Adapting Course Content & Assignments

Center for Teaching Excellence

Course Content Adjustments

Losing time from a semester will often mean that we have to trim our content and assignments; trying to fit all content into an abbreviated time frame may not only not be feasible, but can create stress and lower students' sense of efficacy that they can be successful. This can lead to students giving up or withdrawing from the class.

(Also remember: If all instructors insist that the full course as originally laid out will still get done with less time, this multiplies students' workloads significantly across all of their classes!)

Deciding what stays and goes from a course is difficult and draining. It's also not fun, as we all love our content and have already chosen with intention what we believe it is best for students to learn.

In this disrupted moment, however, we have to take another pass and see what might be less important, in order to trim the class to its most essential elements in this new time frame.

Adapting Course Content: General Approaches

  • Reconsider "value-added."

    If you have a significant proportion of students who are faced with post-disaster challenges, or if your class has lost significant meeting time, you may have some tough decisions to make.

    Consider that it might not be best to try to force your original plans into a shortened time period - or to have students squeeze everything in on their own, once they are ready to reengage with the class.

    Examine your course content and remaining assignments: Is there anything that might be beloved (by you), but may not be as necessary, if time does not permit addressing it? Cutting out a segment of content or an "icing-on-the-cake" assignment may make life easier for all involved. Let's make sure they get the cake first.

    In making this decision, be sure you are not sacrificing key learning goals!

  • Revisit course learning goals.

    To assist with course content pruning, follow these steps:

    1. Make a list of the learning goals. Sit down and list out all of the learning goals that remain from the disrupted part of this semester onward. 
    2. Include the reasons. For each learning goal, write out a brief explanation as to why it is included. 
    3. Eliminate goals (& associated content) with weak reasons. If a reason is, "the textbook covers it" or "I've always included it," but there are not stronger reasons to keep a learning goal, cross it out. (Stronger reasons are "essential to core disciplinary understanding," or "necessary to succeed in subsequent courses.") 
    4. Remove that content from your plans. 
    5. Adjust your course schedule accordingly.
  • Move necessary content to slow-online completion.

    If you have an assignment that is coming up soon - or was interrupted by this crisis -, consider if there are ways you might be able to break it up and have students complete it gradually, as they proceed with the remaining content as it is laid out in your course schedule.

    Feathering in this disrupted chunk of work and content, using your D2L course site, may be a less-stressful way to ensure your students get the knowledge and practice they need, without sacrificing the course learning goals. (Online instructors: This same strategy can be used if needed, by creating a submodule addressing just the work/learning from this disrupted time, with new timelines.)

    Recommended: Only do this for necessary content but omit if you've decided this assignment/content was "icing," not "cake."

    See further tips below about effective ways to move content online.

 

Using Artificial Intelligence to Help Adapt Course Content

There are several ways you can use AI to assist you and your students in this moment. Below are ways to use it as you make decisions about pruning content.

For these uses and all others suggested on this page, we rarely get responses from AI that are useful at first pass. However, with your expert lens, you can either refine your prompts to AI or use an AI suggestion as a springboard to a better idea that you can build with that starting point. 

The tips below use an AI engine such as ChatGPT or CoPilot.

  • Use AI as a mentor.
    Describe to AI your course content and learning goals. Then explain our circumstances and the goals that remain. Ask AI which learning goals for the discipline are most necessary to retain and which could be trimmed (with an explanation). AI's responses could spark some thoughts and considerations for you. 
  • Get "expert" advice.
    Give AI a "role" as an expert in your field. Explain the level of the course in its progression from novice to developed learner. Ask, more broadly, for AI to identify the most important learning goals students should meet in a course such as this one. 
  • Ask about tiers.

    For your use only, consider developing "tiers" of course adaptations, available to students depending on their category of need.

    Do not announce these tiers to the class; they are for your use in the background, to be able to quickly make decisions and implement the necessary changes for students who qualify.

