Management Insights Podcast

August 25, 2022

Transcript: 

Debbie Clare:

Welcome to the Management Insights podcast series hosted by McGraw Hill. My name is Debbie Clare, the executive marketing manager for our management portfolio. Today's topic, setting course expectations, a critical element to teaching success. Our guest, Nick Prince from the University of Wyoming.

Debbie Clare:

Thanks for joining us today, Nick.

Nick Prince:

Thank you. It's great to be here and great to support McGraw Hill in this. They're a great company, and so it's always fun to participate with you.

Debbie Clare:

Nick, tell our audience a little bit about your background.

Nick Prince:

Yeah, so I did a bachelor's of science at Kansas State University in marketing, and then worked for a couple years as a stock trader at Wells Fargo before going back to school and getting my MBA at Brigham Young University, and then after that, going on for a PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I did that. I got a job at University of Texas at Tyler for a year before coming on over to the University of Wyoming, where I'm currently at, teaching our management classes.

Debbie Clare:

Well, I know that this is going to be an exciting topic for a lot of faculty across the country, so let's dig in. What does it mean to set expectations, and why is it so important to manage those expectations with your students in the courses that we teach?

Nick Prince:

Yeah. Great question. Obviously, setting expectations, real basic meaning of that is just helping students understand what they need to know and do to be successful in your classes, but it also expands beyond just what are the deliverables and what are the basic class rules. More importantly, it includes what's the culture of your classroom, what's your personal teaching style, and how do your students fit in with that style and with the expectations you have with them of how to behave day to day in the classroom and then also, broader, throughout the semester?

Debbie Clare:

Now, why is that first day of class so important? How do you use that session to really set the expectations for the term ahead?

Nick Prince:

Great question. I think if you were to ask my students about the first day in class, they'd maybe even refer to it as the throwaway day, the day you show up, you go over the syllabus, and they do introductions, then the teacher waits until the next day to actually start talking about things. That would be the furthest thing from the truth. The most important day of the class of the entire semester is your first day, is that day that you go over the syllabus, because that's the day that you set the tone for your class, and you establish the culture of your class for the entire semester.

Nick Prince:

There's a couple of things to think about as you do that. For me, as I'm thinking about culture, my personal style is to try and have more of a laid-back, fun atmosphere where we joke around, but we also get to work. Part of that is I expect a high level of participation in the classroom. When I lecture, lots of times I'll pose questions and help draw the information out of the students, instead of just lecture at them the entire time. That starts on that first day.

Nick Prince:

There's a couple things that I do there. After you talk about the syllabus, which I'll come back to that because that's also important for setting the tone of the class, I have the students introduce themselves. I have them introduce where they're from, what their name is, and their favorite thing that they did over the break. I'm certain my students see this as a waste of time, but for me as a professor, this is utterly important because, one, it helps them to get more comfortable speaking in front of the class.

Nick Prince:

The very first thing, if you're speaking about your favorite activity you did over the summer or over the winter, that should be a relatively easy thing for anybody to talk about, versus trying to say something about the class material, where maybe you're wrong or you don't have it quite right. The act of speaking helps break that psychological barrier of being more comfortable speaking in class and letting them get comfortable doing that.

Nick Prince:

Next, it gives me a chance to connect with the students as a professor. When a student gets up and says, "Hey, my favorite thing that I did through the break is skiing," I'll always follow up and say, "Cool. Well, where'd you go skiing?" and "Oh, I love that resort. That's one of my favorite places to ski" or "Oh, I haven't done that one. Is it worth going to?"

Nick Prince:

That helps to cross that barrier between student and professor, and helps them to be more engaged and realize, "Oh, maybe I can participate in here. Maybe this is a class and a place where I want to be." It helps to set that tone and that culture where we can talk, we can joke, we can interact with each other, versus just being the scary professor in front of the classroom, or maybe that's a hope. Maybe it's more the loser professor in front of the classroom who I don't want to talk with, and you can bridge that more. The hope is that, in that process, you establish that people will be treated with respect as you interact with each other.

Nick Prince:

Outside of culture, it's also really important to talk about the ground rules in the class. One of the rules that I talk about on the first day of class is no computers. I don't allow technology in my class. There are a lot of studies that have been done that show that students get way more out of class by not having their computer out, and so I don't let them do that. They hate it. But oftentimes as they go throughout the semester, and as I will have to remind them, "Hey, if you haven't had a chance to shut your computer down yet when class starts, please do so now," they eventually realize that they do get more out of class.

