I had a student request this once, similarly related to anxiety. In response to their outreach, I reflected on what the essential learning outcomes of the assignment were and if the public speaking piece of it was truly “essential”. It sounds like you’ve done that, but that’s usually my first gut-check.
We had a conversation about what possible accommodations might look like and what were the anxiety dealbreakers on their end.
I often start by asking the student. For instance, “part of this class involves you doing x, largely because learning how to y is very important in college/ the profession. I know x doesn’t seem very doable, but I still need to make sure you can y. What might be some ways I can still see you can y that feel reasonable and equitable for this task?”. I don’t have to say yes to the suggestions, but it helps give them some agency and makes it a collaborative process.
We ended up settling on a pre-recorded presentation (and I amended this as an option for the class as a whole, because that didn’t seem like an unreasonable adjustment, and makes an accommodation less obvious- when possible).
That student later commented on my evaluations that in their four years at the college I was the only faculty who had taken their mental health concerns seriously.
source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/comments/qp9o4w/student_asking_to_be_exempt_from_presentation_due/hjssyxo/
I had a student request this once, similarly related to anxiety. In response to their outreach, I reflected on what the essential learning outcomes of the assignment were and if the public speaking piece of it was truly “essential”. It sounds like you’ve done that, but that’s usually my first gut-check.
We had a conversation about what possible accommodations might look like and what were the anxiety dealbreakers on their end.
I often start by asking the student. For instance, “part of this class involves you doing x, largely because learning how to y is very important in college/ the profession. I know x doesn’t seem very doable, but I still need to make sure you can y. What might be some ways I can still see you can y that feel reasonable and equitable for this task?”. I don’t have to say yes to the suggestions, but it helps give them some agency and makes it a collaborative process.
We ended up settling on a pre-recorded presentation (and I amended this as an option for the class as a whole, because that didn’t seem like an unreasonable adjustment, and makes an accommodation less obvious- when possible).
That student later commented on my evaluations that in their four years at the college I was the only faculty who had taken their mental health concerns seriously.
source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/comments/qp9o4w/student_asking_to_be_exempt_from_presentation_due/hjssyxo/