Inclusivity

Bringing inclusive teaching practice to large lecture classes

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 19:34:18 +0000

Bringing inclusive teaching practice to large lecture classes Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/28/2021 - 13:34

Becca Ciancanelli

Over the last year, I have noticed that one of the most frequent questions in Center for Teaching & Learning workshops is, “How would you adapt this practice for use in a large class?” The suggestions in this post are focused on building communication channels such that one could get a sense of how to provide equity-minded, and therefore differentiated support, for students who are learning in a large classroom.

In an article on inclusive teaching, Bryan Dewsbury and Cynthia Brame define inclusivity as “the practice of including people across differences” and assert that inclusivity implies “an intentional practice of recognizing and working to mitigate biases that lead to marginalization or exclusion of some people”. In order to create inclusive classroom spaces, they argue that an ongoing dialogue with students is required, and as such, inclusion is built on the quality of the social relationship. The challenge of inclusive teaching is to find ways to be responsive to the students who are currently enrolled in your course, instead of implementing the same teaching practices each semester.

Perhaps we might define large lecture classes by the limit for which an instructor cannot truly know all the students’ names and hear unique stories about each students’ learning experience. This semester, I have found that masks have added significant challenges for learning students’ names and encouraging participation. I would argue that the class enrollment that might qualify as a large lecture class would be even smaller, given these extra challenges.

While you can’t expect to form relationships with all of your students in a large class, you can open the door for communication about access and learning needs in order to create an equitable and inclusive environment. Once the communication channels are established and utilized, relationships can flourish. The following suggestions for establishing the formation of these relationships are organized by what the instructor can do and how an instructional team can provide vital support.

Suggestions for the Instructor:

Instructor Presence

When I was an undergraduate, my roommate convinced me to attend a talk by Dr. Maya Angelou. There were at least 150 people in the room. I don’t remember what Dr. Angelou spoke about, but I do remember feeling like I could have comfortably walked up to her to ask a question. It was clear to me that she had respect for her audience, that she valued the relationship with her audience and that she was curious about our experiences. While I will never be as captivating as Dr. Angelou, I do aim to bring those qualities to my presence as an instructor. One way to establish your instructor presence is to write a paragraph in your syllabus that clarifies your values regarding teaching and learning. You could also include a statement that welcomes students and all of their identities, visible and invisible, into your classroom.

I have heard from many students that they feel discouraged at casual comments that they hear from instructors in large lectures such as, ”You should already know this” or “This should be easy, since it was covered in the previous course.” Kimberly Tanner calls this “Non-content Instructor Talk”. Instructors might also be making microaggressive comments that further marginalize students who do not fit into the dominant culture. Given that relationships are harder to foster in this environment, it is crucial to be aware of what comments might be creating a hostile or unwelcoming experience for students. Two resources that might be helpful to work on self-awareness are Verna Myer’s Ted talk on addressing our biases and the Center for Teaching & Learning webpage on Stereotype threat.

Classroom Agreements

As you will be relying on students to form relationships with their peers and your instructional team, it is critical to communicate classroom agreements regarding student behavior during group work. The Inclusive Community of Practice used several resources to generate a list of community agreements for breakout rooms and group dialogues this semester. As the facilitator of these sessions, I include the community agreements on each of our activity documents as a frequent reminder of expected behavior. A survey that remains open all semester could be used to allow for students to report situations in which agreements were broken.

Curating Your Content

It is important to carefully curate the content of your course to make it relevant and accessible to all students. Talk to your students about your choices and emphasize the importance of exploring different perspectives. When students can connect their lived experiences and values to what they are learning, it will increase motivation and engagement. Two resources to start this process of review are the Center for Teaching & Learning webpage on Black Lives Matter and the Digital Accessibility Office newsletter.

Lecture Activities

Getting connected as a class through a "warm-up" period or "temperature check" in the first few minutes provides an informal moment or two to allow all students to feel seen and heard. You could ask a quick polling question, using iClickers or Mentimeter, to get a read on their energy level or how confident they are feeling about the current course topic. Using the methodology of “Think-pair-share” is a great way to check for understanding and allow students to work with their peers. Don’t forget the “think” part of this activity! Many students are grateful for moments of quiet to think and process during class. You can also use a pause during class to get written questions from students through a backchannel, managed by a TA or peer (more information on backchannels below!). Also, take time during class to coach students on how to best learn in a large lecture course. You might also use that same polling feature to have students share their best learning strategies for your class.

