What a Student Can Do When a Prof Miscommunicates: The Late-Breaking Syllabus Change

I'm already breaking my own header restriction and blogging about the current quarter. It's only my third post!

I'm not "outing" any students, but rather, myself: 

"Hello, my name is Ellen, and I'm the miscommunicator."

Is it fair to solely focus this blog on student-committed communication errors when professors have their share of them, too? Hardly. So, here's my confession:

I'm teaching Public Speaking this quarter. I've taught it a zillion times in a bunch of different formats:  daily, twice a week, one evening a week, part-televised, fully online (won a national teaching award for that model--woo hoo!)... in a boat, with a goat.

(Just kidding about that last part).

I've never taught Public Speaking, once per week, for exactly two hours and thirteen minutes. 

When I put this schedule together months ago, I thought, "Hey, I taught my Interpersonal Class in the  2:13 time format. No problem!"

Here's what I failed to catch before my syllabus was in the hands of my students: 

-The other course was writing-heavy. This course is speaking-heavy.
-I have a total of 10-11 class sessions.
-I have 29 students.
-I need six speaking days for that many students.
-This leaves very little time to actually teach public speaking.

I. Screwed. Up.

I'm guilty of unintentionally miscommunicating the required assignments in the syllabus... because I'm now going to have to add to them. In my mind, adding more assignments and points outside of the syllabus is somewhat of a BPS:

Big Professor Sin.

Now, I'm hardly the first educator to make a late-breaking syllabus change. You've probably seen those  strategic "disclaimers" throughout profs' syllabi: "planned schedule," "tentative plan," "tentative assignments."

Professor translation: "In case I made an error of gargantuan proportions, I reserve the right to say, 'But it was just my tentative plan!'"

So what am I doing about the problem? 

I am deferring some of the in-class work to our online environment:  I'm adding a series of smaller assignments, related to more major assignments that students already have to do for my class. The assignments will have points attached. Why? Because, historically, students will not do work "just for fun." (Students reading, I totally welcome your rebuttal or thoughts on this!).

My oversight is actually a good thing: Students are going to have far more personalized attention from myself and their peers in the online environment. The new points will also be fairly easy to earn.

But I don't deny my students' perspective:
"Crap. She's giving us more work to do and now there are more points involved."
and
"Crap. I have to do more reading/writing on my own."

I explained my error to my students, both in an e-mail and in person. Hopefully, they understood. Many of them completed the first not-on-the-syllabus online assignment, which was due yesterday. I'm thrilled!

What's the communication lesson here?
Even long-time professors slip up when it comes to planning a class--for a number of reasons. The key is open communication about any changes that occur.

So, if your professor suddenly makes a major syllabus change, you have the right to question it if the professor's explanation is confusing, unclear, or unfair.

You have the right to know:
a)  Why the change was made and its purpose.
b)  In the case of new assignments, how the new assignments affect the grade weighting in the course and the overall points.
c)  If the change has any serious negative impact on you--I was taught in graduate school that syllabus changes should never negatively impact students.*

*Example: If a professor suddenly takes out all the written work and you are only graded on multiple-choice quizzes and a final exam. Obviously, unless you are a strong test-taker or you know the material well, you will have no other way to "show what you know" than to ace those quizzes/exams. Your grade could take a huge hit.

Here's what you can say:
Ask either in class--I bet five other students will be glad you did!--or talk to the professor privately, but be sure to use a questioning, rather than accusatory or angry tone:

"Professor, I understand you are adding some new assignments. I want to be certain that I'm clear on why these are being added and how they will help with what we're already studying/working on. What is the goal for these new assignments?"

You can also ask:
-"How will the points be counted for this additional work?"
-"How will this work be graded?" Sometimes, when professors add smaller assignments, they are meant to support major assignments. This means that they may not be subject to heavy grading, but instead, pass/fail (as in, if you turn in the assignments, you will get the points).

If something seems very wrong about the change being made, try to get further clarification from the professor.

If the answers still don't seem right (not as in that you just don't like the change, but that it actually doesn't seem fair or clear), you may have no choice but to meet with the head of your professor's department and see if that person can help. I know this isn't easy for students to do, but asserting yourself in college when situations seem realistically unjust will only give you good practice for other areas of your life where you need to do the same.

As for my situation, this wasn't the first curve ball caused by me or by forces outside of me. I've gotten thousands of students through this course successfully. History tells me that I will do so again.

Of course, my students have only known me for three weeks. I blubbed some assignments. They may not be so sure.

I'll do what I always strive to do:  Keep the lines of communication open. Listen to student concerns. Provide solid feedback. Encourage students through quarter's end.

I'm on it.

Are you wondering what to do about a professor's miscommunication? Have you experienced a syllabus game-changer? Comment about it or e-mail chattyprof@gmail.com.