6: Additional Annotations

• Find ways to celebrate diversity by integrating relevant course materials that bring in diverse perspectives and examples.

• Encourage students to play an active role in sharing resources they find online and by making thoughtful connections across course content.

• Design an activity that invites students to find and share materials that relate to course topics and reflect a diverse range of perspectives and backgrounds.

• Critically evaluate the presentation of digital material. If you assign text or media that is problematic or incorporates stereotypes, point out the shortcomings and consider supplementing with additional course materials. Encourage students to think critically about course material to develop their information literacy skills.

• Use examples that speak across diverse populations. Draw on resources, materials, and anecdotes that are relevant to the subject and also sensitive to the social and cultural diversity of your students.

• Survey your students about their concerns, needs, and preferences for online learning. Ask students for their thoughts on online instruction, communication, interaction, collaboration, etc. Their responses can inform your approach as a course facilitator. It also allows instructors to be mindful of students’ personal situations and barriers to their learning (e.g., students may temporarily not have reliable internet access or a quiet space to learn and complete coursework). One example of a question comes from a survey shared by Dr. Lance Gravlee (University of Florida, Department of Anthropology): What would you like me to know or to be thinking about as we try to create the best possible learning environment and keep everyone healthy during the rest of the semester?

• Recognize that online learning can be a challenge for both students and instructors. Describe your own fears and struggles in teaching and learning online to break down barriers and demystify the online learning process.

• Provide opportunities for students to interact with each other online, discussing in small groups–to help students feel more connected to each other and build a sense of community.

  • Encourage dialogue about online learning experiences and share learning strategies that are working for students.

  • In online discussions, whether synchronous or asynchronous, use preferred names and pronouns.

• Ask for feedback from students about the online climate. This can be done anonymously using a Google form or live in Zoom using the poll feature (for closed-ended questions). Review and report back to students.
  

• Provide explicit student interaction expectations, factoring in cross-cultural diversity and accessibility; these are not limited to but include the following examples:

  • What are rules for the course—late work, cameras on/off during Zoom, etc.

  • What are the online classroom rules, etiquette and expectations for engaging (asking questions, replying to/disagreeing with one another, etc.)?

• Include graphic icons that visually display different types of learning activities and assignments (e.g. an icon of a group of people for group work). This allows students to more easily adapt to a course culture and its expectations.
  

------------- Annotations adapted from “Inclusive Teaching And Learning Online” - columbia.edu

• • Caring is attending to person and performance. Teachers model personal values such as patience, persistence and responsibility while incorporating skills such as self-determination throughout their curriculum. "In other words, culturally responsive caring teachers cultivate efficacy and agency in ethnically diverse students" (p. 64).
    

  • Caring is action-provoking. It is not dumbing down rigor. To the contrary, caring teachers demonstrate respect for students, provide choices and work to ensure information is taught in an understandable manner. In an online course, a teacher might take time to develop a template for students to assist them with creating an outline; record a video to demonstrate how to complete an assignment; provide model papers for students to consider in advance; organize complex projects into stages with clear deliverables; provide low-stake, formative assessments that foster confidence in students and scaffold their learning towards a summative assessment.
    

  • Caring Prompts Effort and Achievement. Tell your story...of struggle, failure, success, or achievement. Neuroscience shows that when a person listens to another person tell a story, similar parts of the listener and speakers brains are activated. This process, known as neural coupling, demonstrates that story-telling builds empathy. Designing assignments that provide students with the option to reflect on their life experiences can improve cognitive understanding between the students and the instructor. Let them know they are not alone in their learning process and demonstrate the importance of applying a growth mindset--that is, "the understanding that abilities and intelligence can be developed" (Dweck, 2007).
    

  • Caring is multidimensional responsiveness. Caring is a process. When teachers are committed, competent, confident and knowledgeable about the content in cultural pluralism, they are placed "... in an ethical, emotional and academic partnership with ethnically diverse students. This partnership is anchored in respect, honor, integrity, resource-sharing, and a deep belief in the possibility of transcendence, that is, an unequivocal belief that marginalized students not only can but will improve their school achievement under the tutelage of competent and committed teachers who act to ensure that this happens" (p. 69).
    With these core values of caring, your partnership with your students can promote purpose in learning and even living.
    

  • Meeting social needs by creating connection:
    Various studies--investigating both classroom learners (e.g., Tinto, 1987) and online learners (e.g., Bawa, 2016)--have shown that students persist more and are more engaged learners when they feel connected to the instructor and other learners. Viewed through an equity lens, that feeling of connection is even more important for learners with cultural backgrounds that value and espouse interdependent, rather than independent, learning experiences.”
    OETraining - E8:Connection & Belonging - CC
    

  • Meeting psychological needs by fostering a sense of belonging:
    If you haven't heard the term before, Goodenow and Grady (1993) defined belonging in an academic context as “the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment” (p. 80). A number of studies (Harackiewicz & Priniski, 2018; Kizilcec, Saltarelli, Reich & Cohen, 2017; Mintz-Binder, 2015; Thomas, Herbert, & Teras, 2014; Wilson et al., 2015) found positive effects and/or positive perceptions stemming from increasing students' sense of belonging in online courses.On the flip side, students' sense of belonging can be affected negatively by stereotypes, past experiences, and a lack of strong support networks. Online instructors can use a variety of strategies to promote belonging, such as asking students to complete values affirmation activities, or dispelling and discussing the impact of stereotypes.
    

------Material above adapted from Peralta OETraining - E8:Connection & Belonging - CC