Frequent Feedback

Getting frequent feedback from your students allows you to make adjustments during the semester. In a large classroom, surveys may have a majority of multiple choice questions to see broad patterns. Start the semester with an accessibility survey and consider designing a mid-semester feedback survey as well. Be transparent that you are shifting your practices due to student feedback, illustrating your responsiveness. You might enjoy this recent article, which suggests the use of reflective questioning and Universal Design for Learning for large classes. Lastly, many of us enjoyed seeing more student participation in the chat when teaching with Zoom. It can be an invaluable tool for students with social anxiety, processing disabilities or introverted learning styles. Creating a backchannel for your class allows students to submit written participation, ask logistical questions about due dates and report attendance issues. Just today, a CU professor told me that they are using Microsoft Teams as a backchannel, because it requires students to log in with their CU ID, offering more privacy and security.

Suggestions for Building the Instructional Team:

Graduate Student Teaching Assistants

Consistency across the different learning spaces in a course can help students feel a sense of belonging. Encourage your teaching assistants (TAs) to use your classroom agreements when working with students, and to report if they see disrespectful behavior between students. Ask them to support the backchannel of communication, by adding messages of encouragement or additional support for challenging content. You might ask your TAs to reach out to students who are not performing well in the course.

Peer-to-peer Relationships

The Learning Assistant (LA) program is currently hiring undergraduate students for their program. LAs can be powerful relationship builders in large lecture classes. Empower them to be “metacognition coaches”, talking with students about their strategies to be successful when they were taking your class. They can role model for students what to do when you don’t know the answer. I have found that students can be more open with LAs, revealing their challenges in the course and asking for help. They can also be accountability partners to uphold classroom agreements. If you don’t have the ability to hire LAs for your course, you might read through this article on creating peer study groups in large lecture courses..

As you are working with these inclusive teaching practices, allow yourself some time to build strong skills and effective delivery. Equity-minded teaching involves constant iteration, as our students’ lived experiences and needs will continue to change. Reach out to me, if you would like to discuss this article or add some practices that are working for you!

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Taking the temperature of your classroom

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 20:59:29 +0000

Taking the temperature of your classroom Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/28/2021 - 14:59

Becca Ciancanelli

Image caption: Students studying chemistry in the Student Academic Success Center, an inclusive learning community that serves first-generation, under-resourced, and other underrepresented or non-traditional learners at ��Ҵ�ý�ƽ��.

In October, our campus is launching the 2021 Campus Culture Survey, which will allow students, staff, and faculty to anonymously share their experiences, providing insight as to whether they feel respected, supported, and valued in campus spaces and relationships. It is a valuable practice in the classroom as well, to pause in October and ask students about their experiences in your classroom. Mid-semester feedback can look very different from end-of-term evaluations, since students are able to see a definitive change based on their responses and instructors can seek clarification on confusing responses. I would like to offer some ideas on how to design questions to elicit constructive feedback from your students and how to respond quickly to that feedback.

Bringing a focus on equity-minded teaching allows one to take responsibility for the climate in their classroom by finding ways to powerfully acknowledge that students from different backgrounds will have varying needs and experiences in the same classroom. Asking questions that probe for a students’ sense of belonging in the classroom is referred to as “affective feedback”, which is distinct from cognitive feedback. As this Faculty Focus article notes, the students’ emotional experiences may be invisible to the instructor. Taking the temperature of the classroom mid-semester has two distinct benefits: there is time to adjust classroom practices to improve the classroom climate and learning experiences, and students are more likely to invest their energy in a classroom where they believe that their feedback is valued and can produce a change.

The survey will contain components for both cognitive and affective feedback. To allow students to honestly give effective feedback, the survey should be anonymous and all questions should be optional. You can use Google forms or other poll software to create the survey. Giving students time during class to complete the survey signals that the feedback is valuable to you. You could send out an email or Canvas announcement with the survey link to allow students who missed class a chance to respond.

Keep the survey short, with five to eight short answer questions at most. You might ask a teaching assistant or learning assistant to take the survey for you, to determine how long it will take and get feedback that the questions are clearly worded. Some example questions are included below. The last question on the survey could be “Is there anything else that you would like me to know about your experience in this class?”.