Nick Prince:

Another ground rule that I set the very first day of class, and I've actually stopped doing it at Wyoming because it doesn't happen, but other institutions I've taught at, students will try and come to my office and whine their way to a higher grade. I try and set expectations the very first day of class because that's one of my big pet peeves, that I just don't play that game.

Nick Prince:

I stand up in front of the class and I'll say, "Hey, just so you know, I don't care about grades." I was like, "So that means everyone gets an A, right?" As soon as you say that, everyone who is starting to not pay attention really focuses, "Hey, are we all getting A's in this class?"

Nick Prince:

I say, "No, that's not what's going to happen. What that means is I care way more about you getting the right tools to be successful in life coming out of this class, and I don't care about what your grade is. What I care about is what you learn. In that vein, if you come and whine to me about your grades, to try and whine your way to a higher grade, I reserve the right to take away points that I might have missed that I should have taken off before."

Nick Prince:

Then when students come into the office, if they do come into the office to do that, I'll say, "Cool. Before we begin, what did I say the first day of class about coming and talking about grades?" They sometimes will need to be prompted on the memory of, "Oh yeah, he said that he might take points away," and then we'll have that conversation again.

Nick Prince:

I'll say, "Okay, cool. With that in mind, do you want to go forward?" Most of them will go... If their purpose was there just to whine about grades, they will ask one or two questions and then be like, "Oh, well, I think I'm good." Then we'll move forward.

Nick Prince:

But if not, I also let them know, "Hey, if you are struggling with the material and you need to learn it, I'll take as much time as you need to talk that through and get you in a good way." I don't want them to feel like they can't come, but I also want to make sure that their purposes are sincere and not just to try and whine to a higher grade. Those are different things that I set expectations on that come to mind as giving some examples in that space.

Debbie Clare:

I love some of those best practices. I have to commend you because, really, what you're doing as you were saying setting that culture, you are giving them an opportunity to have a safe space for the students to have an open dialogue and really build relationships and network, because you're going to have some team activities, I'm sure, that you do with students. You're making them feel comfortable with accessible types of topics that first day to let them know that you're here to listen to them.

Debbie Clare:

I also love the fact that you referenced "well, you all could get an A." Well, it's because they're going to actively participate. You're trying to give them the tools to succeed as they move forward in their future careers. I commend you on all the different techniques that you've shared there just to set the stage, because that's far from a throwaway, right? You said at the beginning, this is not-

Nick Prince:

Oh yeah.

Debbie Clare:

... a throwaway class. I know I've heard from other instructors I've spoken to across the country, as well, that sometimes they even create a quiz on their syllabi, or something along those lines. I'm curious, where does the course syllabus factor into setting your expectations?

Nick Prince:

Yeah, definitely. Great question. The syllabus is the backbone of your course. I've heard it referred to as the contract of your course. If anything goes on in the class and you have a dispute, you go back to the syllabus to help resolve that dispute, or at least that's the first place you go.

Nick Prince:

You need to make sure that you have everything clear in your syllabus. For example, the no tech rule, that's not just something that's stated on the first day. That's an expectation that's made clear in the syllabus. One of the things...

Nick Prince:

Related to that, you asked if there's a quiz, or you mentioned the quiz. I have a quiz over the syllabus as the first quiz that students take. That's more to make sure that they've read through it, or at least glanced through it enough, to be able to be successful on that quiz, questions that are your high points that really matter, to make sure that they're, at least, seeing that and being held accountable to that a little higher, which helps as a nudge to remind them about what the course is about and what the expectations are in the course.

Nick Prince:

A great example of this is, in my class, instead of having a participation grade, I'll have a professionalism grade. Professionalism includes participation, but then also includes being respectful to others and treating others with respect, which is one of those expectations that I'm trying to set on the first day. It's reinforced in the syllabus.

Nick Prince:

That's also so that it has teeth. My professionalism grade, when I can have it be that high, is often around 10%. That's a full letter grade if you do bad on that. I also make it clear that if your professionalism is bad enough, I reserve the right to fail you from the class. Essentially, yeah, it might be 10%, but it's also there to be a lot stronger if it needs to be.

