure students need I think varies institution to institution, but I've found most students benefit from structure with a bit of flexibility carved in.
-Either I've moved away from big end-of-semester projects, or if I do, I scaffold the hell out of them. I make the scaffolded assignments graded as complete/incomplete, and it's really just about me giving the students feedback.
-For discussion, I always assign some form of course prep (which I grade very informally, low-stakes). Maybe it's a reading guide I've prepared that the students have to fill out, or for more advanced students, I will let them do a more free-form reading response, but I provide pretty detailed instructions for how to do this well. I also have students take turns presenting and leading the first half of discussion.
-I do think the pandemic burnout has raised the bar for how engaging a reading needs to be - if some readings regularly aren't working, cut them.
-In terms of "inability or unwillingness to take specific feedback on previous assignments into account for subsequent ones" - sometimes I make students write a paragraph explaining how they incorporated the feedback from either me or from a peer review into their later draft. Or if there are a number of short papers, I ask them to write a reflection on how they are changing their approach to writing, or what they're working on most in terms of their writing. Some of them need to be forced to do this to realize 'Oh, I guess this is something I need to be doing...'
-If your institution has Perusall or Hypothesis, these allow students to mark up a reading collectively - it's great, and I've assigned this as part of their homework (i.e. make 3 comments on the reading) and it gets students discussing the reading before class and it really boosted class discussion.
-While I think it's shitty that professors are now ad-hoc mental health counselors, I've just accepted this. Every semester I build in time around midterms and finals to share with students stress management strategies, and ask that they share with their peers what works for them. And I remind them, many times, there is more to life than grades.
posted by coffeecat at 2:31 PM on January 4, 2023 [5 favorites]
I taught a hybrid course this fall--one day online and one in person. The students were undergrads who almost all started college during the pandemic. I do think there were some skills and experiences that they were missing that could contribute to the general level of burnout. They'd never written a midterm, for example. I think some struggled with note taking at the start of the semester because they were used to having a recording of lecture to review, and that worked for them (I'd have to take notes), but now they suddenly had to figure out what to do with a class that was only half recorded.
One thing that I don't think worked particulary well in my class was that I only made grade lines at the end, and the students were very much not comfortable with a class where the median midterm score was about 50%. No amount of me insisting I obviously wasn't going to fail half the class seemed to assuage that anxiety.
posted by hoyland at 6:23 PM on January 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
One thing that I don't think worked particulary well in my class was that I only made grade lines at the end, and the students were very much not comfortable with a class where the median midterm score was about 50%. No amount of me insisting I obviously wasn't going to fail half the class seemed to assuage that anxiety.
posted by hoyland at 6:23 PM on January 4, 2023 [2 favorites]
« Older Binoculars with vision issues? | What is some kindness I can do for my body after... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by derrinyet at 10:03 AM on January 4, 2023