Large picture questions:

What has been most helpful for your learning in this class so far? What has caused you the most difficulty in this class so far? What are some concrete, practical things your instructor could change about this course in the remainder of the semester that would help you learn?

Cognitive feedback questions:

What concepts or ideas in this course do you feel you do not fully understand? Do the lectures help you learn? Why or why not? Do the class and/or online activities help you learn? Why or why not? What concepts or ideas in this course do you feel you do not fully understand?

Affective Feedback questions:

Do you feel comfortable sharing your opinions, questions, and ideas in this course? Why or why not? Do you feel comfortable asking questions in class? Why or why not? Describe how your classmates are contributing to or hindering your learning in this course.

Self reflection questions:

What is the one thing that you would personally do to enhance the learning experience in class? What could you do differently to improve your learning experience in this class?

Set aside time over the next few days to review the feedback. It can be tempting to fixate on a single comment, given the defensive reaction that naturally arises for all of us. Instead, look for broad patterns in the feedback. Design a short class presentation within a week of administering the survey to show these patterns to your students, and make sure to address both what is working for the class and what is not. Find concrete shifts to make, such as re-designing an assignment or assessment, adding in some community agreements for group work, or shifting the format of office hours to provide differentiated support. If you decide not to change a particular structure that students have asked to change, take time to explain your reasoning. Lastly, it is important to express gratitude to the students for giving you feedback on their experiences.

The Center for Teaching & Learning offers personalized consultations and we are happy to discuss the results of your mid-term feedback and how to make productive changes to your course structure. What does a teaching consultation involve? Learn more here!

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Insights from the Equitable Teaching Conference

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 17:54:50 +0000

Insights from the Equitable Teaching Conference Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/01/2021 - 11:54

Becca Ciancanelli

During the week of August 9th - 13th, the Center for Teaching & Learning hosted our first Equitable Teaching Conference (ETC). The participants and facilitators began each session by focusing on this definition of equitable classrooms: “spaces where everyone (teachers, students, teaching assistants) has what they need to thrive”. I would like to share a few recurring themes that appeared in our session feedback forms, in response to the question: “What is one thing you read, heard, or learned through this experience that you will use to improve your course(s) or your teaching practice?”

Bringing Humanity to the Classroom

Many of our conversations centered on developing a classroom environment where students feel safe, heard, and valued. Participants were excited to explore informal check-ins with students with an intentionally positive lens, such as asking what they do understand rather than what they don’t understand. We noted that we could utilize vulnerability to humanize ourselves and let the students know that their difficulties in the class were also once your own, while still maintaining professional boundaries.

We also did some brainstorming about how to lift up diverse perspectives. Small group discussions that report back to the entire class can increase the ability for diverse perspectives to be shared without singling out individuals. One could also ask, "Does anyone have a perspective that hasn't been shared today?" We recognized that pauses for metacognitive reflection during coursework would support students who might need moments of quiet during class. One participant plans to take deep, audible breaths to indicate to students that it is okay to relax, reflect, and process new information. Also, many participants appreciated the session on Universal Design for Learning, where we discussed broadening the definition of ability & disability. The Accessibility Minute newsletter is a great resource for additional new ideas to address accessibility in your classroom.

Clarifying Our Teaching Values

We often make assumptions that students know our values regarding appropriate classroom behavior. It is also common to ask students to “show respect” for their teachers and peers without defining what “respect” means to us. As Dr. CheyOnna Sewell noted in her session, we have a responsibility to clearly name the spaces that we are curating and facilitating. This syllabus statement, written by Dr. Brenda Allen, is an example of how to welcome and value all social identities in the classroom.

Even though the semester has started, it is not too late to co-create community agreements with your students. You might use class time to ask them to edit a set of agreements. There are some suggestions in this guide, on page 6, about how to work toward consensus with your class on these agreements. Establishing agreements may also facilitate the formation of friendships between students, which is a strong predictor of students’ sense of belonging. I was so impressed with the data shared on this topic that I started my classes this semester with a simple ice-breaker where students interviewed each other in pairs, looking to share back to the class about something that they had in common.

Transparency and Explicit Communication

In our session about transparent assignments, participants were inspired to incorporate a statement that clarifies the purpose of the assignment, as well as what criteria for success, and how they will be evaluated. “Designing Transparent Assignments” started as an American Association of Colleges & University research project called Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT). While discussing this topic, one participant explained that they were using the word "synthesize" in assignments but never took time to explain what it means. We explored how to use Bloom’s Taxonomy to explain clearly to students how to navigate to higher levels of learning.