Nick Prince:

Most of the time, you don't have to use that. The threat is there and helps people to stay and do what they need to do. I always feel a little bit like a jerk on the first day of class when I talk about that part of the syllabus, because I'm like, "Hey, if you're dumb, if you make stupid mistakes, in terms of being a jerk to your peers, that will come back to bite you. I promise you, I will follow through on that."

Nick Prince:

I have a couple of stories of where that's happened. I had a student one time in the group project... In the group projects as well, people socially low, if I let them know, "Hey, if you socially low, you'll lose points at the end of the semester and potentially down to where you fail." In any given semester, you always have a few people lose at least a couple points.

Nick Prince:

I had a student lose enough points where they went from an A- to a B+, and because of that, they were really upset. They text-messaged their group members threatening messages and dropped several choice words on them in their messages and was just acting really belligerently towards them. Because I had set that expectation that, "Hey, this isn't appropriate," I had students who were able to take a picture or screenshot of the text message and send it to me, and so I pulled the student in and we had a conversation about it. They ended up losing all their professionalism points, so then they dropped from a B+ to a C+.

Nick Prince:

Hopefully, though, you share that story, and that hasn't happened since then. I haven't had problems where you've had students who have acted that disrespectful since then. Part of it is because they know that I've set the expectation that you don't do that, and if you do, I will take action. They know that I will do that.

Debbie Clare:

Well, and I'm happy that you're holding them accountable because professionalism in business is absolutely paramount, and respect of one another, which actually leads into another question I have. Do you incorporate any emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion? Why would you think that might be important, as well, to reinforce with your students?

Nick Prince:

Diversity is something we talk about often in my classes. I'm an HR professor, is the majority of classes I teach, and so that comes up. It matters significantly.

Nick Prince:

I remember when I was an MBA student, we had a representative from General Mills come, and they were doing an info session. They met with our classes as they were doing the hiring process, and he talked about two people of Hispanic background that they'd hired. They came in, they were product managers, they looked at what General Mills was doing, and they said, "Hey, you guys, this isn't really going to fit with what we're doing with the Hispanic community." They pushed and they made some changes, and they launched a product specific to that community, and it rocked, millions of dollars' worth of sales. I can't remember the number, so I don't want to guess. That was a long time ago.

Nick Prince:

DEI stuff matters. It matters in business, both in terms of marketing products to everybody that you're interacting with, and we have a broad, diverse world that we're interacting with, but then also in terms of respecting those who have differences from us.

Nick Prince:

One of the things that I love about connecting with the students in terms of asking them their favorite thing they did over break is it helps me understand what's important to them. It gives me an opportunity to connect with them as a professor. I am in Wyoming, so we are probably one of the least diverse states in the nation, but we do have students of diversity come through, and making sure that you... I always try and make sure that I reach out to them, that I interact with them and stop. I go out of my way to talk to them, knowing that because I'm not like them, they might be less comfortable coming to me, and then setting expectations that they also are held to those same expectations.

Nick Prince:

I had a student, a Black student, who didn't take the first couple of quizzes. That was really odd to me because they were regularly in class, regularly participating. They seemed engaged. So I stopped them, talked with them, found out what was going on. They didn't have a textbook. They were getting one in the mail, but it got delayed, and so I lent them a copy of the textbook for, I think, a month, until their textbook finally got there. I'm not certain why the textbook got delayed that much, but it did.

Nick Prince:

Making sure that you set that same expectation of, "Hey, one, you can always come and talk to me." That's something I really try and push with the students as part of my expectations for the cultural classes, "I am here to talk with you." Yes, maybe it's better during office hours, but even if you can't meet me during office hours, let's meet. Let's chat. We'll figure that out and make sure that you get in a good way.

Nick Prince:

The last thing I want is for someone to be uncomfortable to come and talk to me, and then they get lost and get far behind. I think that's vastly important to make sure you're doing things as a professor to include people from all backgrounds.

Debbie Clare:

I agree 100%. Now, how do you help reinforce expectations throughout the course? What are some of the best practices that you use, or suggestions for some of your peers?

