Mitigate Issues by Encouraging Consistency Across Courses

As a leader, do any of the following situations sound familiar?

• A student appeals a grade, making a case that grading criteria were unclear and/or difficult to find. Furthermore, they claim they are being assessed on outcomes unrelated to the program whatsoever.

• An instructor pursues an academic misconduct case against a student for using generative AI when it is not allowed, but there is no written record of what is acceptable in that course. The student tells you that another instructor said that generative AI use is normal and expected, so they thought this held true across all courses in your department.

• Faculty vent to you, complaining that their email inbox is full of students asking basic questions that are already answered in their syllabi.

• A brilliant instructor is upset that their student feedback ratings are lower than they'd like. Reading comments, you see that students say they “can't find anything in this course!” 

Humans are creatures of habit. Our early experiences shape our assumptions about how the world works, and academic courses are no exception. When things are not where we expect them to be, we assume they are nonexistent or lost. When messages are presented differently than we're used to, we have to put more effort into understanding, and we won't always get it right. So, what can you do as a leader to prevent accidental academic misconduct, misunderstandings about acceptable GenAI use, or the deluge of unnecessary emails your faculty receive? The answer could be to create consistency across courses. 

We often think of learning experiences within the boundaries of a single course, but as a leader, thinking about consistency across courses can help greatly with improving accessibility. When courses are consistent, students spend less time finding the important details and making sense of them. Instead, they spend more time learning. Everyone wins. 

If you are interested in creating a more consistent experience for learners, below are a few options worth considering. Notice how each proactively solve one of the issues described above in this article’s introduction. 

1.  A standard rubric for courses at each level in your program (adapted slightly for course content) will help students better understand expectations and see their growth towards program learning outcomes. GMCTL can advise on building resources for consistent outcomes-based assessment criteria. 

2.  A standard format for academic integrity expectations, especially for GenAI use. Faculty may have slightly different expectations across courses, but if the information is presented similarly and using consistent language, accidental misconduct will be less likely. 

3.  A syllabus template helps students more easily find answers to important questions. You can work with GMCTL staff to create a template in our Syllabus Generator, giving your faculty a good and consistent starting point for creating their own. 

4.  A custom Canvas course template, which can also be supported by GMCTL staff, including module structure, that ensures students are aware of what to expect in each course. 

Of course, faculty buy-in is crucial to the success of any attempt at consistency. It is important that consistency is not at the expense of academic freedom. As a leader, keep your ear to the ground. What are the current faculty concerns about students? How might a consistent resource establish a norm for students while also making faculty lives easier? 

If you're developing something and are not sure where to go with it, then do not hesitate to reach out to GMCTL – we just might be able to help!

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^{Title image credit: Andrew Ridley on Unsplash}

This resource is shared by the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning (GMCTL), University of Saskatchewan, under a CC BY-NC-SA license.