Sequence Courses to Adapt to Constraints
Sabrina Kearney/The Exonian
By Kiesse Nanor, Kirsh Patel and Safira Schiowitz
The Academy’s modified schedule, structured to accommodate the needs of online learning, will pose unique challenges for students and teachers in the coming months.
Due to the significant reduction in weekly meetings, there has been concern over whether all necessary material will be covered by the end of the academic term. Accordingly, the Academy has asked teachers to “reduce their expectations for planned coursework,” according to Director of Studies Scott Saltman.
Faculty remain optimistic about the quality of work that can be achieved during this term, though many remain focused on their students’ well-being rather than the course material covered. “I think the guiding principle for ‘progress of courses’ for me this term is to do my best for every student to feel supported,” History Instructor Hannah Lim said.
Instructors also noted that broader goals of instruction can still be met. “You just can't squeeze the same amount of material into fewer hours. But I personally think that's okay,” History Instructor Betty Luther-Hillman said. “Each department is teaching a mode of thinking—how to think like a historian, a scientist, a mathematician—and there's no set amount of material that one needs to cover in order to develop those thinking skills.”
Math Department Chair Gwyneth Coogan noticed that online learning has yielded new insights to the mathematics curriculum. “In math, at least I can say that we are getting a new perspective on our problem sets, and this new perspective will help us make them even better. If we do believe that there is an absolute list of concepts and techniques that need to be covered, we will have to figure out how to make that up or let it go,” Coogan said.
The Modern and Classical Languages Departments, Math Department and Science Department face additional difficulties due to many language and math sequences that carry over after the summer and secondary science courses that presume familiarity with introductory material. If material is not covered in these cumulative classes, the following fall term could prove more difficult.
The Academy has plans to accommodate such issues next fall. “All recognize that our end point for this year will not be our ‘normal’ endpoint, hence the start of sequential courses next year will not be the normal startpoint,” Saltman said.
Math Instructor Tim Whittemore noted that instructors may create more transition work into sequential courses next fall. “If we are resistant to making broad changes to the curriculum, then sequential courses can do a little shimmying around so that there is a smooth transition in the fall [of next year],” he said. “I think it will need to be necessary to revisit the goals and purpose of each of our classes. I think this is true not just for Phillips Exeter, but for all education institutions.”
Science Department Chair Alison Hobbie noted that her department’s sequential courses may not be as impacted as other departments’. “All of our consecutive introductory courses are year-long, so the timing of online learning [this term] will not have as much of an impact on our sequential courses as in some other departments like math and both Modern and Classical languages.”
The schedule that has been implemented for the duration of this term is temporary and subject to change. The Academy has “no intention of adopting this schedule beyond this spring,” Saltman said. “This term, we will consider changes, but the schedule itself isn’t as central to the experience as the touchpoint system.”
For students living in timezones different from Exeter’s Eastern Standard Time, the touchpoint system provides an opportunity to receive “in-class” credit without being required to attend live scheduled Zoom sessions. Each teacher can define a touchpoint in numerous ways, whether that be turning in graded homework, attending a live class-session or participating in a Canvas discussion board.
Despite the difficult circumstances that students now find themselves in, instructors are confident in their own abilities and that of their students to produce good work. “I've discovered that the discussion board assignment is a useful tool that I might keep using, even when we return to in-person Harkness classes,” Luther-Hillman said.
Students and teachers alike are optimistic for the change in perspective and new skills online teaching will gain them. “I think that the long term impact of our experiment with on-line learning will be positive. I suspect that our already extremely capable students will bring more focus and self-sufficiency to their future classroom work,” Coogan said. “I have seen many of my friends, students and colleagues trying things they have always wanted to try but never had the time to try, and they will bring whatever they are learning back to the classroom with them as well.”