Nick Prince:

The first practice I'll talk about is something I stole from Heath & Heath, from their book Switch. In their book Switch, they talk about nudges, and giving nudges to people to try and help them remember to do things. For example, with the computer policy, when we start class, if someone has their computer out or if a couple of people have their computer out, just make a comment saying, "Hey, if you haven't had a chance yet to shut down your computer, now is a great time to do that."

Nick Prince:

You're not really causing problems. You're not pointing them out, but that helps them remember, "Oh yeah, this class, we're not allowed doing that." If that doesn't work, sometimes just saying, "Hey, you seem a little distracted on the computer. Can you put that away? We don't have those in this class," and just reminding them throughout.

Nick Prince:

If you don't reinforce that, if you don't follow through on the expectations you've set, then slowly students will just assume that you don't actually care about those things. For the computer example, computers start popping up, and they just go as if you never had that policy in the first place.

Nick Prince:

Similar thing with COVID. We had a COVID policy here where you were supposed to wear masks on campus for a while. In Wyoming, that's a pretty hot topic. I think it is nationwide. I would always remind people and just say, "Hey, if you haven't had a chance to throw the mask on yet, now is a great time to do that." I would intentionally not look at the students who were doing that when I'd say that, so then that way, they didn't feel-

Debbie Clare:

Called out.

Nick Prince:

Called out, but they also knew, "Oh yeah, I got to go do that." Then they'd follow through and go through that. Little things like that help.

Nick Prince:

Another thing that I'll do halfway through the class that I find really effective is, and I used to call this likes and hates, but then my students said, "Hate is too strong. I don't want to hate your class," so I call it likes or dislikes. Essentially, I have students put their name on the paper at the end of class for an in-class credit, and I have them write down three things they like and three things they dislike. This gives students an opportunity to let you know what's going well, but honestly, I care more about the dislikes because it's better to know what's not going well, where are they having problems, and it's an opportunity for students to air their grievances.

Nick Prince:

A couple of things that happen in this process. First, I learn areas that maybe I'm not doing good enough as a professor. One thing that commonly comes up that I need to work on is to not talk so fast. Then I'll tell my students, "Hey, if I'm speaking too fast, you just let me know. I'll slow down."

Nick Prince:

The other is to go through and understand how they're perceiving other aspects of the class. Then it gives you an opportunity to talk through, "Well, this is why we do that," and help them understand that and help to maintain and reinforce those expectations that you set at the beginning of the class, as you're going through and understanding, "Well, hey, we don't do the computers. A lot of people wrote that down. The reason we don't do that is because it forces you to pay better attention to the lecture and figure out what matters and what doesn't matter. There's studies that show that this is beneficial long term." Things like that, where it helps you to reinforce that and helps you to know what's going on.

Nick Prince:

Those are some of the ways that we do that and nudge that.

Debbie Clare:

Nick, I love the fact that you ask for feedback from your students with the likes and the dislikes, and especially the dislikes, because just in your class, just in time, you can adapt as future classes move forward and adjust your teaching style to respond to some of those questions and justify why you're doing some things, and even modify to include new things based on those suggestions. I want to commend you for the techniques that you're doing in the classroom.

Nick Prince:

Yeah. Just real quick comment on that. I think, as a professor, if you can find something to do to change after getting feedback from students, that buys you credibility. And it's something you should do, because you're likely not doing everything right, and you have a great feedback mechanism right in front of you to help you get better.

Debbie Clare:

Well, and it also goes back to the syllabi and the contract. It's a joint contract. It's not just a one-way arrangement. You're working together and building relationships, just like we do in business.

Nick Prince:

Yeah, definitely. They need to get good at that because, otherwise, you will not be successful in business. We need to teach that and help them get that.

Debbie Clare:

Get those professional skills, right?

Nick Prince:

Oh yeah, definitely.

Debbie Clare:

Now, is there anything that you do to help before, say, exams?

Nick Prince:

Definitely. Yeah. I think the biggest thing to do is to help, again, going along the line of expectations and setting expectations, is helping students know what to expect on the test. The last thing you want is for a student to get a test and think they're getting multiple choice, and all of a sudden it's essay, or vice versa. That's just not fair to them, so there's a couple of things I'll do.

