Adaptable Course Design Resources
Resources for Creating Adaptable Courses
Adaptable Course Design (ACD) is a strategy for building courses that are intentionally flexible during large-scale emergencies and facilitate support for individual students (during individual emergencies, in response to their learning goals, and to meet other needs).
You can find faculty AC⚡DC examples on our website. Butte faculty can also join our Canvas AC⚡DC resource.
Course Design
ACD, like any course design, begins with an understanding of what the course needs to accomplish. Once the course outcomes are identified, you can identify the core assessments and learning. Knowing the final goal will help you identify what portions of the class can be flexible.
Backwards design is a useful framework for designing courses with the end in mind. Learn more about backwards design from the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) focuses on providing students options in how they interact with course content and demonstrate learning. These options help students engage with the course based on their strengths; they also help us design courses that are more flexible. Learn more about UDL on the CAST site.
Online Course Design. Adaptable courses are ones that can seamlessly pivot to the online modality in times of crisis. Effective practices for online course design will help faculty build courses that are still effective when online. Faculty who want to take their course design to the next level can also participate in the Peer Online Course Review (POCR) process.
The Modern Classrooms Project empowers educators to build classrooms that respond to every student’s needs. The Modern Classroom Project is a movement of educators in implementing a self-paced, mastery-based instructional model that leverages technology to foster human connection, authentic learning, and social-emotional growth.
Teaching
Instructors are the main contact students have with educational institutions and, as such, play a vital role in support students’ socio-emotional needs. Meeting these needs is essential for students to be able to learn.
Culturally Responsive Teaching is a framework that helps educators understand how students' backgrounds affect their experience with our course design. Learn more about Culturally Responsive Teaching from Zaretta Hammond. Training Opportunities:
Trauma-Informed Pedagogy provides a framework for teaching based on an understanding of how trauma affects learning. Learn more about Trauma-Informed Pedagogy from of College and Research Libraries.
Resilient Pedagogy offers a comprehensive collection on the topics and issues surrounding resilient pedagogy framed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social justice movements that have swept the globe.
Humanizing leverages learning science and culturally responsive teaching to create an inclusive, equitable online class climate for today's diverse students. Learn more about Humanizing Online Learning from Michelle Pacansky-Brock. Training Opportunities:
Reducing Technostress is important in this age of information overload. This Faculty Guide to Reducing Technostress was written by Kandace Knudson. It summarizes research in information overload, cognitive load theory, digital literacy, and design.
Course Materials
Course materials help students learn the content. Ensuring that course materials can be accessed by all students in a variety of situations is essential to help build an adaptable course.
Open Educational Resources (OER) have a number of benefits that help with adaptable course design. These resources are free to students, which means that all students will have access to them. They are available as both online and print, which allows students to choose the format that works best for them. And, they can be customized by faculty to align to the course content. Learn more about OER from the Butte College Library.
Accessibility. Ensure all course materials are accessible so that all students can access the resource. Learn more accessibility at Butte College's Distance Education Committee site. Learn more about building accessible content in Canvas from Butte's Technology Mediated Instruction.
Mobile Friendly content design helps students work on course content even when they don't have access to a laptop or desktop. Learn more about mobile-friendly design in Canvas using the checklist from the Canvas Community.
Assessments
The goal of assessments is to measure student learning. assessments that allow students to demonstrate their learning in a variety of different ways ensures we are accurately measuring student learning outcomes.
Authentic focus on students' to demonstrate learning of core objectives in a real world context. Focusing on authentic assessment that are adaptable to student skills and situations will help make our courses more flexible. Learn more about authentic assessment at Butte College's SLO site.
Adaptable Assessment design combines backwards design with authentic assessment to develop assessments that allow students to demonstrate their new content skills using their existing strengths. Learn more about adaptable assessment with this video.
Open Educational Practices (OEP) are assessment and course design strategies that engages students as conent creators in the global knowledge community. Learn more about OEP in this video titled UDL, SLO, and OEP.
Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) provides templates and examples of how to build assignments with clear expectations and grading criteria. This framework can help you explain the essential components of the assignment to students and identify components that can be more flexible. Learn more about TILT (scroll to the bottom of the page).
Class Policies
The policies in your class set the tone early in the semester (when students first read the syllabus); this is where students identify how much support they will get in the class. These policies will also determine the affects of emergencies on the student's grade.
A Liquid Syllabus is an accessible, public website that incorporates a brief, friendly welcome video and course information written in welcoming, student-centered language. When used in conjunction with culturally responsive teaching pedagogy, the Liquid Syllabus contributes to creating a more equitable learning environment for all students. (Pacansky-Brock et al, 2020; Pacansky-Brock, 2017, 2014).
Late Work policies are paramount during times of crisis. If we dont' accept late work, students who cannot complete the work on time during an emergency miss out on that learning, and we are not able to assess what they have learned. Consider allowing late work without penalty. You could introduce limits to the number of late assignments or how late the assignment can be. Also, keep in mind that some students may not feel comfortable asking for an extension or sharing the specifics of their emergency situation.
Attendance policies affect students with complex lives more than other students. Consider providing course content in multiple formats, including asynchronous online options. This not only helps students who miss class, but it also provides students with alternative modalities for learning. Providing information in multiple modalities helps all students learn but can be especially important for students with various learning and other challenges.
Grading policies can result in very different grades for students with the same content knowledge. Consider looking beyond traditional grading strategies. Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman provides helpful information about equitable grading strategies. Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) edited by Susan D. Blum provides useful cases studies in alternative grading approaches. Training Opportunities:
- Equitable Grading Strategies course from @ONE
Student Services provide a wide variety of supports to help students through challenging times. Include a link to Butte's student services in your syllabus.
