Mini Course Syllabus: Digital Submission
Designing Flexibility Agreements
Description
Flexibility accommodations, both for assignments and attendance, can cause some confusion for both faculty and students. In the past few semesters, CAS (Campus Accessibility Services here at PSU) have noticed that flexibility accommodations can be a point of contention, with students wondering how and when it’s appropriate to ask for an extension or coordinate missed work, and faculty wondering how to maintain their course design and expectations while meeting this students approved accommodations. Some projects are difficult to provide extensions for, some activities can only be conducted in-person and with other peers, how can we make an equitable alternative for students who may miss due to their disability? We want to support both faculty and students in level-setting reasonable expectations, so this syllabus is going to be centered around the design and building of a “Flexibility Agreement” between both faculty and student, moderated by CAS.
Objectives
| Goal |
|---|
| Design the procedure of a Flexibility Agreement from start to finish (request for the meeting what the discussion will look like with both faculty and student the finalized agreement that both faculty and student will “sign” etc.) |
| Create a template for the Flexibility Agreement in Accommodate |
Resources
- University policies surrounding fair grading, attendance policies (excused/unexcused), and any other policies that may come into play.
- UNH Flexibility accommodations guidance for both faculty and students (CAS has been working with UNH SAS staff to align processes, though there are some specific differences between our two institutions)
- Notes from previous discussions with PSU faculty about their concerns about how to accommodate the student reasonably without impacting fair grading, over-accommodating, or altering their course in any way.
Activities
- Create a template for the Flexibility Agreement that can be electronically signed by both faculty and student that include clear communication and expectations on how the flexibility accommodation will be implemented.
- A big part of this process will be discussion. I plan to add “Flexibility Agreement Meetings” to our bookings link and hyperlink it in the accommodation description itself for faculty to find. If they have a concern about how to reasonably implement flexibility accommodation, they can look to the accommodation first and then schedule a meeting to initiate the process. I would also love to have “moderated” open discussions through the co-lab for faculty to come bring their concerns and specific scenarios to talk about with myself or CAS as a whole. I want to make sure faculty feel heard and supported as well as the students.
- (Maybe) create a general “FAQ” type document about flexibility accommodations that can be sent out to faculty or included in our “Resources” section in Accommodate. I haven’t gotten to utilize that at all since we’ve started using Accommodate, largely because being an office of 2 with over 700 students per semester is a lot to juggle and leaves little time for creation of new materials.
Assessment
- Have Lindsay (and others) review the procedure and set up of Flexibility Agreements. I want language to be plain, clear and direct so there is little room for misunderstanding. Key players with of course be faculty, but also folks from the Co-Lab, Frost House, OAA, etc. as they all have the potential to be brought into a discussion regarding accommodations and flexibility.
- Create a document of the steps of the procedure. I would like to start with a meeting between a CAS staff member and the faculty member first to gather information, and then a separate meeting that includes the student to finalize the student/faculty responsibilities for that specific course.
Calendar
- I’d like to complete this by the Spring semester, or at least enough of a rough outline of a structure so that Lindsay and I can implement it into our workflow. I want to be more resourceful for faculty and make them feel like they can reach out and work through their questions without fear or judgement. The more finalized version may come to fruition by the end of the semester, but a general outline by the start of Spring 26 would be fantastic for us to work with.
“Policies”
- This is YOUR mini-course syllabus. Do not get overwhelmed or discouraged by the work because YOU are in charge.
- At anytime, you may revise/update your syllabus to reflect modified objectives, newly found resources, ideas for new activities, modified calendar, etc.
- The CoLab is your partner in this course. In addition to reviewing all the syllabi to find opportunities for shared programming, group meetings, etc. we are available to brainstorm your ideas, rethink your goals, come up with activity ideas, etc. Feel free to make an appointment if you need to talk.
- Since this is YOUR syllabus, feel free to share it with anyone you like (beyond your “Syllabus Cohort”) to get feedback or ideas.
- Spend 1-2 hours per week working on the development of the Flexibility Agreement procedure.
- Work with Lindsay after the holidays to work on language and details of the process.
- Have (at the very least) a Bookings offering hyperlinked in the description of the accommodation for attendance and assignment flexibility.
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