Office for Faculty Excellence

Make Expectations Clear

“Do the Work On Time”: Help students keep on track with coursework by establishing clear expectations, deadlines, and consequences, while offering support.

This week’s “Be a Strong Student” message to students asks them to do the work on time. Here are some strategies instructors can implement to help support their efforts:

Have a clear late work policy

  • Balance compassion with high expectations:
    • Send the message “extensions on deadlines are for exceptional circumstances” recognizing that there may be special circumstances warranting extensions.
    • Make clear that submitting work late impedes learning; some students have become habituated to soft deadlines and don’t understand their effect on learning.
  • Encourage students to complete their work by deducting points — but be careful to not overdo it and have students fail classes unnecessarily.
  • Be clear about make-up classwork: establish whether and how students can make up missed classwork.

Offer clear assignments

  • Provide students with clear assignments (see template and other tips).
  • Scaffold major assignments, helping students to work on the assignment in pieces rather than rushing to complete them all at the very last minute.
  • Provide rubrics: rubrics help students understand expectations and requirements (and help instructors grade).

Encourage and support students

  • Remind students of options for help, including student/office hours, CAST, the CWE, and Sprague librarians.
  • Offer clear, timely, and actionable feedback; returning assignments within two weeks, for example. See tips on planning for grading.
  • Encourage students to regularly check the Canvas gradebook to gain an accurate idea of their grade.
  • Encourage them to revisit and revise (or complete) a time management activity. See these examples provided by CAST:

Time Management Activity (opens as PDF)

Time Management Handouts (opens as PDF)

Last Modified: Thursday, July 25, 2024 8:36 am

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