Nick Prince:

First off is let them know, "Hey, this is the composition of the test. There are going to be this number of multiple choice, this number true or false," and so on and so forth, that way. Then the other thing I try and do is I give them a practice test, and let them go on the practice test. Then they know the question types, how they're written, what to expect from me, because sometimes students know the material, but they don't do well just because they're not familiar with the question types. Helping take that out of the equation, or at least reduce it down, helps empower them to be successful where they've worked hard to know the material.

Nick Prince:

The last thing I'll do is I'll give them a study guide. Now, I have a love-hate relationship with study guides. I despise them in the sense that I don't want students to only study that. My job as a professor is try and encourage students to learn as much as possible, and oftentimes you give a study guide out, then they study only what's on the study guide, and that's it. That's not being a successful educator if that's what's going on.

Nick Prince:

What I'll do is one of two things. The most common that I do is I'll give them a study guide with 60% of the material on there, and I am very straightforward with them that they know it's only 60% of the material. The reason I do that is because we do have students who struggle with test anxiety. If they know that they're going to get at least a 60% if they really focus well on what they're looking at and understand that, then that can help reduce test anxiety for them. It also helps them understand, hey, these are the general things that are going to be on the test.

Nick Prince:

The other thing I'll do is, if there's really a ton of material in the class, I'll flip that, and instead of putting 60% on the study guide, I'll put 120%, 130% of what's going to be on the test on the study guide. There's other things that won't be tested that they're still going and learning, but it is narrowing the scope to where it's in a manageable range, versus just, "Hey, good luck. Study everything. 40 chapters, not a big deal. Keep going."

Nick Prince:

Those are some of the things that we'll do as we get closer to test to try and help set expectations, to help them understand.

Nick Prince:

The other thing I'll do is I will constantly tell them that this is the worst test that they will ever take, within range. You don't want to scare them so much that they feel like they're going to fail, but I've had times where I've had a test that I didn't think was that hard, and I'll tell them that, "Oh, this is easy. This isn't that big a deal. It's not a bad test," and then they won't study much and everyone will do horrible on it. I try and push them enough to where they study and scare them enough to where they study, but not scare them to where they feel like it's instant defeat. That's the other thing I'll do with setting expectations for tests as they get ready.

Debbie Clare:

Well, I love the fact that you're modeling the behavior by giving them a sample so that they have food for thought to gear up and prepare. But we also know that in life it's not just going to be multiple choice in the grander scope of things, so yes, you've got to have some memorization and some of that regurgitation. But like you were saying earlier, you're having dialogue and other activities in the classroom, so you're getting at those higher levels of learning, too, that are not just on an exam alone.

Nick Prince:

Yeah. Related to that, I forgot, one other thing I'll tell them, too, is I'll say, "Hey, I know that some people are really good at taking tests and others just aren't. If you're one of those students who aren't good at taking tests, my evaluation of who you are as an individual is not based on your test scores."

Nick Prince:

Sometimes students will be doing really good participating, will take the first test, they won't do well, and they'll just feel horrible. They feel like they let the professor down. They'll feel uncomfortable, and so then they stop participating. They stop engaging.

Nick Prince:

You don't want them to do that. You want to make sure that you push them to know that, despite what the letter grade is, that's not the goal. The goal is to get tools that can help you to be successful. Yeah, we have to play the game of tests, but if that's not your strength, that's okay, doesn't mean you're a bad student.

Debbie Clare:

Well, and that's also why you have other components in your syllabi, right?

Nick Prince:

Yeah. Oh, exactly. Yeah.

Debbie Clare:

The exam, that's not the end-all and be-all from that perspective.

Nick Prince:

Yeah.

Debbie Clare:

I love that you have a nice mix from that end for all students to be able to succeed.

Debbie Clare:

Now, is there anything else that you focus on at the end of class to really help manage expectations as the course really comes to a close?

Nick Prince:

Yeah. A couple of things. I have a variety of things. I'm thinking of some more things aside from the notes I took down as I was thinking about that today.

Nick Prince:

The first thing, though, is just to... I really push my students to check their grades about two weeks out and just make sure, "Hey, if there's anything missing that should be in there, let me know, because we want to get that right now and not later." Part of that is I try and turn around the grades really quickly. Once the student takes an exam, they're often terrified waiting to know what the grade is going to be, and so I-

Debbie Clare:

The anticipation kills everyone, right?

Nick Prince:

Oh yeah, it's horrible. Me too. I try and get those turned around really quick.

