Adjusting Expectations for Empathy and Equity in the Wake of COVID-19

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, college and university instructors have been asked to keep teaching. Faced with that mandate, some instructors have to tried to stick as closely as possible to “business as usual”—transitioning to online instruction but otherwise keeping their expectations for students the same. That could mean required, on-time attendance, maybe even with checks on active engagement. It could mean keeping all the original assignments and deadlines in place, maybe even adding new modules and assignments. It could mean online exams held during the normally scheduled times, maybe even with identity verification, browser controls, and live proctoring to keep students from cheating.

Now, I understand that those “business as usual” expectations might give some instructors the sense of normalcy they need to keep teaching in the face of so much uncertainty. At the same time, though, and as I argued in a recent webinar for Indiana University’s Office of Diversity and inclusion, those “business as usual” expectations are no longer equitable—if they ever were at all.

If our students signed up to take in-person classes this semester, then we can’t expect that they’ll be able to seamlessly make the switch online. We can’t expect that students will have consistent access to internet or to a personal laptop or tablet they can rely on to make Zoom calls, download video, take exams, or do assignments online. We can’t expect that students will have a safe place to live, enough food to eat, a distraction-free environment where they can study, or enough time to show up for classes. And we can’t expect that the students who need help will feel comfortable enough to ask.

Given the challenges students are facing, many instructors—myself included—have abandoned “business as usual” and radically shifted their expectations for students. That decision, however, is likely to be easier for tenured faculty—myself included—than it is for grad student instructors, adjunct faculty, lecturers, and tenure-track junior faculty. That decision is also likely to be easier for instructors from more privileged groups—myself included—than it is for instructors from systematically marginalized groups.

If you’re an instructor with a more tenuous status, lowering expectations in the wake of the coronavirus might feel risky. You might worry about being judged—by advisors and colleagues, by hiring committees, award committees, and tenure committees, or even by your own students. You might worry about how those judgments will affect your course evaluations or your chances of getting hired, promoted, tenured, or picked for a teaching award.

My goal in this post is to give you language you can use to justify choosing equity and empathy over “business as usual” in the wake of COVID-19. First, I’ll offer a few general suggestions for instructors on adjusting expectations and avoiding further harm. Second, I’ll share the message I sent my undergraduate students explaining how I would be adjusting my expectations for the remainder of the semester. Finally, I’ll share a template you can use in teaching statements for job applications, tenure dossiers, or other materials to explain how you’ve adjusted your own courses during this challenging time.

General Suggestions for Adjusting Expectations:

Acknowledge the challenges students are facing. Ask your students how they’re doing. Read research and news reports and blog posts that offer insights into these challenges. Talk about those challenges with your students. Reassure your students that their health and well-being are more important than the work they’re doing in school.

Don’t expect students to ask for help. Remember that the most vulnerable students are often the most reluctant to ask for help—usually because of how they’ve been (mis)treated when asking for help in the past. Recognize that what might seem like a lack of motivation or effort (e.g., not showing up for class meetings, not completing assignments) might actually be a silent signal of struggle.

Offer support to students, even if they don’t ask. Show your students you care. Share information about resources students can access through the Dean of Students Office, through your department, or through national, state, or local organizations. The Crisis Text Line, for example, offers free 24/7 mental health counseling and can be reached by texting CONNECT to 741741 (in the US, or 85258 in Canada, or 686868 in the UK). Encourage students to reach out to you if they need help or just want to talk about what they’re experiencing during this crisis.

Give students the opportunity to keep learning. Make course content accessible in multiple ways. That might include real-time class meetings, videos and transcripts of class meetings that can be watched or read later, and complete copies of lecture notes and slides. Offer alternative options for assignments that might prove challenging for students with limited technology or limited time. That could include allowing students to write short paper assignments instead of taking online exams or doing group projects. Opt for universal accommodations when possible. That means making flexible options available to all students and not just those who ask.

