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[fosca]

I teach an accelerated online course.  We cover two chapters a week, and I have an assignment for each chapter as well as tests each week.

I've been releasing the assignments gradually: each week, one is released on Monday, the other on Wednesday, and both have the same amount of time to finish.  I think this is good because students can focus on one assignment at a time and make sure they finish each.  Testing is over the weekend, anytime.

I've had students ask if all the assignments could be available at the beginning, so they can work at their own speed.  I don't want everything due at the end of the half-semester, since that will cause everyone to do all the work in the last week (I've done that myself, as an undergraduate with classes like that).  So I'd still have particular due dates every week for everything.

Has anyone tried both these methods, and in particular how does the "access to everything at beginning" work?  I suspect, given the already-high demands of this course, that it would be a horrorshow, with people forgetting deadlines and what they've done already and so forth.  But I'd love some actual data.

[littlefred]

I am an advocate of strict deadlines, and staggered release of assignments. Although, generally, my students have several assignments at once, and have access to some things from the beginning.

I have a checklist feature, and it lists the assignments in each unit, with due dates, to help students keep track of what is due when....(this can easily be done in excel or a table in Word).

I would think maybe meeting half-way with them.... allow them access to two units/weeks worth of assignments at a time. As one closes, another opens, so they have 2 available all the time.

[zuzu_]

I have regular (usually weekly) deadlines, but I release all assigments at the beginning. Almost no one works ahead. The few who do don't have any confusion or problems.

I think this policy just puts more responsibility on the students for their own success. It gives them an even greater opportunity to plan and manage their own time and work ahead if they are going on vacation or a business trip or something.

Also, while most students don't work ahead, they like to read assignments so they know what's coming.

I see no downside. I teach composition and literature; I could imagine that other disciplines might have other considerations that haven't occured to me.

[rdnttkn]

In the summer and winter sessions at my school, I teach a three-week highly condensed course where we cover FOUR chapters of the text (it is a survey course) in a week.    Normally I have it set up such that when the first unit closes, the next unit opens.

Despite this, I usually have a student or two who request the next week's reading assignment/discussion topics/etc. be opened in advance of this schedule. 

In general not many students work ahead, but if they indicate a desire to I have no problem with accommodating their request.  I need only uncheck a box in the lesson settings.

[melba_frilkins]

Exactly the same as Zuzu. But I teach in the social sciences.

It works well to open everything all at once,  but then have staggered deadlines. The best of both worlds, really.

(Plus as the instructor, you aren't chasing deadlines to get things prepped all semester).

[yatchie]

I teach math, so it's probably different.  I have firm, weekly deadlines but I give them access to all of the assignments at the beginning of the course.  And I encourage them to work ahead. 

In reality, most students can barely keep up, but a few can get through the course fairly quickly.  (They still have to take their tests on pre-specified dates no matter how fast they work.)  Whenever students ask for an extension, I gently remind them that they have had access to all of the assignments and are free to work ahead, so no extensions are granted.

[bone_gal]

In my classes the graded work (assignments, discussions, exams, etc.) is only open for a period of time, with no access early or late except in special circumstances. They have access to assigned readings, and my "lectures" all term. This works for me.

Some colleagues at a community college I teach for decided to experiment with having no deadlines, and surprise surprise, no matter how many encouraging emails or announcements they posted, the vast majority of students turned everything in at the very last minute. It was a nightmare to grade since we have an extremely quick turnaround time for grades. Also, the quality of work suffered (how do you have a discussion if nobody is in there at the same time or ever visits the site again after they post?). Needless to say they decided never to do that again.

Reading the other posts, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to open certain assignments early, so people could work ahead if they want, but I would definitely keep to firm deadlines. Also, I wouldn't do this for discussions since I think the only way to have a discussion online is to have everyone going into the same areas at the same time.

[cc_alan]

Reading the other posts, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to open certain assignments early, so people could work ahead if they want, but I would definitely keep to firm deadlines.

I took a math class not long ago with an online homework component and my wife and I were going away for a week to a wedding (close family friend). I had spoken with the instructor before I registered just to find out if being absent for that period of time was a deal-breaker (it wasn't). He had all of the homework for the term available which was very useful since it allowed me to work ahead before we left. I had to work like a dog to get far enough ahead so I didn't have to submit homework while we were gone but I still took my book with me to study so I wouldn't come back having forgotten everything.