    Students who are least affected by the disruption should get the ("Tier I") standard course adjustments that are necessary, given timeline disruptions. However, the assumption for these students is that they have the resources and average-level focus they need to complete all revised course requirements as now laid out.

    Students who are more greatly affected might need a more advanced set of adaptations ("Tier 2," possbly a "Tier 3" if you wish). These students might have more flexible deadlines, more opportunities for revision, and/or more stripped down assignment requirements (while still trying to meet the learning goals for the class).

    Not sure how to adjust tiers? Ask AI for some input. For your prompt:

    • Describe the circumstances causing the disruption
    • Describe student variablity in needs (or copy/paste feedback you've collected from students about how they are doing and their circumstances)
    • Explain your remaining learning goals for the semester and associated (already adapted) assignments
    • Explain that you would like tiers of course expectations and adaptations, based on level of student need for flexibility. Note that you would like to keep learning goals consistent and met for all students.
    • Ask for the # of tiers you would like to have on hand as you make decisions, and what student circumstances qualify for which tier.

     

 

Adapting Assignments & Assessments (A/As): General Approaches

  • Align with learning goals.

    Continuing the process from listing learning goals (above):

    1. Map A&As to your learning goals. Next to each learning goal, include the method by which you planned to help students learn toward that goal as well as how you planned to assess that learning. 
    2. Adapt or eliminate A&As for stricken goals & content. If an A/A addresses multiple content points, only some of which is stricken from the course, adapt it to eliminate the removed content. This should shorten the A/A. If an A/A is entirely focused on removed content, eliminate that A/A from course requirements. 
    3. Rewrite assignment instructions and revise grading rubrics/points.
    4. Adjust your course schedule accordingly.
  • Abbreviate assignments.

    Are there ways you can keep some of your upcoming assignments, but find ways to abbreviate them for students (and your own grading)? 

    This may mean simply shortening the requirements. Alternatively (but admittedly more front-end work for you), you could change the assignment to a different format that is shorter for students to complete.

    The key when shortening or changing the assignment is to be sure all the learning goals for that assignment are still being met - perhaps not quite as robustly as in your original plans, but at least in some regard.

  • Simplify grading.

    If alternative grading has intrigued you but you haven't yet tried it, this could be your golden opportunity! For any current or upcoming disrupted assignments, consider assessing it using an alternative grading method, which tends to lower student stress and is often easier for you as the grader:

    • Specifications Grading: Adjust the assignment so that the core "musts" are met in a specs table. If any are missing, students can try again with your feedback. Meeting all specs gets (in this special instance) full credit for the assignment.

    • Student-Grading: Allow students to self-assess, perhaps on a rubric you provide, with evidence to support their evaluation. You'll be surprised how honest most students are with this process.

    • Ungrading: Do not grade the assignment (but provide feedback!). Perhaps in this special instance (and depending on the weight of the assignment or assessment), let students know that conscientiously completing the assignment not only boosts their learning, but may make the difference in a +/- for their final course grade.

    • Proportionately Fair Failure: At the very least, for students who are unable to complete an assignment, consider assigning scores of no lower than 50/100 for absent or below-standards work. This keeps failure recoverable and weights it at the same 10% that the other letter grades get on a 100-point scale (as opposed to the 60% weight an F typically carries in a 0-100 scale).

 

Using Artificial Intelligence to Help Adapt A/As

The tips below use an AI engine such as ChatGPT or CoPilot.

  • Get teaching suggestions.

    After describing to AI the situation and your need to quickly pivot, ask for ideas on how to teach your adapted content (once the unnecessary content has been trimmed). 

    This can be for in-class redesign for a class meeting, or for assignments that are re-aligned to the adapted content.

  • Get ideas for assignment adaptations.
    Explain to AI an assignment that you need to shorten or adapt in some other way. Ask for suggestions.

 

Moving Course Content Online: General Advice

Some or all of the disrupted content in your course may be essential content.

