The Fall 2022 semester is ending with a significant disruption to academic, social, and emotional life for the UVA community. While individuals in our community may experience the impact of this disruption differently, it affects us all.

In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, we faced an incredible disruption due to COVID-19, echoes of which can be felt in our current situation. We learned a great deal from that experience about flexibly responding to disruption in ways that support both faculty and students. Faculty may find pandemic-era resources for adjusting attendance expectations and resilient course design helpful at this time.

This page contains broad examples and suggestions for adjusting course requirements and activities in light of the challenges facing our community. While no one solution will suit every A&S course, many can be adapted across a variety of contexts.

• Use upcoming class time (such as the first day back from Thanksgiving) for students to workshop remaining papers and projects, in lieu of introducing new content
• Unfinished and in-progress projects are still learning opportunities. For multi-draft projects, omit submission of a final draft, focusing instead on the first draft and process of writing/creating.
• Omit an assignment or assessment entirely
• Reduce content to be covered, using remaining class time for review, practice, and hands-on work with topics and concepts already introduced
• Provide optional, ungraded access to planned coursework/materials that will not be covered
• Communicate that you expect attendance and participation after Thanksgiving, being flexible in responding to individual circumstances as needed
• Encourage student self-assessment and peer work during class, with your guidance on providing effective feedback
• Cut down on scheduled homework/problem sets
• Adjust the weight of an exam or assignment (counting an exam as pass/fail or as a homework grade, for example)
• If students are permitted to skip an assignment, leave their grade blank in UVACollab for that assignment. It will not count for or against their grade.
• As the semester ends, meet with colleagues teaching the next course in a sequence (if applicable) to adjust expectations as needed
• Talk to colleagues teaching similar courses to share strategies
• Communicate revised plans to students in class and via email and/or UVACollab