Avoid inequitable and unrealistic expectations. Don’t expect real-time attendance. Don’t expect in-class participation. Don’t expect that students will be able to complete online assignments or take online exams, especially if those assignments or exams have specific timeframes attached. Students might not have the technology needed to do the work, they might be in a different time zone or have work or caregiving responsibilities that conflict with scheduled class times, or they might be struggling with grief and loss, with illness, or with high levels of stress.   

Avoid making more work for your students (and yourself and your TAs). Cut as many assignments as possible or make them optional, giving students flexibility around which ones they complete. Don’t create new assignments or modules to substitute for assignments that don’t work in a new format. Don’t feel compelled to use new technological tools beyond what you absolutely need to teach the course. Essentially, keep this transition as simple as possible for your students, for yourself, and for any teaching assistants you might have.

Consider grading students on the work they completed before courses went online. In my classes, the lowest grade students can get is the grade they had before campus closed. Any work they do from here can only raise their grade. That way I’m not penalizing students for any challenges they might be facing this semester. That way I’m not relying on students to prove they deserve individual leniency. And that way I minimize the amount of grading work I’m placing on my teaching assistants and on myself during an incredibly stressful time.

My Message to Students:

Dear Students, 

I'm writing today with a heavy heart - saddened to know that I won't be seeing you all in person again soon. 

In the wake of President McRobbie's decision to hold classes online for the remainder of the semester, I wanted to reach out to offer words of reassurance and also to explain the decisions I have made about how we will proceed with our course. 

Please know that if you are feeling anxious or upset right now, you are certainly not alone. Many of us are trying to figure out how we're going to move forward amidst serious disruptions to our normal routines. Many of us are concerned about our own health or the health of people we love. Please be kind to yourselves in this difficult time. And please know that if this semester is not your best, if your grades do not reflect your full potential - it will be okay. What you learn in your courses should ultimately matter more than the grades you earn. 

That said, I understand that grades do matter. And I understand that many of you are concerned about how this semester's disruptions might impact your eligibility for opportunities at IU and in your future careers. 

Along those lines, I have decided to make changes to our course requirements that will, hopefully, reduce some of the pressure around grades. My goal in making these changes is to support your health and well-being and ensure that you can all complete this course without being penalized for any challenges you might face. To briefly summarize the key changes: 

  1. Attendance will no longer be taken in class. That said, I strongly encourage you to continue engaging with the reading and listening materials and with our weekly course meetings, which you can do by joining us for the live-streamed classes, by watching the recorded videos after class, or by reading the written transcripts of those videos and following along with the power point slides. 

  2. All remaining reading quizzes and in-class activity reflections will be optional. If you complete optional quizzes or in-class activity reflections, and you score higher on those assignments than on assignments previously submitted, I will count the higher grades.

  3. You will have the option to either complete the final exam or the final project. If you complete both, I will only count the higher of the two grades. 

  4. The grading rubric has been updated to reflect the restructured assignments.

  5. The course schedule has been updated to reflect the extended spring break. 

You can find more detailed information about these and other changes in the revised syllabus and in an announcement (titled "ALL THE THINGS RELATED TO IU COURSES GOING ONLINE"), both of which are posted on Canvas. The syllabus is also attached here.

My hope is that these changes will give you the support and flexibility you need to continue learning and succeeding in our course. That said, I also understand that some of you are facing particularly challenging constraints. To that end, I have decided that no student in this class will receive a final grade lower than the grade they had when courses went online. Work you do for the remainder of the semester can raise your grade, but your final grade will not be lower than what it is right now.

If you are at all concerned about your ability to complete the work for this course, please let me know. I am happy to work with you to develop an individualized plan that accommodates your needs and the challenges you face. 

Please take time over break to rest and breathe. Please know that I am thinking of you and hoping you are well. 

With gratitude and respect, 

Professor Calarco

A Template for Teaching Statements:

The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 created tremendous challenges for me and for my students. During that time, I was teaching [LIST YOUR COURSES]. In those courses, I would normally expect students to [BRIEFLY EXPLAIN YOUR NORMAL EXPECTATIONS FOR STUDENTS]. In the wake of the pandemic, I was required to shift those courses online.

