Please may we talk now about your plans for final assessments this semester? A thread.

About the only universal truth I know right now is that we are all exhausted. But I really need to you to know that our students are as exhausted — more, I suspect — as we are.

There’s miles to go before we sleep, friends. And we have promises to keep.

Assessment cannot be business as usual. And we have the opportunity right now to decide to do better.

Let’s start by scaling back. I think a final assessment that covers 70% of the ground you usually would is a good place to start.

Let’s talk about reality: it’s open book, pals. It just is. Maybe it’s even collaborative. Can you plan for that? Embrace it? You’ve seen the horrors of virtual proctoring now. You know about the stress, the tears. You can decide now to have no part in it.

Let’s talk about making that final assessment optional. Look at your course: have your students already showed you their learning, or will they have by term’s end? Could students choose to opt out of your final if their mental health would benefit? Is there any reason to say no?

Let’s talk about replacing assessment with reflection this time around. What if your students had the chance to talk to you about their learning? What might that teach you that you could implement next term? What could they can from reflecting on this experience?

Maybe you planned something different a few weeks ago. Maybe you thought this would all go differently.

It’s not too late to change your mind, to revise your plans for the sake of humanity.

No one expected you to get it right the first time. It’s okay to breathe; to reset.

No one expected you to get it right the first time. It’s okay to breathe. It’s okay to reset.

It’s not too late to change your mind, to revise your plans for the sake of humanity.

We’re all of us just doing our best.