In this instance, it's time to either (a) push your entire schedule back and eliminate/slow-track later content, or (b) move this disrupted content online to be slow-tracked.

Which you do depends on the content and your expert judgment.

Below are some ideas and tips for any content you slow-track to online:

 

  • Create a clear online module.
    Create a module specifically for this slow-tracked content and mark it clearly. House all other slow-tracked materials and activities, below, within this module. 
  • Add videos.

    For direct content delivery, consider adding videos.

    • Create Your Own: Record a series of short videos (5-7 minutes) to post online. Avoid one long lecture.
      • Segment videos by sub-topic
      • It's best to be unscripted (students say this is easier to watch)
      • Use visuals (slides with images more than words); do not read your slides!
    • Curate: Locate other, professionally developed videos online that you can link in for students to watch. 
    • Scaffold the viewing: You can help students "walk through" these videos by including them, sequentially, in one or more D2L "quizzes."
      • For example, post Video 1, then ask some follow-up questions in the quiz. Then comes Video 2, etc. Keep these quizzes short, to allow students to do them a little at a time, as they work this learning into their remaining schedules. 
  • Make content digestible.

    Keep any written content on D2L short & digestible.

    Find ways to include white space and, when possible or appropriate, images. 

  • Offer practice opportunities.

    Offer opportunities for students to practice learning the content: 

    • Adapt a Project Zero Thinking Routine to an interactive and embeddable format for D2L, such as in a Padlet or Google Document. 
      • If you simply want to use one of these as a Dropbox item, create a quick Word template for students to use as they respond to the Thinking Routine prompts.
    • Create practice quiz questions (better yet: ask students to submit some!) into pools of questions addressing content topics.
      • Using these pools (with quizzes set up to randomly select items from each so that quizzes will always test for the key concepts) create short, repeatable quizzes for students to test their own learning.
  • Keep key things in mind.

    Remember that students will need additional time to complete anything moved to the online setting. (And again remember that they may be doing this for several classes.) Consider making this new module something to be completed "by the last week of classes" to permit this time.

    Also remember that students less affected by the disaster will have the advantage of accessing and using this online information sooner or more often. Recognizing this disparity may mean needing to adjust requirements or expectations for affected students.

 

Using Artificial Intelligence to Assist with Online Delivery

  • Use AI as an editor.

    You can upload articles or longer content into Google Notebook LM, and then request an FAQ summary or study guide. You can also ask it to generate a podcast discussing the article! Any of these could be used to shorten reading requirements for students while still providing them the key information online.

    If you use a podcast, see tips for how to scaffold students' listening that are included above for online videos.

    Thank you to Dr. Karin Keith for sharing with CTE!
  • Use AI to talk with your students.

    For smaller classes, or classes you feel pretty sure will not all be online at once:

    • You can create a free-version (for Teachers) account in schoolai.com and either locate a pre-made, or create, an "expert" chatbot. Once created, you can share this with your students by embedding it in D2L.
    • Also in schoolai.com, you can create a chatbot discussion centered around key ideas you would like your students to discuss and explore. This gives students some real-time conversation around topics, even in an asynchronous setting. 
    Thank you to Dr. Trevor Chapman for sharing about schoolai with CTE!
  • Get quiz question suggestions.

    If you are trying to quickly generate multiple-choice questions for quiz-question pools, you can feed content into ChatGPT or CoPilot and request several multiple-choice question suggestions.

    From a set of 10, perhaps 3 that result will be usable. Others may need adaption before they are appropriate to use. This is why our expertise will always matter when it comes to using AI!

  • Learn how to embed in D2L.

    To embed Padlets, Google Docs, MS Forms, and schoolai into D2L Content:

    • Click to "Add New"
    • Select "Add a Link"
    • Insert the shareable link/URL for created page/app to embed
    • UNclick "external resource/open in new window"

    Be sure to test it out first and include actual link in the Description in case students encounter trouble with the embedded version!