Melissa Hills, Kim Peacock & Brittany Wiseman presented at the CAST USL Symposium this month about “Replacing Power with Flexible Structure: Learner Centered Deadline Policies in Post-secondary.” They acknowledged the lands in Canada that they inhabit. One attendee in the chat mentioned during their introduction that they were interested in flexible deadlines and wanted to learn more about studies and evidence. Melissa Hills is an Associate Professor at MacEwan University in Canada. Kim Peacock is an Educational Developer in Edmonton, Alberta, at NorQuest College also in Canada. Brittany Wiseman is a recent graduate in a molecular major, getting a pilot license, and entering medical school. Their presentation was made available as a GoogleDoc, and they explained their efforts to provide an accessible session. Wiseman shared the prompt: how do you view deadlines? (negative or positive gradient). There were several responses that Wiseman read out loud. Some of the responses that resonated with me were: deadlines are complex, deadlines may help with accountability and can be provided with grace, deadlines can cause anxiety… Wiseman modeled UDL by describing a cartoon about deadlines with dinosaurs. She described her experience with rigid, flexible, and self-imposed deadlines. The next prompt was to share thoughts about traditional deadline practices. Hills explained that the responses shared were in alignment with the literature. She also added that there are “extension by request” models and warned that they are not equitable. Hills defined flexible deadline practices as:
- Transfers some decision-making power to students while maintaining the necessary structure
- Integrated into course design
- Transparent
- Accessible to all students
- Without negative consequences
- Does not require students to make a request or disclose private information.
They then shared examples of flexible deadline practices, including token systems, late banks, drop a lowest grade, Google Form extension notification structured to avoid need for disclosure (students are just asked for their name and a date for when they will complete the assignment). One participant did speak about the importance of deadlines for fair compensation for instructors. For their analysis, Peacock mentioned how they searched for several terms and found different definitions and “types” of flexible deadlines. No studies they found indicated a negative effect of flexible deadlines. They cited a John Warner 2019 study that mentioned it is more about “managing deadlines” than meeting them. Factors including the pedagogy of care/kindness movement, restorative justice, anti-colonizing, and UDL and accessibility advocate for flexible deadlines.
In small groups in breakout rooms, participants were tasked with aligning flexible deadlines with UDL and where flexible deadlines fit best in the framework. Participants share their thoughts. Hills then shared their study design in the winter term 20221 (online) for third-year course for biology majors. They have usage data for 43 and survey data for 18. They had a “proactive extension” of one week. Their data indicate that most students did not use the extension or only used one. Hills noted that extensions were used more for team-based assignments than individual ones, which is important to keep in mind. Hills analyzed the data with coding and found that 83% of respondents noted the ability to hand in better quality work, 78% mentioned better managing their time in connection to other academic tasks, and 72% mentioned reduced stress and mental health benefits. These data are really intriguing and help me plan future flexible deadlines. Wiseman shared how flexible deadlines helped her do better work by focusing on the quality and destressing a little about the timeline. Hills also mentioned that for students that are earlier in their academic career, “late banks” may be used up in the first couple of assignments as they are learning time management. Peacock shared resources and links to studies in the last couple of slides, including their own. I wonder if we can build on this session for the DELTA Summer Shorts?!
