Introduction Non-traditional students are becoming the norm in our college classes.
With them, they bring worldliness, life experiences and responsibilities not common to the traditional student of the past.
Today's student is not as nonchalant and has unusually more savvy than the students of the past.
With this comes an increase in the challenges faced by today's college instructor.
More and more, students fail to meet course expectations set by the instructor, yet they make obvious attempts to influence the instructor to be excused from having to fulfill the requirements.
The four major areas that were found to be most prolific for these types of problems include absences and tardiness from class, late submission of assignments, missing tests and contesting grades on essay tests and papers.
The college instructor who deals with a large amount of these issues usually ends up discouraged and dismayed with the practice of teaching.
The Syllabus With the course syllabus being the initial and foremost communication tool that the instructor has with the student, it becomes the necessary tool to use to convey specific course expectations to the student.
Each of the four major areas should be addressed in detail in the syllabus, with additional clear and specific details of the consequences that the student will face for not following through with the expectations.
Attendance Most colleges have an attendance policy that college instructors generally view as a guideline for their own more detailed policy.
In all cases, both of these policies need to be outlined in the course syllabus.
Included should be a statement of the percentage of weight of attendance in reference to the overall course grade.
Additionally, the exact definitions of attendance, tardiness and class participation should be clearly defined.
In other words, if the instructor does not grant credit for attendance if a student arrives after the roll has been taken, then this should be clearly stated in the syllabus.
If attendance is based on a point system, this should be specified and explained to the students at the beginning of the semester.
To have a quantitative measure that can easily be documented and justified is most recommended.
In some cases, the instructor may choose not to include attendance as a course requirement and percentage of the course grade.
This is not considered improper and may even be practical for then concentrating more diligently with the other issues of concern.
Hence, if a student chooses to miss class, s/he must suffer the consequences of also missing the lecture material which likely will appear on a subsequent examination.
In this case, a statement on the syllabus should inform the students that they are ultimately responsible for any material covered in their absence.
Late submission of assignments Every instructor designates when assignments are due.
What is not typically designated is the penalty for late submissions.
One policy that has been successfully used by this author is a point system.
For example, 2 points are deducted for each day that the assignment is late.
The instructor, once again should specify in the syllabus, along with specification of time and date (i.
e.
the first 5 minutes of class, or online submission by 11:59 pm.
) Being remiss in establishing a consequence for late submissions is not recommended, as will subsequently be explained.
Make-up tests The American Disability Act indicates that instructors must make accommodations for students with documented disabilities.
If a student does not show up for an exam, and likely does not have a documented disability for not doing so, making accommodations for that student to take the same exam at a later date can possibly be interpreted as discrimination against the students who did, indeed take the test as scheduled.
Again, not having an established consequence for the student can result in complications for the instructor.
A possible consideration is to require a special, (shorter, more difficult) make-up test to be administered at a pre-determined time, such as at the time of the final exam.
This precludes the instructor from the scheduling and re-scheduling of make-up test times and dates throughout the semester.
Regardless of what the instructor's policy is, it must be stated in the syllabus, hence communicated to the student at the beginning of the semester.
Grading subjective assignments The fourth area to be addressed is that of grading subjective assignments, papers and essay tests.
Instructors must be able to account for the points they deduct from these types of projects and communicate this to the student.
Providing specific instructions that include a quantitative / point method for grading has been found to alleviate problems with students questioning how their grade was determined.
Checklists, evaluation forms and rubrics should be provided to the students and explained to them at the beginning of the semester.
A passion for teaching A teaching career in the field of higher education can be a most rewarding and pleasurable experience.
Students, despite their excuse-making, are intelligent and so often very creative and energetic.
In general, they want to be successful.
College instructors can avail themselves to be a mentor and reap the benefits of guiding that creativity and energy.
An array of minor efforts on the part of the instructor can facilitate increasing the interest, hence the aspiration for accomplishment on the part of the student.
Some efforts that help connect with the students include arriving to class early, talking informally to the students and getting them to talk about themselves, helping the students get to know each other, helping them focus on course material, especially long reading assignments, and educating them about their resources in the specific field of study or at the college itself.
Instructors can also talk informally and formally to the students about their own passion for their subject area and about their ideas and beliefs about teaching, explain the rationale of the course requirements and assignments, and even share stories about their own college experiences as deemed appropriate to the class.
Instructors who have the least amount of stress and gain the most pleasure from their teaching experience, not only connect with their students, but they also simplify their grading techniques.
They give shorter and more frequent assignments and they use grading keys to grade objective tests on the spot, and evaluation forms, rubrics or checklist to quickly grade essays tests, papers and other assignments.
Conclusion None of these recommendations are a guarantee for a totally stress-free college teaching experience, but deliberately incorporating them into a basic philosophical approach will ultimately pave the road for a more responsible student.
This will only happen if and when the instructor follows through with all established expectations and consequences without exception.