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Community college students are more likely to come from underserved populations and are inclined to feelings of self-doubt in academic settings. When learning online, our students need to know they have an instructor who cares and is there to support them, and that they are part of a vibrant learning community. Effective online teachers mindfully cultivate their presence at the course level and one-on-one with students. These interactions foster a relationship based on trust, which is the foundation of a learning community.
Reflections
Reflections
Where I was.
Where I was.
When I was a teaching associate in graduate school, I was trained to understand equity and social justice from a theoretical perspective and I felt like those theories and themes were not explored and connected to our pedagogy and the practices we employ in our learning communities. I remember being told to make my exams really difficult to avoid grade inflation. I began to question these practices--who do they serve? And, ho do they harm. This lead me to reconsider how my course design and policies influence student equity and access.
Where I am.
Where I am.
I have redesigned my syllabus using the liquid syllabus template to make it easier to read and more accessible using multiple modalities. In addition, I have changed the way I communicate with students by using student-centered language, and I have changed the way I introduce resources to support student learning by including them throughout my course. I have also written a student-centered teaching philosophy that guides how I make choices that impact my students. I have found that more centered teaching practices support equity in the classroom and have increased student completion rates in my online courses.
Where I'm headed.
Where I'm headed.
I am focusing on various way to assess the cultural relevant teaching and learning practices that I am employing in the classroom (e.g. connecting students cultural identity to our coursework and assignments) and I am interested in using the assessment data storytelling frame work to build narratives from quantitative and qualitative student data from my online classes to better understand the lived experiences of my students throughout their learning process. And, share this data with colleagues in Focused Inquiry Groups and professional learning opportunities.
Examples
Examples
A student-centered teaching philosophy involves being self-reflexive about how we facilitate teaching and learning opportunities for our students. Student-centered learning puts students' interests first, acknowledging student voice as central to the learning experience. In addition, my pedagogy focuses on skills and practices that enable lifelong learning and independent problem-solving. Since I teach communication classes, I strive to create a learning environment that allows students to use and find their own voices to advocate for themselves and to inform and persuade others. My philosophy also focuses on mentoring with an emphasis on social and racial justice. Ultimately, this reflects my "why" statement and guides the decisions I make as an educator.
Liquid Syllabus
Liquid Syllabus
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I have redesigned my syllabus to be more student-centered by using more student-centered language, changing the way information is organized and offering the syllabus in a new modality. I used the Liquid Syllabus template to transform my syllabus into an engaging virtual document that includes my newly edited teaching philosophy and communication policies that emphasize a warm and welcoming learning environment. This syllabus is easy to send to students in a welcome e-mail and also includes my welcome video, which can also humanize the beginning of a course. The liquid syllabus is an equitable practice because makes the class policies and information more accessible and can be accessed by students who rely on their mobile phones to access course information. A recent student survey in LACCD suggests that over 90% of students access course content on their mobile phones. This can also enhance our digital literacy.
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