Prelude - Semester Beginnings and Sense of Dread
I really was not looking forward to teaching this course again. My hesitancy (or sense of impending doom) had nothing to do with the topic or content. I originally created the course SO264: Criminal and Social Justice to match my own work and interests with a gap that existed in our offerings. Even though, as a private business school, we have no major in criminal justice or even sociology for that matter, I figured it was a solid enough topic to get students interested in the material. Seemed like a solid plan. However, if the expression that “culture eats strategy for breakfast” is true, then the culture of the classroom has been feasting on the strategy breakfast of a Denny’s All-American Slam of student disengagement.
Much of this was attributable to a couple of incontrovertible facts. First, this class was taken on the very practical equation of:
(requirements needed + schedule preference) x professor reputation = class selection.
It is not that the student wanted to take this topic per se. They just wanted to take a class that worked and seemed the least painful. Second, more than half of the class were graduating seniors, and some of them already had jobs lined up. The next four months was just marking time till the paperwork was processed and they could be paroled. Third, they likely had not had a sociology class before, were working from a lack of any conceptual understanding of society and systems and such, and were not sure why they should care.
Knowing all of these things to be true, the prospect of 16 weeks of me presenting information, the students only tangentially paying attention, and all of us marking time to the end of the semester did not seem like a productive way to start the semester. Drastic action was needed. Actually, what was needed is a “loonshot,” or a crazy idea that might seem nutty to most, but might hold a kernel of how to shift how things are done and lead to innovations and new directions. Loonshots are generally geared toward major challenges that might seem unachievable. I can think of few things as unachievable as getting graduating seniors interested in a course that is just an elective.
Nothing might seem nuttier than going into the first day of class without a syllabus. The syllabus is meant to be the thing that establishes the trajectory of the semester for the professor and students. It is custom and ceremony that the syllabus be passed out on the first day that this day is known as “Syllabus Day.” If you asked a faculty member what you did on the first day, the response is likely, “Nothing, just passed out the syllabus.” Page by page, bullet by bullet, the syllabus will be read without any hint of excitement or enthusiasm by anyone. Some professors have gone to using the syllabus to be a contract, with students signing the last page to signal their understanding of the content and commitment to the terms. Because nothing excites like reading a contract.
I decided to pitch the syllabus I had, and go in with a different approach: we were going to create the syllabus together. I have to recognize Cathy Davidson’s book “The New Education” for the inspiration on this idea. Participatory co-design of classroom expectations and assignments is something that is gaining more momentum across the educational spectrum. The idea is to actively engage your students in part or all of the course design process from the outset. Rather than coming in with a plan that you (as professor) think will work or is needed, you first get the perspectives of those who are in the course.
This kind of approach is rooted in what I call an emerging ‘culture of centricity.’ We see terms like customer-centricity, employee-centricity, patient-centricity, user-centricity, and student-centricity. Rather than saying the student is the ‘center’ of the design process, it is a way of expressing that we need to understand from where the student is coming from in his or her journey to the course, and considering it in the course’s design. The best way of doing that is by directly engaging the students in the design process. Since I didn’t have access to them before the first day of class, I would have to use the first day, and first week, to engage in the design process.
LESSON: IT WOULD BE BETTER TO ENGAGE IN THIS PROCESS AT THE END OF THE PREVIOUS SEMESTER.
While perhaps a risky endeavor in some ways, there are a few things contextual elements that would make this experiment possible:
First, being a service department at a business university, no one necessarily cares what exactly we do in the classroom as long as the students are being taught and it fits with generally accepted precepts around what is involved in teaching. And we can’t break laws. And we can’t expose the institution to liability. Beyond that, we are pretty much free to make it up as we like.
Second, this course is not a pre-requisite for another course. There is no set of cumulative knowledge or information that has to be shared. The students don’t need this course to do another course. Since it stands alone, there is no pressure to cover a set amount of material.
Third, I have tenure. That’s pretty self-explanatory.
Fourth, the school is undergoing a push for innovation in the classroom. Ask and ye shall receive! If it all goes horribly wrong, I’ve ‘failed fast.’ If it works, then HUZZAH! Either way is a win of sorts.
Fifth, the students have no expectations about what they are going to get in the class. Thus, I’m pretty much free and clear.
First day of Course Co-Design, spotting the landing
LESSON: HAVING THE RIGHT CULTURE OF EXPERIMENTATION, FEAR FROM FAILURE, AND FREEDOM OF CONTENT CAN BE IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS FOR A TOTAL CO-DESIGN.
With all of these factors in place, there was really no reason not to engage in this experimental process of course and curricular co-design. I literally had nothing to lose. Furthermore, I knew what was going to happen if I just followed the normal course of action, or just tweak the syllabus. I was going to be annoyed by Week 2, the students were going to be checked out, and we would have another 14 weeks of biding out time and grinding it out.
Might as well ‘go big’ and ‘send it.’ I was going to send it and go so big that you could air this course on the X Games or Red Bull TV. This is going to be like a mountain bike race. You may know the track, have a sense of the terrain, but everything is about adjusting as you go and reading lines along the way. And if you ain’t crashing, you ain’t trying. While crashing isn’t the goal, it is not something to be ashamed of. Although it might hurt at the time, if you learn in the process it is worthwhile. With this approach, it was guaranteed that we were all going to learn something in the process.
This is supposed to be the point of education to begin with, right?