Mini-tip Monday: Running to-do lists

I’m back with another Mini-tip Monday, a series where I post a bite-sized piece of information or suggestion that has helped me streamline or improve my teaching. If you missed the one from last week, click here to read it.

For the next several weeks, the mini-tips will specifically be about moving to remote learning amid the Covid19 crisis. We will move to other topics once things go back to some semblance of normal.

This week’s mini-tip is about running to-do lists. 

Since moving our class online, a lot has inadvertently changed. Students were used to a weekly study routine that has had to be modified. I’ve tried not to jostle any of their deadlines drastically, e.g., homework is still due on Mondays, in-class quizzes that used to take place on Wednesdays have been converted to weekly Canvas quizzes, which still take place on Wednesdays, etc. My intention is to keep things as close to normal as possible while being as flexible and compassionate towards their individual circumstances as I can be.

It is a hard balance to strike, though. For example, we nixed a midterm that was supposed to take place right after spring break, since that would not have given them enough time to get used to taking their class online, etc. Emory extended their spring break for a week, which means that we had to rearrange content for the rest of the semester. 

To help students with this transition, I’ve decided to post a running to-do list on our Canvas homepage. I update it as I go during the week, and send out an email with all upcoming deadlines on Monday evenings. Here’s an example of what that email looked like as of Monday evening last week [I’ll add comments and explanations in square brackets, like so. The stuff in blue used to be links that I’ve removed for the blog post.]

"I thought it might help if I made a consolidated list of to-dos for you each week, just to make this transition easier. 

First, if you weren't present for today's synchronous class (and even if you were), please take a look at this page: March 30th, 2020. [links to Canvas page titled "March 30th, 2020. See my last blog post for details about how I'm using Canvas pages.] I have updated it with a link to the video-recording of the lecture, and a PDF file containing notes. 

Then, please complete today's summary exercise [links to the correct page on Canvas. More details about summary exercises in a future mini-tip Monday post!] if you haven't yet. 

This week's WebAssign [online homework] is due on today by 5:00 PM EST. [This is when WebAssign has always been due, and since it's always been online, I decided not to change the deadline.] Please make sure that you have completed it. Feel free to email me any questions. 

There will be a new WebAssign out tonight, which covers Sections 11.10 and 11.11 from your textbook. It will be due next Monday; please plan a time to work on it this week. 

Our weekly quiz will be released on Wednesday at 11 AM. It will available until Thursday at 11 AM. It covers 11.8 and 11.9 from your textbook.

Finally, please attend class (if you can, or watch the recorded video) on Wednesday and Friday, and submit the corresponding summary exercises.

Please let me know if you have any questions/comments or feedback. 
 
Stay safe, 
 
Maryam" 

On my Canvas homepage, that above email just translates to:

• Notes+Recording for Monday’s class: March 30th, 2020.
• Summary exercise for Monday, March 30th.
• WebAssign (due March 30, 5:00PM EST).
• Quiz on Wednesday, April 1st, 11 AM (Sections 11.8 and 11.9)
• Notes+Recording for Wednesday’s class: April 1st, 2020.
• Summary exercise for Wednesday, April 1st.
• Notes+Recording for Friday’s class: April 3rd, 2020.
• Summary exercise for Friday, April 3rd.

This way, they get a reminder on Mondays, but they also have a concise, frequently-updated running list that they can check any day of the week.

In a regular semester, I send students email reminders for any deadlines that they wouldn’t get an automatic reminder for. I’ve never thought of doing one big email with a consolidated to-do list for the whole week before, but after doing them for the past couple of weeks, I like the idea enough that I hope to continue doing this post-pandemic!

As always, please let me know in the comments if you have ideas for making this more efficient and effective. Thank you for reading this far!