In classes of manageable size (for me, under 25 students), I use Individualized Learning Plans. Using Google Forms, I create an Individualized Learning Plan Survey that each student must fill out at the start of the semester. The student self-assesses academic strengths and challenges, and then selects among a set of goals on which to work throughout the semester. Within each goal, the ILP provides a subset of specific operationalized actions to work toward that goal. The students choose from among them, and/or adds their own. I set Google Forms to email each student a copy of their responses and encourage them to check them regularly and log their progress. I meet with them at midsemester (Zoom) to discuss all elements: the overall goals and a review of the steps they have taken, the frequency and effectiveness. At the end of the semester, we meet again for another discussion and review. Following this conversation, I ask them to assign a letter grade to their work and accomplishments in the course throughout the semester. If their self-assessment is out of sync with my assessment, we discuss in depth.

This addresses several concerns for me. First, and most importantly, it centers the students in the learning process. Depending on the course, the engagement in the ILP process is worth between a third and half of their final grade. In order to do well in the course, each student must demonstrate thoughtfulness, reflection, attention to their learning practices and processes, and the extent to which they have been present as a learner throughout the semester. At my institution, many students do not see themselves as active participants in their education. Online teaching can present additional challenges to that identity shift. The ILP empowers students to take more control of every aspect of their learning, from goals to outcomes to grades, and calls for them to think about what they want out of their education. Through working on, talking about, and revisiting the ILP, students undergo a change in their perspective of my role (from provider-of-information to facilitator-of-learning), and thus in theirs (from passive receivers to active learners).

Second, it provides students with the room to develop and grow in ways most important to them. Each course contains a set of goals specific to the content of the course, but also several others that are foundational to my pedagogy and therefore always part of my courses: being a learner, reading, critical thinking and imagination, writing and social interaction. Understanding specific habits and practices under each of these umbrellas helps students to think about what matters to them at this point in their careers, and make decisions about how best to approach the course for their own growth (rather than for a good grade). It also helps them make connections between specific things that they do, don’t do, or would like to do, as learners, and their broader areas of development. This, in turn, helps facilitate their understanding of their own growth in particular areas (e.g. “I did these things and I can see that I’ve improved.”)

Third, it is a step in shifting away from the emphasis on conventional grading (which research consistently and increasingly demonstrates is problematic today for a good number of reasons). At my institution, I cannot abandon grading altogether, but initiatives like this help to demonstrate that students benefit from unconventional models of assessment, from an emphasis on process and skill-building, and from being active participants in their evaluations and assessments.

Fourth, the ILP process builds and maintains a relationship with each student; the intimacy of the self-reflection process opens up spaces for understanding and approaching learning as a whole-person endeavor. On the ground, the process keeps us in touch with each other without their having to get in touch with me on their own, guaranteeing at least two fairly lengthy one-on-one conversations about their learning over the semester.

An unintended and unanticipated benefit has been that the process has allowed me to know and better understand students whom would otherwise have remained on the margins of my classes: quiet students who do not approach me or ask for help, who keep their heads down and work as independently as possible. These students are often the hardest for me to develop intellectually, as my courses are highly interactive and relying on students who generate. Using ILPs has alerted me to my own assumptions and biases, illuminated the ways in which I sometimes misunderstand students, and has profoundly deepened my understanding and appreciation of a wider range of learning styles and personalities in my classroom. In turn, of course, that has made me a better professor.

Finally, this process builds confidence in students as learners. My students are primarily first-generation college students, students from marginalized groups, students who work many hours, students in crisis, and students generally unprepared for college work. The ILPs provide a chance for them to reflect on the effort they put into their course work, and to fully appreciate the varied and often unnoticed and unrewarded outcomes of that work.

N

I have only been teaching online for the past few years, but ILPs marked an important shift for me and have been an important tool ever since. Student evaluations report that the process helps them see what they’ve accomplished, that they appreciate having direct input regarding their final grade, and that it helps them with accountability and self-discipline. In ILP classes, most students are more invested in the process, develop a skill-based language around their work. By the end of the semester, most students talk about their grades in terms of their ILPs instead of the grade I’m going to “give” them. Since designing ILPs for online courses and finding them successful, I have adapted them for my in-person courses as well.