Nick Prince:

The last thing I want is to turn those grades around, submit it, and then have a student come to me like, "Oh, well, you missed this assignment" or "You missed that assignment." I let them know, "Hey, I'm going to get it to you fast, but in return, you have to look now to make sure that nothing is missing. If something is missing that you didn't bother telling me about, I assume you just didn't care about it. You need to take personal responsibility for yourself and let me know. If there is, we'll fix it; but if not, then it's too late after the exam."

Debbie Clare:

I like that.

Nick Prince:

If I made a mistake somewhere, then sure. Otherwise, it's on you to have personal responsibility for your grades.

Debbie Clare:

What you're getting at there goes back to what we started with at the beginning. It's about respect and accountability on both fronts.

Nick Prince:

Yeah. Oh, big time. If you can teach that, that's one of those skills you're trying to teach in the world. If you constantly bail students out who decide not to look at something until after they realize, "Oh, that assignment might have made a difference on my final grade. I guess I'll go back and do something about it," you're teaching apathy. You're reinforcing behaviors that are not good for them to be successful in the world, and so we let them know ahead of time.

Nick Prince:

The other thing I do is I'll set the expectation that if you're going to email me and beg for a grade, I won't respond to those emails. The reality is sometimes I do, but I'm trying really hard to get better at not responding to those because, again, you're not going to be in successful at life if you're going to rely on just begging and whining to be successful. I try and shut that down ahead of time.

Debbie Clare:

Right. Earlier, you said that if they do that, then you might deduct too.

Nick Prince:

Yeah, exactly.

Debbie Clare:

Are there any other key points?

Nick Prince:

Just the last thing I think about as I think about teaching in general is, I've talked about a lot of different ways to approach the classroom today. These are ways that fit with my personality and my style and approach. Some of those hopefully fit with what you're doing as well, but the important thing is be authentic to who you are as a teacher. If you're not, it's very obvious when you get in front of the classroom that this isn't who you are, and you will struggle. Think through that.

Nick Prince:

For me, one of the things that I did early on when I first got to Wyoming is I started writing down all the different tips and tricks of teaching that I thought through, and off of that, wrote a small book that I self-published on Amazon that has been internationally read by three people. It's nothing big, but-

Debbie Clare:

What is that book, Nick? Do you want to share what that is?

Nick Prince:

It's Tips and Tricks to Teaching in the University Classroom, or something like that. I don't know that I would have that, but every once in a while, I'll get like 12 cents from Amazon, and someone else somewhere in the world has bought that book. That happens about once a year.

Nick Prince:

For me, that was a really helpful exercise to go through and to just think more about, "Well, how do I approach teaching? What do I do that's successful? What do I do that's not successful?" That helped me really understand my approach and what I'm doing, so I would encourage everybody to do something similar. It's just a great exercise of self to do that as you're understanding, "How am I setting expectations? How am I doing things that contradict the expectations I've set, and how do I fix that so that there's coherency throughout the class?"

Debbie Clare:

Well, we're coming to the close of our time now, Nick. Is there top three things that you would give as your final words of advice to our peers?

Nick Prince:

Yeah. I think just reinforcing number one overall is just the importance of the first day. That's where you set the tone. You set the culture for your class and everything. All success or destruction of your class starts there.

Nick Prince:

The next would be just making sure your syllabus is rock solid. There have definitely been times where I've gone through a class and been like, "Oh, I didn't put that in the syllabus," and then you hold on for the ride and hope that it doesn't come back to burn you. Then you make sure it's in your syllabus the next semester.

Nick Prince:

Those are the two that stand out above all else. Otherwise, just be ready to be adaptable and to learn from what works and what doesn't. Honestly, I feel like the student body is changing and evolving in what they like and they don't like, so as professors and instructors, we need to keep evolving and changing to best fit with them so we can be better at our jobs.

Debbie Clare:

Well, again, thank you so much for sharing your time with us. It's really been a pleasure. I really enjoyed your perspective and your experience. I know that our listeners are going to enjoy those best practice techniques.

Nick Prince:

Yeah. Well, and thank you. I was going to say, thank you for having me on. I'm grateful to be here and to have the opportunity to talk with you, Debbie.

Debbie Clare:

Thank you.

Debbie Clare:

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