Weekly Teaching Note
November 2, 2009
Policies for Sanity in Larger Classes
As a result of the budget, we've heard here at the Faculty Center about classes that have or will jump from 12 to 24, from 30 to 60, and from 70 to 120 or more. This Weekly Teaching Note, focusing on policies that may be helpful for larger classes, is the first in a series about coping with suddenly increased class size.
When a class suddenly jumps in size, the administrative work seems to increase at a higher rate than the class population increases. It's important to create policies that are easy to handle so that energy is available for helping students to learn, instead of being used to police student behavior. The most important factor for good policies is to make sure that your policies reflect your values. Especially for large classes, create policies that you can stand behind, not policies that require lots of exceptions because you don't really like the policies.
Here are some ideas from real syllabi. These examples are chosen because they display some flexibility while maintaining students' responsibility for their learning and performance.
Make-ups for minor work (attendance)
“There will be 20 small in-class assignments. Only 15 of them will be graded. No make-ups are necessary, so make-ups will not be given.”
“Clicker questions are extra credit. If you answer 90% of the clicker questions during the quarter, you will receive 10 bonus points on the final exam, or approximately 1% of the possible course points. There are no make-ups for clicker questions.”
Make-ups for major exams or assignments
“All make-up exams will be in essay format.”
“No make-ups are given. If you miss an exam or the final, your grade will be determined by your performance on the other course exams.”
“If you miss your group's presentation, your group will, in consultation with me, decide upon an alternative assignment. Your group may choose not to allow you to do an alternative.”
Late work
“Papers may be turned in any time on the day they are due (if I'm not in my office, put them in the mail slot). Late papers will lose one letter grade for every day they are late, no questions asked. If you need to email the paper to get it to me on time, you must also submit a hard copy by the next class period.”
Participation
“I plan to cold-call during class discussions. I will ‘pick names from the hat' during class, so expect to be called upon at any time.”
Homework submission
“Professional appearance counts on the job, so it counts here. All homeworks must be submitted on engineering paper, written on the unlined side only with pencil or blue/black ink, STAPLED at the top left corner. Writing must be easily legible. Corrections must be neatly crossed out. Answers must be clearly indicated.”
Tardiness
“Plan to be present for the entire lecture or not at all. Because it is so distracting when people enter or leave during lecture, I will close the door when lecture begins and will open it when we are through.”
“Seats nearest the door will be left for people who are unavoidably late or must leave early. Please enter or leave quietly. If you are constantly tardy or must leave early, I may ask you to drop the class.”
Communicating with the professor; getting questions answered
“BEFORE emailing me with a question regarding due dates, policies, etc., please see the course FAQ and the course syllabus on Blackboard. If you email me with such a question, I will refer you back to Blackboard.”
“In the subject line of any email regarding class, please put the following: PLS 2xx, SECTION x. This subject line will send your message to a special folder in my email. I will not promise to answer any message which does not have this subject, because I may not see it in my general email folder.”
Appeals
“An appeal for an exam question must be submitted in writing (email is okay) no earlier than 24 hours after the exam is returned, and no later than 5 days including weekends after the exam is returned. The appeal must clearly state why you feel that the question was badly worded, unfair, or was wrongly graded, and why your answer is reasonable. Your appeal will be carefully considered but does not guarantee that your grade will be raised.”
“I do not conduct business over email that would better be conducted in person because something that takes 15 minutes in person can take days over email. If you want to challenge a grade or a policy, you must come to office hours or make an appointment to meet with me in person.”
For many ideas about dealing with larger classes, see:
http://www.schreyerinstitute.psu.edu/Tools/Large/