Alan

[lucys]

It has always worked well for me in a full semester class to have assignments open up each week. I have Tuesday and Thursday deadlines for work, the same as my face-to-face classes. I've surveyed students about their preferences and they seem to like this model. When I teach 3-week summer courses, I have everything open at once. Not many people work ahead but it helps non-traditional students who may need to do reading or preparation on the weekends. On rare occasions when a student needed to work ahead because of a scheduled surgery or childbirth, I e-mailed assignments to those students.

[erikjensen]

Sorry I don't have data, but I agree with most of the posts that making everything available at the beginning and staggering strictly enforced deadlines works best. Very few of my students work ahead, but they like to know what is expected of them at the beginning of the term. If they need to be away for a while, then it is on the students to work ahead as needed. I can't even think of a plausible reason for keeping future assignments secret.

[fosca]

Thanks for the input.  I'm going to open all assignments for this next mini-semester, to see how it works.

I do have another question: I have quizzes every week on the material.  The questions are picked from a question pool, so in theory no one should have the same questions.  Should I open the quizzes as well, or keep them to the current "you have 48 hours to take it, from now to then" policy?

[ianelay]

Thanks for the input.  I'm going to open all assignments for this next mini-semester, to see how it works.

I do have another question: I have quizzes every week on the material.  The questions are picked from a question pool, so in theory no one should have the same questions.  Should I open the quizzes as well, or keep them to the current "you have 48 hours to take it, from now to then" policy?

Having the quizzes open from the start also works, and allows for flexibililty. Students probably won't take them until they feel prepared enough to do well (or until they've left it to the last minute).

You might have the odd student blunder into the wrong quiz, and you might have to reset those quizzes. Unless you notice that it's the same student doing this all the time, it's not a big deal.

[infopri]

It sounds like you've reached a decision, but I'll add my two cents anyway.

I would not open my assignments early.  I do open up all the readings at the beginning of the semester, and some students actually do access the readings early.  (Of course, accessing a reading isn't synonymous with actually reading it, but it does indicate that these students are looking ahead, anyway.)

I don't want my students doing the assignments ahead of time, however.  I would rather that they have the benefit of the readings, lectures, websites, videos, and other materials I put up each week before they tackle the associated assignment.  I give them more assignments than I require them to hand in (e.g., they only have to do seven out of ten, or whatever), so if they have a busy week (whether an out-of-town wedding, a sick kid, or a project in another class, etc.) they can just skip that week's assignment without taking a grade hit.

And I absolutely would not open a discussion before the appropriate week, in part for the reason bone_gal gave and partly because, again, I don't want them posting on the discussion threads until they've had the lecture, readings, and all the other stuff.  If they post before they go through the week's material, their posts are full of factual errors, misjudgments, poor analysis, etc.  I can always tell from the discussion posts who has looked at the learning materials and who hasn't (and our CMS has a tracking feature that lets me check the accuracy of my guesses).  However, I do encourage the students to continue the ongoing discussions even after I start new threads, and sometimes they do, especially on the topics that interest them most.

[fosca]

I'm opening this class all at once as a bit of an experiment.  If it doesn't work, I won't do it in the future.  I'm going to keep track to see how many of my students do indeed work ahead (it's an eight-week class, so just keeping up is a chore for most students).  I've had a few complaints from people who want to work ahead, so I'll see how many actually do.

You may indeed be right, and if you are I'll certainly go back to how I did it before.  But then again, I also think students who do work before they are ready and don't do particularly well because of that are also learning a lesson in preparation. 

[glowdart]

I do a combination of releases.  This allows the ones who want to read and work ahead to do so, but it keeps the entire class on the same active discussion.

Everything has set due dates.  They know those due dates (but not the actual assignment contents) at the start of the semester.  I don't accept late assignments. 

The reading calendar is also released at the start of the semester. This has everything set up on a weekly schedule.   

Each week, I only have that week's discussion forums open.  Usually, if posts are due on Saturday, then I'll open the next week's forums on Friday night or Saturday morning so that if anyone wants to get a jump on the next week over the weekend, then they can.  But, they cannot get into the forums until the appropriate week.

Weekly content (lectures, supplemental materials, review questions, list of discussion questions--but not the actual discussion forums, etc.) is usually opened two weeks in advance.  Thus, if we're in Week Four, then they are discussing Week Four in the Week Four Discussion Forums, but they can see week five's content as well.  This way, they can be working through the content either the week their posts are due or the week before their posts are due.  They cannot make any posts, though, until the discussions open, and those don't open until the week the posts are due.

Paper assignment instructions are released a certain number of weeks in advance of the due date, but I'm in the humanities, and so it is expected that they will be writing their research papers over a series of weeks rather than in the week it is due.  (go ahead, laugh...)

Quizzes & exams, too, get opened in advance, but usually only a week in advance.