I have been working to add more flexibility to my courses over the past few semesters, and one way that has worked for me is by moving my courses to competency based assessment. Instead of the traditional grading scale, students interact with the course content as they develop an understanding of the material. They are given multiple ways to gain content as well as multiple ways they can demonstrate their understanding of the material.  This pedagogical practice, Universal Design for Learning, meshes well with competency based learning, as it provides students the opportunity to utilize their learning preferences. At designated times throughout the course, students reflect on their learning, and highlight how they demonstrated their competency. They can point to reflections, conversations, papers, projects, presentations, etc.

Transitioning to this type of course has been challenging for both me and my students. It requires everyone to completely abandon all of their previous understandings about teaching and learning. That said, as we all get more familiar with the model, we are finding that it does have many strengths. Flexibility has surfaced as one benefit of constructing the course in this way, another benefit is that students are able to take more ownership in their learning. In addition to choosing what materials they want to utilize, the reflective piece of the process allows them to more deeply gauge what level of understanding they have of the material. Instead of me telling them how much they learned, they are able to see it for themselves.

I recognize that this is only one type of flexibility in a course. I am interested in thinking more deeply about how I could facilitate a course that was more emergent in nature. I have been tinkering with the model by utilizing my student’s practicum reflections as a springboard. After a day in the field, students have time to share their experiences in small groups, and then again with the whole group. As they share, I am able to jump in with ” teachable moments” or fill in background knowledge that they may be missing. I like the authentic feel of these experiences, but I am still cautious, mostly because I am afraid of miss necessary content. As I dive deeper into this practice, I think it will be something I use in addition to other strategies, never one that I rely on to drive my whole course.