[Teaching-Faculty] Followup on our Tuesday, 1/12/21, Student Survey results presentation/discussion

[Office of the Provost/VPAA]

Colleagues,

Thank you to all who were able to participate in Tuesday's session on the
SUNY survey results on our students' experiences in their fall 2020
courses. For those that were unable to attend, you may view the recorded
session here
<https://plattsburgh.zoom.us/rec/share/0uJ22TWkF3QSJSB47Zqgg0I8wUX-od5Us3fHeNQvnNHj64cehRwT3Bm2XuqLp2AM.NVk4Y2wxZHbk_EBQ>.
I want to say a special thanks to Sara Phillips, Director of Institutional
Effectiveness, for preparing and presenting the data; Jessamyn Neuhaus,
Interim CTE Director, for highlighting available resources from the Center
for Teaching Excellence; and JoAnn Gleeson-Kreig, Associate Vice President
within my office, for helping to moderate the faculty discussion.

I hope that the faculty who attended found the session to be useful in
thinking about spring planning.  Please keep in mind that it is often the
most critical voices that share additional comments within such a survey.
I fully believe that our faculty are working incredibly hard to engage with
students in the classroom, whatever the modality, during this challenging
time.

In an earlier Senate meeting, I mentioned that the SUNY system had sent
some guidance to the provosts regarding expectations for spring semester
teaching. I have pasted in the language below for your review.  What I have
gathered from this language and the information shared with me from the
Chancellor's office is that the students who were most critical of their
fall experience felt, at times, that they were not having enough real-time
faculty contact.  I have speculated that this may have especially been the
case with asynchronous online classes.  I was sent more than one
student/parent complaint of this type.  I definitely heard faculty feedback
during our Tuesday Zoom meeting that many faculty were concerned about
students who were themselves disengaged and unresponsive to multiple
attempts to help them successfully complete their courses.  I certainly
trust that student engagement often presented its own challenges.  I am
pasting in the language below from SUNY as a simple FYI.  Based on the
faculty I have "met" within various Zoom settings, and the conversations I
have been privileged to hear, I am confident that we are collectively
already meeting these expectations.

Best wishes as you finalize your preparations for our spring start-up.

Anne


*Opportunities for substantive interactions of faculty with students will
be provided on a*

*predictable and regular basis commensurate with both the length of time,
and the amount of*

*content, in the course or competency.*

*We will work to monitor students’ academic engagement and success, and
make clear that*

*instructors are responsible for promptly and proactively engaging in
substantive interaction with*

*students when needed on the basis of such monitoring, or upon request by
the student.*

*Reasonable efforts to accommodate the needs of international students
completing coursework*

*from other time zones, such as opportunities for asynchronous instruction,
interactions*

*scheduled in a way that takes into account the time zones of the students
enrolled in the*

*section, and other such flexibilities will be provided.*

*Instructors will engage students in teaching, learning, and assessment,
consistent with the*

*content under discussion, while also including at least two of the
following:*

*a) Provision of direct instruction;*

*b) Assessment and / or the provision of feedback on a student’s
coursework;*

*c) Provision of information and / or responding to questions about the
content of a course or*

*competency;*

*d) Facilitation of group discussion regarding the content of a course or
competency; or*

*e) Other instructional activities approved by the institution’s/program’s
accrediting agency.*
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