Helping Students Track Learning Tasks
The second in a series of posts about the progress tracker for my ungraded course
Last week, I talked at length about the Progress Tracker I’m using for my course and how I introduced it to the class. This week, I’ll talk about some of the changes I’ve made to my ungrading practice as encapsulated in the Readings & Assignments section of the tracker.
Tracking Readings & Assignments
One thing my students struggled with last semester was keeping track of all the little assignments that were due every week. The biggest thing I’ve done to help with this is to provide a checklist in the Progress Tracker that clearly delineates what is due when—and provides students with the small dopamine hit that comes from checking a box when they have completed those assignments.
The other thing I did was add consistency. Last semester, assignments were due at the same time every week, but each assignment asked students to do a slightly different task. Sometimes they would annotate a reading; sometimes they would write a short paragraph; sometimes they would scour the internet for a sample of some kind to share with the class. I really liked the freedom to assign such different kinds of work, but students seemed confused almost every week about the expectations for these assignments, even when I included copious written directions.
This time around, I made the tasks more consistent: every Tuesday students annotate a reading on Perusall (a social annotation platform) and every Friday they turn in a written product, typically some prep work for their major assignments or drafts of those assignments. I did not expect students to notice or appreciate this consistency. But in our midsemester feedback session, one student noted that they liked the clarity and regularity of the homework assignments in the course, and others agreed. Certainly a win for my teaching revisions!
I also made every assignment due at 5:00 p.m., a small change from last semester. This may seem like a more or less arbitrary deadline, but I’m finding that this particular time has a lot of advantages. The first is just that when students turn in their work at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, I don’t look at it until Monday morning, which gives us both a break from thinking about it.
But the biggest advantage is that a 5:00 p.m. deadline allows a little wiggle room for late assignments. Students shoot for 5:00 p.m. submissions, but if they don’t make it, there are still at least a few hours before I will even get around to looking at submissions. So I can provide some grace with late assignments without too much inconvenience to myself.
Which brings me to the next major change I made in the course.
A New (to me) System: Late Tokens
If you read my reflections from last semester, you’ll know that students’ untimely submission of assignments was a real problem for both of us, but mostly for them. If they missed more than one or two assignments in a row, they found it difficult to get back on track. Just as important, turning in preparatory assignments late (or not at all) meant they didn’t always get the feedback they needed to succeed on their major assignments.
This turned out to be a problem despite my best efforts to provide structure through clear due dates and an assignment extension form that students could fill out if they weren’t able to submit work on time. The form asked students to propose a new deadline for their assignment (within one week of the original deadline) and share anything about their work that they needed assistance with. I really thought this would be enough to encourage timely submission. But it turns out that the students who struggled to turn work in on time also struggled to remember to submit the assignment extension form.
So, this semester, I’m trying out something different: late tokens.
Students are allowed to submit late assignments within a limited window of time, no questions asked. When they submit an assignment, they use up one of their “late tokens,” of which there are a limited (but generous) number.
Here’s why this is working for both of us so far:
Students don’t have to remember to communicate with me about late assignments or to complete backlogs of work. There’s an automatic grace period for late work, which students can choose to utilize or not, without signaling their intentions to me ahead of time. Once the extended deadline for the work is passed, it’s passed. When I sit down to review student work, I simply mark in my records which students have submitted on-time work, which submitted late work, and which didn’t submit at all. Students keep track of their own late submissions on the Progress Tracker.
The limited window on assignment submissions means that late assignments rarely delay my process of providing feedback on student work. For example, journals and major assignments are due at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, but students are allowed to submit late work until 12:00 p.m. on Monday—the time when I sit down to provide feedback on these assignments. Even when they submit their work late, it doesn’t affect my grading process as long as the submission is within the dedicated window. If their work is not submitted during the dedicated window, I (theoretically) don’t provide feedback on it.
Missing this limited window one or two times, however, won’t totally tank a student’s chance of success in the course. Students submit major assignments through multiple drafts, so if they miss the deadline on one draft, they simply submit that draft on the next due date. This means, of course, that they will get less feedback and have less time to improve their work. But it also means that they can still get work in despite missing a deadline or two.
Because late work is manageable for me in this system, the policy can be very generous. Students are allowed three late submissions in each category of work, meaning they can submit up to nine assignments late without much inconvenience to either of us. And some students have needed it.
Here’s what’s not working so well:
I’m a big softie. In theory, students’ window for assignment submissions and their use of late tokens are strictly limited. In practice, they know that I am a flexible and forgiving teacher and will often let them get away with fudging these requirements. And since their work is evaluated holistically, they don’t necessarily “lose points” for late work. The vast majority of students do not abuse this system. But now that we know and trust one another, and are getting to the end point of the semester, a few students are pushing the limits a bit. I suspect this is because they know I will likely provide feedback on late work even if they’ve used up their late tokens or if they submit beyond the limited window. This isn’t the worst thing in the world, but it is a minor inconvenience for me that I would prefer to avoid next time, if possible.
In general, I think the late token system is working better than my previous system; more students are keeping up with their work. However (and this is the theme of the semester), I don’t know to what extent these positive outcomes are a result of changes to my policies or of the different population of students in the class. I’m planning to ask students for their input on the Progress Tracker and late token system at the end of the semester.
After the Thanksgiving holiday, I’ll share a little about the Attendance & Engagement section of the tracker and what I’ve done to encourage regular attendance this semester. Stay tuned!