Humanized Online
Teaching Showcase
Leslie Henson, English Instructor, Butte College
This site provides examples of instructional resources created in the Humanizing Online Teaching Academy, a professional development program at Butte College, funded by the Culturally Responsive Pedagogy & Practices grant from the California Community College Chancellor's Office.
Reflections
Where I was.
Before this course, I was self-conscious about seeing myself on video. I used Canvas Studio for my online courses, but I wasn't sure how to structure the videos I was making for students or how to use them more purposefully. I knew my videos need to be shorter, too. Also, I did not understand the extent to which hearing and seeing each other could help students, nor the extent to which students needed to see me and hear my voice. I had read about Wise Feedback and being a Warm Demander, but I needed more feedback, models, and low-stakes practice using and embodying these strategies. I sometimes used images to convey cues of social belonging, but there were many missed opportunities and times when I skipped this step. And I vaguely understood how some of my assignments privileged what I now know are low context cultures, but I did not have a strong bead on how to be more culturally inclusive in terms of the ways I was asking my students to think.
Where I am.
Since taking this course, I have become so much more confident using videos in my online courses. I now understand how seeing and hearing each other helps students to engage with the content more effectively. I know how to structure a micro-lecture and a course bumper video, and I am confident in my use of Wise Feedback and Warm Demander strategies as a way to motivate and encourage Black students and other students who have not had their capacities affirmed. I understand the importance of embedding kindness cues of social belonging from the very beginning, including in my course card. I also learned the importance of designing assignments for both high context and low context cultures, and now I use that lens to help me in designing for both virtual and face-to-face courses.
Where I am going.
I would like to become an even better online teacher. I now have the tools I need to keep developing bumper videos and microlectures, and I want to work more on getting students to use video and audio tools to connect with each other, as that is my biggest area for future growth. It seems hard to get students to push past their fears, and the technical challenges, of engaging with each other in these ways, but now that I know how important it is, I'm going to put more energy into this component of culturally responsive online teaching.
Liquid Syllabus
This Liquid Syllabus will help me to establish trust and show students that I care about them and their learning before the course begins. When students receive this, they will understand that I want them to succeed and will be present in their learning experience.
Many students feel anxiety about their writing--particularly, students from linguistically oppressed communities. My welcome video intentionally models me sharing messy, imperfect work. I hope it inspires students to feel safe to do the same in my course.
Course Card
I selected this course card to let Black students in particular know that they belong and are welcomed in the course.
This image shows all students that there will be a warm, collaborative, and inclusive learning environment that includes interaction with their peers.
Homepage
This homepage was designed to serve as a kindness cue of social inclusion for students. The course banner shows students interacting, there is a link and a video walking students through the orientation module, and the contact information section emphasizes that I love interacting with them and don't want them to struggle on their own. All of these elements work together to show students that they will be welcomed and included in this course.
Getting to Know You Survey
This survey asks students about their strengths, their schedules, their identities that they are comfortable sharing with me, and how they feel about beginning the course. Starting with their strengths, and asking about all of these things, helps this survey to function as a kindness cue of social inclusion for students. Who they are matters, they've gained strengths from their lives that they can draw on in the course, and we will work together to navigate the challenges of the course.
Ice Breaker
This icebreaker assignment asks students to reflect on something that matters to them and to share that with each other via Flip. By sharing their real-world experiences via video, students connect with each other at a deeper level, fostering a sense of trust and belonging as they begin the course. To model the assignment, I share a little notebook my daughter got me, showing that I am a real person who values family. I also used a filter to show them that they can do the same if they are concerned about how they look on video.
Bumper Video
I provide this video before an assignment in which students must use quotations from course readings. This video allows me to show students how & why to consider their audience's needs when quoting from sources. It improves students' learning experience by showing text-based examples along with slightly humorous videos illustrating readers' responses to quotations provided without context. I expect that this video will help the concept to "stick" in students' minds, compared to using solely text-based examples. I can also link to this video when providing students with feedback, allowing them to revisit it just-in-time.
Microlecture
In English 2, students demonstrate their ability to analyze stylistic choices in writing. This microlecture aligns with this objective and occurs about halfway through my course. It introduces terms for 12 distinctive rhetorical strategies Black scholars have found being used by Black writers & communities. Students will analyze and evaluate how these strategies show up in two powerful texts by Black writers: an essay written for a freshman composition course and a slam poem. I expect this microlecture to make these concepts more accessible and help them to "stick" more than if students just read the information off the page. Students will be able to return to this microlecture when they need a refresh on Black rhetoric.