Pedagogical Continuity

UCI Teaching Continuity Resources and DTEI have developed the following information and resources to assist with pedagogical continuity in an emergency situation.

Pedagogical Continuity is planning for times when, for various reasons, there has been a disruption to your usual mode of instruction.  It is important that every instructor pre-plans for these events.

There is a wide range of potential emergency and health-related situations that can arise. While we cannot predict them, it is best to consider them and inform your students about potential policies to accommodate them before instruction begins. This includes course policies, communication channels, and emergency procedures.  The most likely disruptions result in instructors (including yourself, TA’s, and/or LA’s) and/or students not being able to access the physical classroom or perform various teaching/learning activities (due to anything from illness to a power outage, to fire, etc.). 

It is highly recommended to have:

1) A clear communication plan in your syllabus regarding updated course policies or practices in cases where access to the classroom is limited.

2) For cases in which circumstances outside the instructors control prevent scheduled in-person instruction, lost instructional time can be minimized with the use of alternative tools (e.g. Zoom meetings, video recordings, online engagement tools, etc.).

3) Design attendance and assessment policies to handle “sick leave,” e.g., allow for a certain number of dropped assignments. Determine what materials, if any, will be available to students in case of short-term absence and how such materials will be accessed.

4) It is strongly recommended to designate a trusted colleague to have access to your course materials, including your Canvas page or the equivalent, in case there is the need for a colleague to take over your course temporarily and for you to have a clear plan for access to all relevant materials (i.e., course material, grade data, etc.) in situations where your TA is temporarily unavailable. (Please take a look at specific items below related to situations in which you or other members of the instructional team are temporarily unavailable.)

5) When possible, additional planning may include:

  • Having backups to weekly learning content and all course grading in case technology is not working properly.
  • Have your weekly content organized somewhere other than Canvas in case Canvas is down.
  • Using multiple communication channels as access to technology might be limited during emergencies.
  • Posting emergency messages on Canvas, sending through email, having TAs distribute, etc.
  • Providing students with emergency resources / support / hotlines including https://www.ready.gov/ as well as an emergency contact if the instructor is unavailable.
  • Ensure robust access to all relevant grades, including grades maintained by co-instructors and/or teaching assistants.

For disruptions that specifically impact one or more aspects of a course, here are additional items to consider:

Disruption to course activities and assessments:

To achieve course goals and keep grading manageable:

  • Consolidate smaller assignments and build out the scaffolding of written work
  • Transform individual assignments into group assignments
  • Utilize peer review and small group meetings for written assignments
  • Repurpose office hours to provide more efficient feedback verbally versus through written comments
  • Leverage online tools that can auto-grade such as Canvas quizzes or Gradescope

To proctor exams:

Alternate Final Assessments:

In cases where disruptions to instruction are likely to impact resources available for grading final assessments, the below options may be of use to instructors. We recognize that the specific solution in any particular case is likely to be tailored to the goals of that course. As such, the following suggestions can be modified and even combined to best meet the needs of your course. Also, it is imperative to keep in mind fairness to students when developing an alternative final assessment in response to emergencies and disruptions:

  1. Redesign the final assessment to best leverage automated (or at least faster) grading and alternative proctoring options. This flow chart provides options for grading/proctoring solutions for both online and in-person final exams. Options in the document include: multiple choice exams leveraging the Canvas Quiz tool, multiple choice or fill in the blank graded exams using Gradescope, and scantron-based exams. It may also be more manageable to shift the assessment from an in-person, proctored format to an independent, take-home format.
  2. If there has been sufficient assessment to determine final grades, allow students to complete the course with their current grade without the final assessment or to take the final assessment to potentially alter their final grade. This preserves the opportunity for a student to improve their grade, retains the integrity of assigning grades based on work completed, and reduces the grading load on the instructor as only a fraction of the class will likely opt to take the final. If the course policies include an opportunity to drop an assessment, remind students that they may leverage this option for the final.
  3. As the final assessment is meant to measure the student’s achievement at the end of the course, rather than as a formative teaching tool that requires detailed feedback, one can simplify the rubric/grading scheme to minimize feedback for the students. This generally reduces time required for grading and preserves the integrity of grade.
  4. Depending on the assessment, it may be appropriate to switch the final assessment grading to a pass/not pass format, while leveraging existing work in the course as the primary means of assigning the course grade. As an added suggestion (related to  recommendation  2 above), students who believe the final will positively impact their grade could be given the option to turn it in for a letter grade instead of P/NP.
  5. When the final assessment is a paper, one can modify the grading load by adjusting the rubric to emphasize the core learning objectives for the final assignment.
  6. For final papers, if sufficient pre-work has been graded and feedback provided, the final paper as a whole can be graded more quickly as a check to confirm the existing grade.

Disruption to Discussion Sections

  • Move discussion sections to an asynchronous virtual space, such as a Canvas discussion board.
  • Refashion office hours as discussion sessions
  • Utilize lecture videos, online quizzes, and other asynchronous course material for students to work on independently or in groups outside of the standard discussion meeting time
  • If your course leverages learning assistants, they may be able to assist in some fashion (although we cannot ask them to lead discussion sections without a TA, they can help you lead a discussion section.)

Disruption to Labs/Studios

  • Provide remote activities where possible
  • If needed, seed an experiment for your students to continue in future lab periods or provide artificial data for them to analyze in place of performing the work on their own
  • Leverage technologies (ex. LabArchives or virtual lab programs)
  • For courses with small numbers of sections, consider asking your colleagues whether they would be willing to share the responsibility of facilitating them with you

Visit our Digital Active Learning Strategies Page and OIT’s Educational Technology Tools to learn more about instructional methods and digital tools that may be helpful in your role as a teacher, a researcher, and a member of UCI.