Milton W. Wendland (J.D., Ph.D.) is a professor of instruction in the Department of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at the University of South Florida, where he specializes in equitable and inclusive online education. He regularly teaches Queer Film & Television; LGBTQ+ Cultures; Gender Sexuality & the Law; Intro to Women’s & Gender Studies; and related courses in online formats. 

There is a plethora of advice out there to help instructors design courses and teach in ways that reduce student academic and learning anxiety and support student mental health.¹ But what about instructors and our levels of anxiety and distress? As the semester winds down and we start planning for new courses, I wanted to share nine course design strategies to improve our own work/life balance and support our own mental health. 

1. Cross-Check Schedules: Part of work/life balance is recognizing and honoring key events outside of our teaching schedules (e.g., family events, academic conferences), yet many of us either struggle at the last minute to set up classes we will miss or feel intense guilt for not being present (mentally and/or physically) in class. Lay your personal and professional calendars over your course schedule(s) and make alterations to both before the semester starts so that you do not face weeks that exhaust you and so that you have plenty of headway to prepare for conflicts.  

2. Let Students See Behind the Curtain: Be (somewhat) transparent with students throughout the semester. Share with students any times in the semester when you may be less available due to personal or professional obligations. Students appreciate the honesty, and it humanizes you for students to know that you have multiple draws on your time just as they do. It also lets students plan their time in terms of when to email you or visit your office hours. 

3. More Isn’t Always Better: When we teach online—especially asynchronous online—we often think that since students aren’t in a physical classroom or in our “scholarly presence” we must add more learning material and assessments—more readings, an extra documentary, a longer assignment. But studies show that students do not learn more by doing more reading and homework; in fact, more learning material may actually reduce interest in the course and therefore reduce learning.² Avoid the feeling of “must do more” and instead focus on what learning materials and assessments will best help your students achieve course learning outcomes. 

4. Grant Some Grace: During COVID I instituted an automatic, penalty-free, 48-hour grace period for all assignments in my course. I was scared that would mean most students would submit assignments at the end of the grace period; but in my classes, on average fewer than 15% of the students use the grace period on any single assignment and only about 5% of students use it repeatedly. How does this help work/life balance? By instituting the grace period, emails asking to submit work after the deadline dropped by 90% (except for emails thanking me for the grace period!). 

5. Laying Down the Law: Clear policies for late work, revisions, discussion board decorum, and the like are essential for a successful teaching and learning experience, but how we communicate those policies is key.³ By using welcoming, supportive, explanatory language rather than punitive language in our syllabi and announcements, we invite students into the learning experience and reduce the potential for conflict- and resistance-based responses.⁴ Consider the differences between these two late work policy statements:  

It is your responsibility to manage your time in this class. Therefore, no late work is accepted more than three days after the due date, and all late work will be penalized one letter grade.

Missing deadlines can increase our distress and anxiety, but sometimes we get sick, have heavy work schedules, or face other challenges. When life happens, you’re welcome to submit assignments early or to use our automatic, penalty-free, 48-hour grace period. To be fair to everyone else in our class who also faces challenges and manages to stay on track, late work submitted after the grace period will be penalized by one letter grade.

6. Bring in the Outside: A documentary or a guest speaker not only reduce the time we faculty are “on” but are also solid ways to connect students to the voices and experiences of others. For example, in my LGBTQ+ cultures class, watching Before Stonewall allows students to see and hear the people who lived in decades past, and it also allows us to discuss how the documentary itself is a form of queer activism and part of the queer archive. A guest speaker or panel—though it takes time to set up—helps students connect what we’re learning in class with real-world practices. I try to schedule these sorts of learning events for weeks when I know I’m going to be overwhelmed with other personal or professional obligations. 

7. Timing Is Everything: At the end of every semester, I hear from colleagues who are daunted by the piles of final projects and papers that need to be graded before the final grade deadline. Too often that is part of a “good professors are always busy!” attitude that is not good for our work/life balance. Consider putting the deadline for final projects and papers earlier in the semester—e.g., mid-November for fall semester. Students often balk at this at first, but then as end-of-semester projects and papers come due in other classes, they always thank me, and I am free of the overload of grading that often comes at the end of the semester.   

8. Weighty Points: We all know that scaffolding assignments is a good way to give students structure and provides multiple ways to break down a large project grade, yet we typically give the final project or paper the heaviest weight in terms of points possible. In my experience, this leads to weak proposals and half-baked early drafts no matter what the assignment. Weighting earlier parts of the paper or project more heavily (even up to 70% of the overall grade!) not only gives students the incentive to put more thought and effort in at earlier stages but also frees us from heavy end-of-the-semester grading. 

9. Choose Your Own Learning: An assignment that I first used as a last-minute filler when I was in a pedagogical pickle ended up being one of my students’ favorites. When there’s a week later in the semester that I know students and/or I are going to be busy or feeling the stress of the semester, I offer students a Choose Your Own Learning module where students can review everything we’ve covered in class so far and then choose a topic they want to explore more or a relevant topic that we won’t be covering in class. Students provide a short rationale for why they chose their topic and the questions that interest them along with an academic article that they have summarized with three discussion questions. Not only does this give students a chance to do small-scale research into a topic of their choice but it alerts me to topics of interest that I may want to include in future versions of the class. (Indeed, students are thrilled when I tell them that I’d like to include their finds in a future semester.) 

As educators, we all want to design classes and teach in ways that support our students’ learning and that align with course learning outcomes. Many times, though, we forget that we’re human too and that over-drawing on our own energy stores doesn’t help our students, our families, or ourselves. We often find, too, that we fall back on tropes about what makes a “good class” or what a “good professor” looks like and design classes the same way semester after semester, even if we change the learning materials and assessments. I hope that in this blog post I’ve given you some specific, workable ways to keep your classes and teaching top-notch while also benefiting your work/life balance. 

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¹ Lindsay, Brittany L. et al. “Understanding the Connection Between Student Wellbeing and Teaching and Learning at a Canadian Research University: A Qualitative Student Perspective.” Pedagogy in health promotion 9.1 (2023): 5–16. Web. 

² Dyjur, P., Lindstrom, G., Arguera, N., & Bair, H. (2017). Using mental health and wellness as a framework for course design. Papers on Postsecondary Learning and Teaching, 2, 1–9.  

³ Ishiyama, J., & Hartlaub, S. (2002). Does the Wording of Syllabi Affect Student Course Assessment in Introductory Political Science Classes? PS: Political Science & Politics, 35(3), 567-570. 

⁴ Harnish, R.J., Bridges, K.R. Effect of syllabus tone: students’ perceptions of instructor and course. Soc Psychol Educ 14, 319–330 (2011).