Virtually Autumn: Deadline flexibility

This week, the last full week before I begin instruction for the fall semester, let's discuss assessing student work in virtual classes. Today's topic is straightforward, but it is still not going to be the shortest post yet: do assignments really need to have deadlines?

Why not deadlines?

The very fact that many of us are teaching remotely speaks to the unique situation we now face. That situation has caused great upset in so many facets of our lives and our students' lives, including our schedules. Thus, it is reasonable to consider whether you will actively provide opportunities for students to complete at least some assignments on a flexible deadline.

"Maybe you'd actually prefer to have drafts of student essays gradually roll in during the term, instead of having them all show up in your inbox for feedback at 11:55 pm the day they're due?!"

Accomplishing this will take some reflection, an open mind, and willingness to redesign aspects of your course.

Why deadlines?

Now, I hasten to add that, until recently, I never considered flexible deadlines; I'm pretty much a hard-ass when it comes to getting work turned in on time. Why? Well, I actually cannot defend that stance based on pedagogical perspectives that I'm aware of. Perhaps the one justification I can fathom is that deadlines keep students on track to cram all of the content "needed to be covered" in a course into the length of the academic term.

What are other benefits of deadlines? Please add some comments to this post, if you have ideas. The only other one I'm aware of is the belief that they reinforce (maybe even "teach") responsibility - that students need to practice doing work in a timely manner, as will be expected of them in the "real world."

Instead, it seems to me that deadlines aren't designed to help students, at least in most cases; they're for the benefit of the instructor. I know that I love deadlines, because it means that I can sit down and grade all of the same assignment at once. This is selfish, but it does have at least one benefit to students, too, which is that I suspect grading is more consistent when it is performed at the same time.

There may also be a benefit of deadlines if it is useful, based on the course, to keep all of the students moving through content at the same pace. Deadlines can be useful for encouraging communication, as in asynchronous discussion boards. If the pace of communication isn't sustained because nobody has yet started writing, then the goal of having that discussion will not be met. Thus, I like to think of deadlines as incentives, not as make-or-break cutoffs. I hope you'll agree with me!

How to support flexible deadlines

Not every deadline needs to be flexible, and to use an unfortunate analogy, we shouldn't provide students enough rope to hang themselves. We probably ought not simply hand the students the syllabus and the list of assignments and say, "Just make sure it all gets done by the end of the term!" How many students will that unstructured approach help? Probably not many.

To keep my proposal here focused, I'll describe my approach for my course design, and I hope you'll be able to draw some inspiration from aspects that perhaps resonate with your course.

In my blended learning virtual course, students watch lecture videos and/or read course materials before coming to optional synchronous Zoom meetings where I'll provide guided opportunities to discuss, practice, and ask questions about content.

In genetics (as as is true of every subject I can think of), there is definitely an at least somewhat linear order in which topics are introduced. We start with basic concepts and vocabulary, and build from there. This often means we also work in a chronological order. So, while I expect students to move from point A to point B and then to point C, the big question returns to whether the students should be moving at the same pace (i.e. should there be deadlines)?

For this type of course design (a mostly asynchronous course, with content delivered online), I provide the order of topics, laid out in the course schedule in the syllabus, and I suggest deadlines to stay on track. I explain to the students that the reason for the suggested deadlines is to keep everybody on pace as much as possible, so that we have common themes to discuss and questions to address when we have our synchronous meetings. Otherwise, some students might ask questions from the first unit when most are on to the fifth unit…and that's not a good use of everybody's time.

Throughout the semester, especially if you have some flexible deadlines, it is more important to monitor individual student progress and to be intrusive about communicating with students about their performance. Don't be overbearing, but be supportive: if students are behind your timeline expectation, let them know you noticed, and express concern and your willingness to provide support if needed. Especially in online classes, it is easy for students to become disengaged, and reaching out to students at regular intervals is a great strategy for helping them succeed in your class.

In my implementation of flexible deadlines, I have decided not to have midterm exams - at least not those conceived as being a test taken synchronously by all of the students. Instead, students get feedback on their understanding and performance through a series of smaller activities (let's call them "quizzes") as they move through the course. If you like, there can be high-value summative assessments, like exams, at various waypoints in the course. Heck, maybe you'd actually prefer to have drafts of student essays gradually roll in during the term, instead of having them all show up in your inbox for feedback at 11:55 pm the day they're due?!

Who will flexible deadlines help?

Here's one scenario among many: the student who already excels in the topic, for whom much of the course will be familiar (if not repetition from prior classes). If they can consume the course content and perform to your expectations, then is there a benefit to them having to spend the entire academic term doing that? There may be if you have designed your course to provide additional benefits, but if not, then flexibility can help that student focus on other courses (or work, family, etc.) that they would like to prioritize higher.

As a teacher, I have disciplinary and professional standards: I have expectations of my students. I'm willing to give students flexible options for how they demonstrate whether they have achieved those standards. In most cases, the amount of time (or lack of time) it takes a student to meet or exceed that threshold is completely irrelevant. Thus, I propose that deadlines be optional; that they be guidelines for students that want that structure.

You can even add some incentives to follow those guidelines! In other words, be flexible with your flexibility: a compromise could be to provide each student with three opportunities to miss a deadline and not have it count against them. Or, let students "bank" deadline credit: if they turn in work three days early, for example, then they get three days worth of deadline extensions they can use at any point in the semester for other deadlines that they don't meet. This approach gives students agency in their education and might even help improve mindset and engagement.

I have no illusion that these approaches are easy to implement. They do require additional accounting of the instructor, and so I very much doubt you will decide to adopt them. Instead, I provide them at least as examples of types of flexibility you've never thought of before that you might consider. In many situations, it is simply not practical to have flexible deadlines, but do consider providing flexible deadlines when it is appropriate.