This semester, we will be feeling the impacts from a year of remote learning. It might feel overwhelming to take on new teaching practices, as we are taking on masked in-person teaching or expanding our approach to remote teaching. I encourage you to try one new practice from this post ~ perhaps one survey to ask students about their classroom experience, adapting one assignment using the transparent assignment template, or adding structure to group work or discussions in the classroom to clarify expected behavior. As I teach this semester, I will be thinking about what we all need to thrive in the classroom, embracing this idea from an ETC participant: “Make space for students to connect, note emotional states, and create community so healing can take place”.

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Incorporate pandemic lessons about inequity to improve your teaching

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 10:11:22 +0000

Incorporate pandemic lessons about inequity to improve your teaching Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/28/2021 - 04:11

Becca Ciancanelli

The pandemic demanded changes in teaching practices. On Zoom, contending with silent black boxes, private communication in the chat window and unmonitored group work in virtual breakout rooms, many teachers struggled to understand if, when and how learning was happening. Along the way, I have heard stories of creative strategies to reach students and guide them towards productive learning remotely. Our April newsletter is focused on the theme of reflection; therefore, I would like to explore the lessons that we have learned while teaching remotely that will change how we teach in-person and how these lessons might guide us to properly address inequities in the classroom.

The Center for Urban Education (CUE), located at the University of Southern California, defines equity as "achieving parity in student educational outcomes, regardless of race and ethnicity." It is a bold and audacious goal, as many of us struggle to provide equal access, much less achieve equal outcomes among all racial and ethnic student groups. We must strive for equity mindedness which CUE defines as "the outlook, perspective, or mode of thinking exhibited by practitioners who call attention to patterns of inequity in student outcomes, and are willing to assume personal and institutional responsibility for the elimination of inequity." These definitions provide a productive lens to examine some of the new teaching practices that were adopted this year.

I heard many stories about addressing remote teaching challenges during the School of Engineering teaching conversations this spring, run by English professor William Kuskin as part of the Going the Distance teaching initiative. During these sessions, we talked about resilience, wellness, inclusivity and the challenges of remote teaching and learning. This group identified several new teaching practices that they will use ongoingly, which I will identify below with a summary of how each practice addresses equity and equity-mindedness in the classroom.

Providing Wider Access to Resources

Professors shared that they have been offering virtual office hours in the evening and, given the engaged student participation, will continue to do so. They found the use of a side channel, such as the chat window, generated more participation from a variety of students. There are several platforms that can be used when returning to in-person teaching, such as Slack, GoSoapBox, and Discord, to provide extra discussion space about challenging course topics. Lastly, recording short video lectures on Zoom allowed professors to review lectures and provide extra asynchronous material. All of these practices provide wider access to resources for students, especially those who might have an untraditional schedule due to additional responsibilities.

Revealing Hidden Curriculum

The term hidden curriculum refers to a set of implicit academic, social and cultural messages of the dominant culture. First generation and international students often misinterpret these messages and might not ask the questions that help to reveal them. When teachers strive for transparency about assignment due dates, teaching decisions, and learning objectives, they are illuminating pathways for the successful participation of all students. In remote classes this year, professors have found the need to provide more structure than in the past. In the teaching conversations, we discussed removing extraneous material, frequently updating the course schedule and setting clear learning objectives. One engineering professor discussed a practice of letting students set deadlines for themselves. If they need to negotiate the deadline, he teaches them about professionalism in his discipline, with this syllabus statement: "We are training in this course to become engineering professionals. It starts with taking ownership of your work, having integrity in the work that you submit, and communicating effectively when you are unable to follow through with your original commitments." This transparent communication paired with both high expectations and flexibility for submitted work allows for multiple pathways to success.

Building Relationships

Many professors indicated that they are taking time during class to address wellness, resilience and managing stress. They incorporated a 16-week Student Wellness Curriculum developed by Dr. Tina Pittman Wagers and Dr. Roselinde Kaiser and shared wellness events created by the student group Connecting Flight. They often started class by validating student experience regarding the pandemic. These teaching practices, which require taking time away from covering content, help students to feel valued in the classroom. I heard from several students this year that they really appreciated moments in the classroom when professors validated their experience and addressed potential stressors with resources. Professors also noted that taking just a few minutes at the beginning of class to congratulate students on their work during a challenging semester improved classroom climate. One hope of mine is that we choose to continue making space for relationship building and conversations about stress and overwhelm even after we are able to return to in-person learning.

