I taught over the summer, and here are some lessons I learned that might be useful to you as you finalize your syllabi (a thread):

Even students with strong study skills, a safe and supportive home environment, and strong academic performance history are struggling. There is no correlation, in this moment, between “trying their best” and succeeding in meeting all course requirements. Be gentle.

Students who struggle with the online modality need lots of opportunities to engage with their instructors one on one. Online office hours are great, but reach out to individual students often to invite them to a specific Zoom/phone meeting with you.

Also, schedule mandatory individual conferences, but be open to doing them by chat or phone. To the best of your ability—in ways that accommodate any disability you may also have—let students choose from multiple modalities to interact with you.

Know the limits of your ability to help students in distress, and don’t ask them to report to you difficulties for which you have no ability to intervene. Accept “I’m dealing with something” without prying, but do know how to make referrals to support services available to them.

Deadlines shmeadlines. Be flexible. Design your courses so that you can allow late work. That said, monitor your LMS to see which students stop engaging all together, and reach out to them. Let them know when they risk passing the class long before they do.

Don’t shame students for their choices. Treat “I was exposed at a frat party” the same as you treat “I was exposed at my job, which pays for me to be here.” Be kind, not moralistic.

All this said, build in as much engagement as you can. Don’t set up your course so that students could ignore it until the last few weeks and then complete it, because they’ll try to and fail.

Remember that, right now, half your job is making sure they make it to next semester. Their futures—and, quite possibly, the ability of your university to preserve your job—depend on some continuity more than they depend on specific knowledge you hoped they’d gain from your class

And finally, be mindful of how much you are asking of yourself. Don’t create courses you can’t manage in a timely manner. Getting responses to students quickly matters more now than ever.
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