Issues

Learning difficulty related to her stress related illness

Adjustments

• Need more detail about her current 'load'. Does 'some units' mean that she is overloaded? May need to reduce study load further.
• Need to consider assessment requirements.

Preferential treatment

• No.

Strategies

• If she has demonstrated capability to the required standard prior to her illness, then she needs to be supported to succeed if she is indeed ready to be back at her studies.
• Could start to negotiate a 'learning contract' for her that can accommodate her requirements as a student with a mental illness while also meeting the desired outcomes for the unit.
• Could negotiate with Susan some immediate adjustments which could help. Personally I have no problem with giving students in her position comments on a draft of an assignment.
• Might be able to find a way to have some of the readings recorded so she can listen to them rather than have to read them.
• May consider complete re-negotiation of assessment and course unit requirements.
• I'd probably talk to her about the risk of dependency and maybe discuss some peer support for her in a learning group with other students

Role

Supporting her to succeed.

Issues

• Anxiety. Stress, fatigue, cannot make sense of the work.
• Feeling overwhelmed
• Concentration or short term memory problems
• Unable to write and listen at the same time
• Problems with reading - intake of written information, recalling new information, spending hours reading and re-reading information.

Adjustments

• Substitute assignments in specific circumstances. Give her advanced notice of assignments.
• Written assignments in lieu of oral presentations or vice versa.
• Extended time to complete assignments, taking tests.
• Note taker or photocopy of another's notes.
• Preferential seating, especially near the door to allow leaving class for breaks.
• Assign a classmate as volunteer assistant if she so wishes.
• Early availability of syllabus and textbooks. Annotated bibliography; summaries of cases

Preferential treatment

• No.
• The treatment Susan receives should not be considered preferential. Rather, it puts her on an equal footing with her peers and provides her with the opportunity to reach her potential.

Strategies

• She should contact and register with the Disability Liaison Unit which could arrange further accommodations to allow equal access to classes, programs and coursework.
• She could contact counselling which could help her with stress management techniques.
• She could contact the Centre for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching (CALT) which could help her with study skills, assignments, and exams.

The following strategies could benefit other students in the class as well as Susan.

• Try to break reading into chunks and organise these into a reading schedule.
• Try making associations between new concepts and something already known.
• Provide her with chapter outlines or reading guides that sequence key points (keep these to a minimum).
• Clarify the logical links between old and new information.
• Encourage her to organise her study into manageable chunks and to tick off each chunk as she completes it.
• Provide her with an alternative assessment which takes advantage of her verbal skills.

Role

As Susan's teacher, there is a responsibility to structure the learning environment to assist her learning as much as possible:

• to offer advice and practical strategies to assist her learning
• to encourage her to develop her own strategies and meta-cognitive skills.

As her lecturer or tutor, be prepared to set behavioural expectations for Susan so she does not get too dependent on you.