All of these teaching practices illustrate how teachers can take responsibility for student outcomes, by opening up new avenues for students to accomplish the learning goals while feeling valued and welcome in the classroom. Perhaps we will find gratitude for the lessons learned from teaching remotely.

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Energize your classroom while honoring fatigue

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 18:30:18 +0000

Energize your classroom while honoring fatigue Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/31/2021 - 12:30

Becca Ciancanelli

As we enter the final month of the spring semester, with intense focus on COVID-19 vaccinations and hope for a potential return to in-person working environments in the fall, it is imperative to find ways to stay present in this moment and energize classrooms, remote, online, or in-person. How can we help our students navigate this final push, honoring both our fatigue and theirs?

When students click on that link to enter class on Zoom, or walk into your socially-distanced and masked classrooms, they look to the instructor for guidance and motivation. We often send messages at the beginning of the semester, either with our syllabus or in-class activities, for the behavior that we expect from our students and what they can expect from us. We then move into our rhythms for the semester, and it is easy to forget these early commitments. Our presence, our words, and our actions can be responsive to the current climate in our spaces, providing motivation for students at challenging moments.

I was recently inspired by Bianca C. Williams's chapter, "Radical Honesty," in Race, Equity, and the Learning Environment. As she shares anecdotes from her own classroom, she effectively demonstrates that storytelling can be a powerful way to promote relationships among students. “Radical honesty emphasizes the significance of personal narratives and opens a space for creating strategies that enable scholars and students to bring their ‘whole self’ to the classroom, while getting rid of the shame that frequently accompanies their bodies in academic settings.” Williams emphasizes honesty about racialized and gendered assumptions that are brought into the classroom, seeing personal narrative as an important tool for learning and, ultimately for promoting positive social change.

Being radically honest about the pandemic will be refreshing to many of our students. While some with financial and social privilege are taking advantage of remote classes by attending while at the beach or skiing, many students are struggling to maintain emotional well-being in the face of financial, health, and other stresses. By reminding students of appropriate ways to engage in class during this final month of the semester, while also expressing your own experience of the pandemic and empathy for those who are struggling, you may be able infuse renewed energy into your learning spaces.

I offer a few recommendations. Take a few moments in class to tell a challenging story from the pandemic. Tell them about how teaching has been challenging for you, or how you have struggled to balance work and personal life. Ask for students to raise hands if they have had a similar experience. Dedicate some time to storytelling, from large groups to pairs.

If you haven’t created classroom agreements around respectful behavior, it is not too late. Create a list of what you expect from them and what they can expect from you. Put them in pairs to discuss, suggest modifications and then ask for a signal of agreement. Remember to include addressing others with their pronouns, if they have shared them. Discuss effective ways to participate, including the chat and reactions while remote learning. Some new tools are available in Zoom, including live captions. For remote or hybrid classes, consider a digital accessibility check-in, as some students’ needs might have changed. You can drop a survey in the chat or by email, like this one developed by Laura Hamrick and me, to allow students to give you information about their current situation.

Now, inject some new energy into your class! The CTL has made a list which we are calling “Inject a Refresh!” We recognize that these activities take time away from content. However, bringing this fun energy into your space may help students to relax and de-stress, allowing their brains to be more available for learning. It may also bring you joy to be playful with your students. Feel free to send us your ideas for “injecting a refresh” and we will add them! I hope that the last month of the semester proceeds smoothly for you all.

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Bring Black history to your classroom all year long

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 13:51:13 +0000

Bring Black history to your classroom all year long Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/24/2021 - 06:51

Becca Ciancanelli , Donna Mejia

The intention behind Black History Month is to spotlight the experiences of black people in America— honoring both their achievements and their misrepresented or completely absent lived histories under oppression. As educators, how do we integrate this practice into our classrooms year-round, to honor and represent those who have been traditionally asked to assimilate to a dominant culture?

