Per the Office of the Registrar, all courses are expected to follow standard scheduling patterns using the standardized time-block model. CLAS recognizes the high value of integrating learning experiences outside of the standardized time-block into our courses, however. These experiences include participating in, rehearsing for, and attending: artistic events, cultural events, public lectures, readings, academic conferences, scientific presentations, career-focused events, service-learning projects, and community partnerships. Although these experiences are valuable components of many CLAS courses, when they are required as part of course assignments or participation, or used to grant extra credit, they can present scheduling challenging for students and uncertainty for instructors about appropriate accommodations for conflicts.

Best practices

When scheduled events or activities that occur outside of scheduled class time are required by an undergraduate CLAS course as part of course assignments or participation, or used to grant extra credit:

• Instructors should make every effort to provide information about the dates, times, and locations of these events or activities before early registration, in the course’s MyUI course description. (This information will need to be reviewed and updated in the Offerings Planner each time the course is offered.) When it is not possible to provide this information before early registration, instructors should include a statement in the MyUI course description explaining that this kind of event is a requirement of the course and indicating when the specific dates, times, and locations will be provided to students.
• Instructors should also make every effort to provide information about the dates, times, and locations of these events or activities in the course syllabus provided to students at the start of the course. If the dates, times, and/or locations of the events are not yet known at the start of the course, instructors should include a statement in the syllabus indicating when this information will be provided to students.
• Instructors should work with students who have conflicts with the event(s) to arrange appropriate alternative assignment(s).
• Instructors should work with students to set reasonable deadlines by which students requesting alternative assignments must have finalized those arrangements with instructors. Instructors should be mindful of the timing of students receiving information about the original scheduled event, the timing of students learning about their scheduling conflicts with the original event, and the deadline by which students must drop courses. 
• Whenever possible, flexibility should be structured into the original requirement itself (e.g., by offering a range of days and times for the activity and letting students choose among them).
• When working with students to arrange alternative assignments, instructors should look for options that students can complete on their own time or schedule for themselves.
• Even when an instructor provides reasonable alternative assignments, students may choose not to complete the original assignment or the alternative. Instructors are not obligated to offer multiple reasonable alternative assignments to accommodate student preferences. In these situations, instructors should communicate to students what it will mean to their overall grades in the course if they choose not to complete either the original assignment or the alternative.
• Instructors should welcome students to initiate conversations with them about accommodations they might require for a wide range of reasons, including but not limited to religious holy days, work, other courses, and caregiving responsibilities. In keeping with other CLAS policies related to attendance and accommodations, instructors should not to require documentation proving schedule conflicts.
• These same guidelines should be applied to activities and events used for extra credit: if attendance or participation in a scheduled event or activity that falls outside the course’s scheduled class time can be used to earn extra credit, students should be provided with the details of those events as early as possible, and students with scheduling conflicts should be provided reasonable alternative ways to earn the same amount of extra credit.