Supporting Faculty, Supporting Duke
 

In early June we launched the Flexible Teaching site to help Duke faculty increase the resilience of their courses and improve student learning. We have spent the summer adding resources to the site, such as blueprints to help instructors map flexible teaching to various course types, and a course design planner to pace course design over a few weeks. We also worked directly with over 700 faculty in office hours, workshops and email – over 10 times our usual summer volume.

Though there is anxiety and uncertainty as we enter Fall 2020 we are encouraged by how many faculty have redesigned courses and embraced changes, including: 

• Replacing high-stakes tests with more frequent low-stakes tests or projects
• Implementing active learning techniques despite the challenges of doing so online
• Expressing concern for students’ well-being and preparing to teach with greater empathy and understanding in the face of a public health crisis and political turmoil.

There is no escaping the fact that this semester will be challenging – the hardest of our careers for many of us. We can expect more difficulty, more stress, more exhaustion. But we believe in the ingenuity, kindness, and grace of this community. We will continue to work alongside our faculty and staff colleagues to help our students learn – perhaps in deeper and more meaningful ways than we ever imagined. 

–The Duke Learning Innovation team