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Building for safety involves guidelines for appropriate interactions as well as transparency and consistency so that students know how to behave, what to expect, and how their work will be evaluated.
Examples:
- In the “Start Here” section of your course, for example, you might include an explanation of what you will expect in written responses: No text-speak? Complete sentences? Professional tone? Professional language? No name-calling? No personal attacks? Whatever you say, be sure that you are willing to enforce those policies.
- For each assignment, indicate what course outcome students are working toward. Explain how you will evaluate the students. If the “how” of product is as important as the “what,” be sure to indicate that and demonstrate “how” as well.
- If you haven’t used a rubric to show students how they will be evaluated, then using a rubric is a great first step to letting students know how you will assess their work. If you already use rubrics, re-examine them, looking for places where you could be more clear about what you expect them to show you.
- Set up a routine that you follow regularly. The predictability supports all learners and helps them to move between sections and modules in your course.
Building for choice involves providing multiple ways into the material. If a student begins to re-engage a trauma, then that student can engage material in another way that does not exercise the previous trauma and does not continue a trauma.
Collaborating with students in creating the course can add meaning and ownership for the students, making it more likely that they will continue with the course. Students are unlikely to suggest instruction or evaluation methods that they will find re-traumatizing, and those methods are often creative, yielding new techniques for the instructor that may enliven the course or the instructor as well.
- After i
Trustworthiness is teaching behavior that works for all students. Ensure that you do what you say you will do when you say that you will do it. Communicate clearly with your students. Be transparent so that they know what to expect from you. Encourage them to communicate clearly with you so that you know what to expect from them. Build a communication channel so that if something unexpected occurs, you will be able to let them know and they will be able to let you know. Students may not realize this, but academic integrity is a trustworthy behavior. Cheating actually reduces the trust level in a class, and instructor responses necessitated by cheating may traumatize other students.
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