CrumpLab
commented
3 years ago Primary practice: Set clear civility and netiquette guidelines in your syllabus Secondary practice(s): Collaborate with students to create community norms
I am reflecting on the above suggested practices.
- Once you have written or revised your policies, write a reflection that includes a. an explanation of why you selected this technique in connection to your personal or professional goals;
I selected the civility and netiquette guidelines as a primary practice as an opportunity to review the syllabus requirements at Brooklyn College, and confirm that my current syllabus complies with those requirements. I noted that our syllabus requirements do not specifically require civility/netiquette guideline. This module has caused me to think about how I approach these issues in my syllabus. At the moment I have in included what I think of as a statement of flexibility, which reads, in referring to class time "We will decide as a class how to best use this time to accomplish the course goals." This does not clearly reference etiquette or civility, however, it does tell the students that I will be participating with them in constructing a learning environment that mutually beneficial to the course goals. I have decided to not change my syllabus, and am testing out these guidelines this semester.
Additionally, I chose collaborate with students to create community norms. I am teaching my first two online courses this semester, and being unfamiliar with the online format, one of the first things I did was tell my classes that we would be figuring out the semester together and participate as a group to find useful ways to grapple with course content, while also living through a pandemic. This has involved making weekly changes to how content is presented in asynchronous and synchronous venues, as well as conversations with students about trying out different formats that seems best suited for the needs of the class.
b. a description of any changes you made to your current policies or, if you wrote a new policy or policies, an example of a key component and an explanation of why you made the changes or additions;I did not make changes to my syllabus, see above for extended discussion on the statement I had included.
c. a description of the types of behaviors you expect your policy or policies will encourage or discourage and how you think your students will react to these new expectations; andI expect my student will encourage students to develop their sense of active agency in my courses, in the sense that they contribute to and help define the learning environment that they are in. I reinforce this in class, even though it is a small reference in the syllabus.
d. the steps you will take to share the new or revised policy or policies with your students.I didn't change the syllabus.
As a final note, I am currently teaching small master's and doctoral level courses, and these students are very well equipped to contribute to a vibrant online learning community. So, although I do not see a current need to modify my approach for these classes, I do appreciate that this module raised my awareness about how I might deal with this issues in larger undergraduate sections in future semesters.
Brooklyn College Syllabus requirements http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/apfa