Tip: Contingency Planning for the Semester Ahead
What decisions can you make now to avoid making emergency decisions later?
Welcome back, Tips readers! I hope you all had a few moments of rest and time to reflect, rethink, and recharge over the winter break.
Winter into spring 2023 promises to be a rough health season with the ongoing “tripledemic” of flu, RSV, and COVID and students continuing to experience mental health struggles at concerning rates. Rather than just writing my syllabus and hoping for the best, I prefer to plan - as much as possible - for disruption to my deadlines and class schedule.
Possible spring 2023 scenarios…
You may experience disruption in the form of a few student absences sprinkled throughout the semester. You might, however, that many students are sick or absent to care for family members or cover coworkers’ shifts. Given the state of circulating viruses, even the hardiest of us might get sick this semester. For many of us, there’s also the specter of inclement weather to deal with, from expected-but-still-disruptive snow and ice storms, to bomb cyclones and out-of-season floods...and that’s just so far in January.
Questions to consider…
As you consider how to best prepare for disruption, consider some basic questions to help you narrow down what options might be feasible
How many students are in your class? Managing online and onsite students working together is possible, but I think harder in packed classrooms.
Does your classroom technology and physical layout support students Zooming in? If you have spotty wi-fi, that limits what you can do.
Does it support small-group work? Likewise, you may be limited by a classroom with fixed-to-the-floor furniture.
Are the students used to semi-synchronous or asynchronous workspaces? More is possible if students have systems already in place for sharing documents that they are comfortable using.
What are your desired outcomes/goals for each class session? A large science lab will have very different constraints than a small seminar.
Before the semester starts…
Whatever your subject matter or physical and technological environment, there are some basic steps you can take now that will save time later.
Provide clear and easy-to-find instructions in your LMS for where and how communication about changing class meeting instructions will happen during illness or other absences. If students know where to look, it’s less likely that they will miss your announcement or email you a dozen times to confirm what you thought you had already made clear.
Include your general expectations for what students should be prepared to do in case of absence, inclement weather, etc., in the syllabus. Prepare them as much as possible in advance for the scenarios above!
In the first week…
Organize pairs/triads to exchange contact information so you don’t have to field all the questions.
Create workgroups of 3-5 students to be a consistent team for projects and ongoing discussion.
Recruit technology assistance volunteers to help manage students on Zoom (posting links in the chat, repeating questions, etc) in case you need to have a class session partially or fully synchronous online.
If you might want to allow students to Zoom in to class…
Create the Zoom classroom as a recurring meeting, and post the link and password in your LMS. This way it’s available when students need it.
Do a technology check – in the classroom and at home – for you and for students. This might mean planning a remote synchronous day before there’s an emergency need.
Practice with students using semi-synchronous or asynchronous workspaces early in the semester. Make students collaborate on a small assignment so they can test what to do when the stakes are low.
Some contingency activities…
Low-Participation Day: If your class requires/awards points for participation, consider letting students at home sick or taking care of sick family members have a “pass” where they could show up via Zoom but only minimally participate.
What to prep now: Set up a system for students to request a Zoom link and/or a pass for the day, and decide how much advance notice you need for a student who wants to attend via Zoom.
What to implement on the day of class: Class mostly runs as normal, just allow students to choose their own groups – active vs. receptive roles.
Concurrent Online + Onsite Activity: If your students have the ability to Zoom in and your classroom will support a strong interactive experience, consider ways you can adapt your in-class activities to a blended model where some students are online (via Zoom or Teams) and some are onsite.
What to prep now: Tech check! Set up a system for students to request a Zoom link & decide how much advance notice you need.
What to implement on the day of class: Assign an onsite student to log in to the Zoom room to relay questions & be tech support. Create online vs. onsite-specific docs/files (as needed) to support in-class work.
Independent Activity: An activity students can complete at home, possibly without access to the internet and/or without power (although if students have lost power, consider giving them a pass for the week)
What to prep now: Consider what they can do on their own. What if they don’t have internet access or power – what is accessible on their phone? Create one or more activities you can implement at any time during the semester.
What to implement on the day of class: Publish the activity instructions & post an announcement.
Small-Group, Semi-Synchronous Activity: Task for a group of 2-5 to work on together; not necessarily working at the same time
What to prep now: Set up groups & create an online workspace (BB, Teams, etc.). Have groups set expectations (how they will interact, the timeline for responses, group roles, etc.)
What to implement on the day of class: Create group-specific docs/files (as needed) to support group work. Publish the activity instructions & post an announcement.
More resources
Zoom isn’t the only alternative to in-person, whole-class activities, but if you’ll be using it, you may wish to refresh your Zoom toolbox: how to change your viewing settings, better ways to screen share and share your screen to breakout rooms, and consider naming breakout rooms by topic and letting students pick their room.
Think about the accessibility of online resources and webpages - many LMSes have a built-in accessibility checker (Canvas, Moodle, and Blackboard).
What contingency plans are you making for this spring?
Looking for more getting-started ideas? Check out my roundup of posts about writing a syllabus, my Welcome, 2022 post from last year, a collection of first-day activities, and a collection of posts on providing feedback to students.
Next week I’ll share a work planning template that I’ve found helpful in keeping track of research, writing, committee work, and teaching projects.
Don't forget the role that weather plays! In revising my syllabi for this semester, I had to revisit last Spring's... and the updates I had to make due to two bad weather days.
When the weather is so cold that electricity becomes questionable, moving to online alternatives won't necessarily work. One thing I've learned over the years -- and something I think you'd agree with given what I've read from you -- is that sometimes flexibility means just dropping an assignment and altering the total number of points in the course. I don't want to be an extra burden when students are trying to figure out a way to heat their homes. I know I could always post something for them to do later/asynchronously, but it's a delicate balance between trying to keep the class going and trying to give folks (including yourself) a break.
Great points for addressing these other emergency situations, though, and I thank you for them!