It is good to remind ourselves that students aren’t marginalized by their identities; they are marginalized by their instructors and peers for what their identities represent to those within dominating groups. As an example, a common descriptor frequently used on our campus is “minorities.” This term broadcasts Eurocentricity as a primary reference point. People of the Global Majority (PGM) is a phrase that replaces the vernacular reference term minorities. PGM ONE is one example of an organization that is committed to shifting this language. It reminds us that most members of the global population do not fall into categories of the social construct of “whiteness” and are not truly “minorities.” Black, Indigenous, and people with brown skin represent over 80% of the world's population.

Those who commit to teaching through a culturally responsive framework aim to consistently represent multiple perspectives in the content and structure of their courses. By including those perspectives, we communicate to students that how they frame their worldview matters. As their education expands, a perpetual reexamination of their perspectives is an expected part of the adventure. In Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer recounts a conversation with a professor in which she yearned to connect beauty to plant growth and survival. The professor dismissed her ideas, telling her to choose between art and botany. “It was happening all over again, an echo of my grandfather’s first day at school, when he was ordered to leave everything—language, culture, family—behind. The professor made me doubt where I came from, what I knew and claimed that his was the right way to think.”

We offer a few ideas for centering your classroom instruction in multiethnic frames of reference without tokenizing minoritized students. Start each class with a quote from a leader with a different cultural background from yoursand explain why their thoughts impact your views on the world. After repeating this practice a few times, ask students to share one of their own favorite quotes through email or a discussion board. You can represent their ideas anonymously if they wish.

You can also spotlight various leaders in your disciplinary field; the SACNAS Biography Project is an online archive of first-person stories by and about Chicano/Hispanic and Native American scientists with advanced degrees in science. Becca has taken five minutes of class to share a scientist’s work even if their research doesn’t connect to the topic of the day. It is a moment to highlight achievements in the field and will open the minds of all students to who can make contributions to science. Again, ask students to share ideas with you via email. If they are allowed to contribute to the content of your class, they may be more motivated to engage vulnerably in challenging learning moments in your class. It is important to make this a weekly routine in your class to acknowledge the importance of representation.

Lastly, Donna would like to share a class activity that she designed as part of her forthcoming pedagogy article for West Virginia University Press. This Assumption Index activity will illuminate the student perspective on your field and their cultural framework to learning. While this activity is intended for the first few weeks of class, you might use it for a mid-semester check-in. You can address these assumptions to break down stereotypes and address positionality in your classroom, which could lead to the deeper reflective moments that are crucial to the development of critical thinking skills.

The intention behind Black History Month is to spotlight the experiences of Black people in America— honoring both their achievements and their misrepresented or completely absent lived histories under oppression. As educators, how do we integrate this practice into our classrooms year-round, to honor and represent those who have been traditionally asked to assimilate to a dominant culture?

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Presence identity and positionality in all classrooms

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 23:11:10 +0000

Presence identity and positionality in all classrooms Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/27/2021 - 16:11

Becca Ciancanelli

I recently revisited an article by Dr. Frank Tuitt on transforming classrooms on traditionally white campuses and found this quote: “When we successfully model courageous transparency—a self‐awareness of our positionality— it allows our students to emulate their own reflexivity, resulting in a more dynamic space.” I feel inspired by this vision of dynamic and brave environments in remote classrooms. To create this space, educators may need to pause from content delivery, illuminate their identities and choices in instruction and listen deeply to what all students need to engage in learning at this moment. I offer a few suggestions along these lines. Include a personal narrative in your syllabus that highlights your values around inclusivity and equity. It is never too late to add important content to your syllabus and can illustrate your commitment to being responsive to the pandemic. Consider using surveys in large classes to open up a dialogue about current student experience, inside and outside of the classroom. Lastly, help students to connect with one another to reduce feelings of isolation. Networks of supportive relationships will help students navigate these challenging times and will, in turn, increase motivation to learn.

Given the events of the last month, we should all be critically aware that many CU students are feeling vulnerable, especially those with marginalized identities. How can we as educators recognize this precarity for students and signal that all students are welcome and their different identities are valued in our spaces? Becca Ciancanelli, CTL Inclusive Pedagogy Lead, shares some personal reflections and strategies to employ in classrooms during these challenging times.

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Create an inclusive and equitable online learning environment

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Create an inclusive and equitable online learning environment Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/18/2020 - 00:00

CTL resources on inclusive teaching and administering exams remotely are featured in a Coursera guide to online teaching. Visit Coursera's site to learn more!

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