My students, however, had not signed up to take online courses. Thus, I could not reasonably expect that all my students could seamlessly make the transition to online learning and meet my normal expectations for the course. During the pandemic, many college students lacked the technology needed to succeed in online courses, particularly with campuses and public libraries closed. During the pandemic, many college students also faced housing and food insecurity, physical and mental illness, and additional work and caregiving responsibilities that made it difficult for them to remain engaged with coursework.

Given those challenges, I opted to adjust my expectations for students to center empathy and equity and reduce the potential for further harm. Specifically, in [COURSE 1], I opted to [EXPLAIN HOW YOU CHANGED YOUR TEACHING AND EXPECTATIONS]. Furthermore, in [COURSE 2, 3, 4, etc.], I opted to [EXPLAIN HOW YOU CHANGED YOUR TEACHING AND EXPECTATIONS].

The changes I made to my courses also allowed me to continue teaching and supporting my students despite the challenges I was facing during the coronavirus pandemic. During that time, [IF YOU ARE COMFORTABLE DOING SO, BRIEFLY EXPLAIN THE CHALLENGES YOU WERE FACING, SUCH AS CAREGIVING OR WORK RESPONSIBILITIES, ILLNESS, GRIEF AND LOSS, AND STRESSES RELATED TO THE UNCERTAINTY OF THE SITUATION].

Not surprisingly, the grades and student evaluations in my courses looked somewhat different during the coronavirus pandemic than they did in previous and subsequent semesters. With respect to grades, my students earned [HIGHER/LOWER] grades than students in similar courses in other semesters. [IF HIGHER] This is understandable, however, given my explicit decision to avoid grading students in a way that might reward them for their privilege or penalize them for challenges they were facing during the crisis. [IF LOWER] This is understandable, however, in that students were likely facing challenges that made it difficult for them to succeed during one of the most disruptive events in their lives. With respect to evaluations, my students gave me [HIGHER/LOWER] evaluations than did students in similar courses in other semesters. [IF HIGHER] This is understandable, however, in that students likely appreciated my efforts to support them during an incredibly difficult time. [IF LOWER] This is understandable, however, in that students were likely feeling frustrated with the disruptions to their education and to the kind of experience they had expected in my course.

Setting Explicit Expectations

There was a thread on Twitter recently asking about how college professors can help their students be less anxious about grades. Not surprisingly, many of the responses pointed out that college students worry about grades because college grades have real consequences. They can affect students’ eligibility for scholarships and financial aid and also their chances of getting into grad school or med school or law school. With increasingly large numbers of students relying on scholarships and financial aid, and with grad school and med school and law school becoming increasingly important for students’ financial security and stability post-graduation, it’s no wonder that students are worried about grades.

Reducing those external pressures would obviously be the best way to reduce students’ stress. But, short of that, there are still things professors can do. In my own classes, for example, and based on findings from some of my own research, I try to reduce student stress by: 1) making my expectations as explicit as possible, and 2) grading students based, in part, on effort and improvement, and not just on what they “achieve.”

In practice, that means:

  • basing part of students’ grades on small, completion-based assignments
    (i.e., if you do the assignment, you get full credit)

  • including “extra” assignments of each type and dropping students’ lowest grades
    (that way if students miss an assignment or bomb one, they aren’t overly penalized)

  • giving students detailed review guides for exams
    (not giving them the answers, but outlining what they’ll need to know/be able to do)

  • giving students clear assignments and rubrics for projects and assignments
    (that way students know what to do and how they’ll be graded)

  • offering an extra credit “improvement bonus”
    (i.e., rewarding students who improve their scores from Exam 1 to Exam 2)

Essentially, I find that by making my expectations explicit, and by allowing students to earn points, in part, for their efforts and improvements, they feel more ownership of their grades. And they feel more confident about their ability to control how well they do in the class. Which ultimately means fewer grade questions and complaints and freak-outs in the end.

Using Digital Devices Productively In Class

There’s evidence that students do better in class when they use a pen and paper instead of a laptop to take notes. But there’s reason to suspect that those differences in student outcomes are less about which tech they use than about how they take notes with each type of tech.

