Enhancing alignment among course policies and student outcomes: Assessing participation and offering make-ups as micro-cases

Keywords: constructive alignment, course policy, student engagement, student agency

Abstract: Engaging students in the classroom has never been more important, or more challenging. Educators, too, express experiences of burn-out and frustration with students’ disengaged behaviors. One contributor to student disengagement is students’ perceptions of inequity and unfairness in course policies. Drawing on Biggs’ (1996, 2014) constructive alignment assessment process, participants will consider the extent to which important course policies align with their learning goals and student outcomes, using examples of assessing participation and offering make-up or alternative assignments. Participants will come away with new ideas and ways to make course policies more effective and increase student engagement and learning ownership.