Flexible, Inclusive Policies

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THE VALUE OF FLEXIBLE COURSE POLICIES

Course policies are fertile ground for innovating your teaching and applying UDL principles to your course. Many traditional course policies are rigid and inflexible, which can be alienating for some students, especially marginalized students.

For example, a strict "cell phones off during class time" rule, while well intentioned, can leave some students feeling like they have to choose between breaking the rules and maintaining essential lines of communication. In an article entitled Cruelty-Free Syllabi Links to an external site., Matthew Cheney reflects on an incident in which a cellphone policy led to a student missing a call about her child's emergency hospitalization due to an asthma attack.

Setting emergency situations aside, a strict no cell phone policy may harm student learning for some students. Cell phones can have a variety of valuable uses in the classroom, from setting study reminders to looking up terms that the instructor uses to taking notes to stimming. For some students, cell phones are likely to be a distraction, while for others, they may be a lifeline. Rigid and inflexible policies don't acknowledge those differences and thus shut out some learners from getting the most out of your course.

Applying the ideas at the heart of UDL to course policies can result in flexible, inclusive policies that better accommodate individual differences. For instance consider this cell phone policy in contrast to a standard "leave your cell phone off during class time" policy. This policy meets students where they are at and provides them guidance with a wide range of options to recognize their individual differences. It opens up conversations, rather than closing them down.

In the following sections, we'll look at UDL-informed approaches to some of the most common course policies and statements.

ATTENDANCE POLICY

Ball State faculty are required to establish attendance policies for their courses and communicate these policies through their course syllabi. The content of your attendance policy is largely up to your discretion, though it must be consistent with University policies regarding attendance Links to an external site.. As the Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs website says, "These university policies should be considered when faculty members construct their individual attendance policies. We understand that faculty members will also consider field-specific best practices as well as student well-being as they construct their policies."

The importance of attendance in your course should come back to your learning objectives. How critical is attendance to a student achieving the course objectives? If it is very important, then your attendance policy should reflect that. If it is less important, then you could consider loosening your attendance policy to allow for more flexible attendance.

One way to apply UDL principles to attendance policies is to reconsider what attendance and participation look like in your course. For example, a student who was unable to physically attend class may still be able to "attend" and participate via a Google Doc. Extending this idea to in-class participation also benefits students who may not always feel comfortable with more "traditional" forms of participation, such as speaking up during a class discussion.

Another approach is to loosen attendance requirements and instead focus heavily on the benefits of attending your class. Emphasizing the benefits of attendance, making class time highly valuable, and using in-class work to benefit other projects all help students see the value in attending class without penalizing students who don't attend as frequently.

For more discussion of attendance policies and student wellness, visit IU's webpage about creating attendance policies Links to an external site..

LATE WORK POLICY

Like with attendance policies, late work policies should be driven by your course design. For example, if revision after feedback is a critical part of your course design, then turning in work late may have a negative effect on student outcomes. Similarly, discussion boards often rely on timely back-and-forth conversations, and participating "late" on them may harm student learning.

While allowing for penalty-free late work may be highly flexible for students, this may not be the best solution for your class. You can explore hybrid solutions, such as imposing a late penalty while also communicating clearly to students that you are open to waiving that penalty on a case-by-case basis. This method encourages students to open lines of discussion with you, rather than simply turn in late work without ever contacting you. This also has the benefit of mirroring real-world applications, in which deadlines have very real consequences but are often flexible and open to discussion.

Above, we discussed the idea of "passively" encouraging attendance not through policy but through how important and valuable you make your class time. That also applies to late work: you can encourage students to turn in work on time, for example, by only providing timely and robust feedback on "on time" submissions, then providing slower feedback on late submissions.

Visit our Continuity of Instruction community for an example flexible late work policy that you can adapt in your course.

UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING STATEMENT

Ball State faculty are required to include a Disability Statement Links to an external site. on their syllabus, which details the process for obtaining accommodations. Students seeking accommodations should contact Disability Services Links to an external site.. UDL is a broader approach to pedagogy than official accommodations, and faculty who apply UDL principles to the course could consider adding to the official Disability Statement or creating a separate "Universal Design for Learning Statement" on their syllabus.

A UDL statement should cover two items:

1. How you have designed the course with Universal Design for Learning principles
2. What action students should take if they wish to discuss their learning with you

For example, here is a possible UDL statement which encourages students to email you to discuss their learning experience in the course:

STUDENT RESOURCES STATEMENTS

While student resources statements can feel like a routine and "uninteresting" part of your syllabus, they are absolutely critical to student success. In a survey of more than 1,600 Ball State students, 15% responded that they did not feel confident knowing where to seek help.

Rather than simply listing resources available to students, we encourage you to craft statements that help students navigate all the resources available to them. Figuring out where to go for what help can be overwhelming to many students, and a thoughtful approach to student resources statements can go a long ways toward helping reduce this confusion and overwhelm.

It's also valuable to encourage students to seek help. Seeking help can come with a certain degree of stigma attached to it, and using language that encourages use of resources can help mitigate this stigma. For example, consider changing instances of "if you need help" to something more encouraging, such as "when you'd like help" or "when help would benefit you."

An excellent starting point is this page on How to Be a Successful Learner Links to an external site. from Ball State Online. In addition to listing resources, this page includes discussion of various strategies for approaching online learning that can benefit students.

Also consider directing students specifically on how your course might interact with certain campus services or resources. For example, if you are assigning essays, your Writing Center statement Links to an external site. can reflect how students could seek help with these essays from the Writing Center and how the Writing Center's tutoring appointments differ from the feedback and help you provide as the instructor.