Y is for Yardstick

The traditional definition for a yardstick is a 36 inch measuring tool, no more, no less. It's a very precise mathematical measurement, always the same with no variation, entirely predictable. That's the known.

Or is it? Examine your personal teaching yardstick. What criteria do you use to measure your students' engagement and success? Do you look at the grade book screens for assignment completion, check the activity logs, count the responses you receive to student emails and then draw your conclusions?

Do you assess the students' cumulative grades and draw universally recognized conclusions, such as failing grades, missing assignments, failure to attend a live webinar and no response to phone calls or emails equal a disconnected learner? After all, it's a virtual learning environment and this is the window we have, right?

As you might expect, I have another theory or two for how to push beyond what would appear to be the obvious yardstick for students. Here are just a few questions I suggest need answers:

• What tone do you hear in work submissions?
• Is the student most often working in isolation?
• Where is the student working - bedroom, living room, dorm room, coffee shop?
• When was the last time you sent a student an email to ask how the course was going, quietly ignoring the student's true engagement level?
• What do you think about student plagiarism on a personal level as opposed to a teacher/student level? (In other words, could a student's inability to clear the plagiarism screening software mean he truly doesn't know how to integrate research rather than a blatant attempt to deceive?)

Most current virtual teachers were trained to work in a brick and mortar school. Transitioning online has been both challenging and exciting. Remember, however, that students and teachers look the same no matter what tools are used.

Did you go out in the hallways or walk the campus commons between classes, greeting dozens of students as you passed them? Had you become schooled in reading the slumped shoulders or nervous laughter? And wasn't it interesting to just stand still and listen as the students walked by? Oh, the things you learned! Just as the teaching venue has changed, so too should the variety of creative ways we reach and teach our students.

Reflection: I challenge you to look beyond the obvious yardsticks with which we have grown comfortable in education because many of them limit our ability to learn about our students and how best to support them in the virtual school environment. Sometimes, an inch isn't an inch, but instead, an indication of something more. Don't be afraid to ask a student what that might be. A new, more flexible yardstick could make all the difference.