Given those possibilities, and in the interest of creating an inclusive classroom environment that accommodates students’ diverse learning needs, I don’t ban laptops in class. Instead, I focus on teaching my students to use tech effectively. I do that, in part, by giving students note outlines that match the slides for each of my classes. Students can print out the outlines or download them and fill them in digitally. Almost all my students use laptops, but the outlines keep them on task (and off Instagram).

To give you a sense of what this looks like in my classes, here’s the full set of slides for my class on the sociological imagination. And here are the notes slides I give students for that class.

Article Writing 101

A SUGGESTED OUTLINE FOR QUALITATIVE WORK

This outline was originally designed for writing with ethnographic fieldnotes. However, it can be easily adapted for writing academic manuscripts based on other types of qualitative and quantitative data, as well.


Abstract (250 words or less)

  • State your research question

  • Explain how this research question speaks to a larger theoretical puzzle or gap in the literature

  • Describe the data that you use to answer your research question

  • State what you find

  • Describe what these findings suggest about the answer to your research question

  • Explain why these findings are important


Introduction (3 paragraphs)

  • Describe the puzzle or gap or unresolved problem in the literature that you will address with your data

    • What do we know?

    • What do we not know (or not know well enough)?

    • What does the existing research suggest might be the answer to that unanswered question?

  • Identify your research question and explain how you answer it

    • What question will you answer? (Or what hypothesis will you test?)

    • What data will you use to answer this question? (Or test this hypothesis?)

    • What do you find?

  • Explain the importance of your findings

    • What is the answer to your research question?

    • How does this answer broaden, clarify, or challenge existing knowledge/theories?

Justification (1,000 words or less)

  • Walk the reader through key background information/theories/terms that are necessary for understanding why your research question is important to answer

  • Use the existing literature to make a case for what you think you might find

  • If Applicable: Explain why your case is a useful case for examining these possibilities

*Note: The point of a literature review is not actually to review all of the relevant literature. The point is to make the case for why your study is important. 

Methods (4-6 short paragraphs)

  • Provide a brief overview of the study.

  • Describe your research site, why you chose it, and how you gained access

  • Describe your research participants (the people you observed)

  • Discuss your role in the field and how your identity shaped your observations

  • Describe the fieldwork you conducted and the data you collected

  • Describe how you analyzed the data you collected

  • Describe the limitations of your study
    (i.e., explain how your study is limited by your methodological choices)

Analysis

  • State your argument

  • Identify 2-3 supporting points – how your data support your argument

  • Identify 2-3 patterns in the data that provide evidence for each supporting point

  • For each pattern:

    • Describe an example from your data that typifies this pattern

    • Provide a brief fieldnote excerpt for that example

    • Briefly explain how this example represents the larger pattern

    • Briefly explain how this pattern provides evidence for the supporting point

  • Caveats and clarifications - identify any key exceptions to or variations to the overall patterns, and if possible, offer an explanation for these exceptions/variations

*Note: Everything that you include in your analysis should be relevant to your argument, and that argument should be the answer to your research question. A clear structure (with topic sentences and transitions) is very important for writing an analysis that meets this goal. 

Discussion/Conclusion (1,000 words or less)

  • Summarize your findings

    • Remind readers of the puzzle/gap in the literature that you are trying to solve

    • Remind readers of the specific research question that you have answered

    • Briefly review what you found

    • Briefly explain what these findings imply about the answer to your research question

  • Discuss the implications of your findings

    • Explain how your findings solve the puzzle or fill the gap in the literature

    • Explain how the resolution of this gap/puzzle helps to clarify, challenge, or expand existing knowledge or theory

    • Using existing literature, explain why your findings are or are not surprising

  • Identify possible explanations for your findings

    • Use existing research to discuss the most likely explanation for your findings

    • Consider alternative explanations for your findings and explain (using your data and/or other research) why these alternative explanations do or do not seem plausible

  • Conclude by reviewing why these findings (and the larger puzzle/gap they address) are important

Bibliography

Here's a PDF version