Apr 23 Sessions

Description

Sometimes STEM material seems densely packed and it's difficult to think of ways to connect with students. Join us as we talk about some techniques to make our material relevant as well as work together to come up with new ideas. Teaching is a science! We hypothesize, test, evaluate and modify. If you'd like some ideas for what to test out, come on by!

Great article to read prior to the session, if you can: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/16/science/weed-out-classes-stem.html

Outcomes

• Think about your LMS as a tool to enhance equity rather than just a content storage system.

• Learn best-practices for LMS course design to support student learning.

• Learn about LMS grading features to enhance equity.

Description

This workshop is designed to help you think about your learning management system (LMS) as a tool for enhancing equity and inclusion in your course. Whether a course is fully online or face-to-face, one of the first places students connect with a course is through the LMS. Choices that instructors make when setting up their courses have a strong impact on how successful students will be in finding essential information and completing course tasks, which has strong implications for equity within the course. Additionally, the grading features available in your LMS can be used to enhance connections with students and decrease instructor bias when grading. By making optimal use of the features available, you can better support the diverse students in your courses. While the presenter will be using Canvas as the example LMS, the concepts discussed will be applicable to any LMS.

Outcomes

After attending this workshop, participants will be prepared to:

• Approach equity from multiple perspectives

• Apply multiple approaches to online course development and teaching

• Promote greater equity throughout institutions

Description

This participatory workshop explores equity as it relates to course design, faculty development, and online teaching practices. Participants will examine, discuss, and share a range of design, development, and teaching practices for possible use or adaptation.

In the first part of the presentation, we will discuss how applying equitable practices often starts during the course design phase and how the collaboration between an instructional designer and a faculty subject matter expert can establish an equitable foundation for an online course that extends into the classroom.

Next, we will explore equity-centered practices for faculty development focusing on how to embed reflective practice within faculty development or communities of practice experiences. We will discuss a range of prompts that help educators: 1) structure assessment with equity-centered, formative, student feedback; 2) engage students as partners in learning and praxis; and, 3) recenter teaching practices to better align with core beliefs about equitable teaching and learning.

Finally, we will discuss how equity relates not just to course design and faculty development but to teaching practices in the online classroom as well. Further, we will discuss how finding and using equitable methods of grading, transparency, and classroom engagement are essential to classroom equity in online learning. Time permitting, participants will also work in groups to apply a three-pillar approach to a course revision process and reflect on the experience. As we close, participants will identify one takeaway to apply to future course design or instruction.

Outcomes

Participants will learn how to use free and open libraries of educational resources to provide every student immediate and free access to the instructional content they need in their courses. The workshop will include data about the impact of the cost of instructional materials on student success.

Description

There are significant economic disparities among our students, with high proportions of our students being food insecure, housing insecure, and requiring financial aid to go to college. Affordability of higher education continues to perpetuate these disparities in developing the skills and knowledge through a college education that can accelerate upward economic mobility. Free and open educational resources are available for faculty students, and institutional initiatives to reuse, revise, remix, retain, and redistribute and to provide equitable access to instructional content, consequently reducing the inequities that result from unaffordable education. The workshop will demonstrate two free and open online libraries that provide a wide range of academic and workforce development instructional content, MERLOT (www.merlot.org) and SkillsCommons (www.skillscommons.org). Participants will be able to explore these resources during the workshop and learn to find free and open resources that they can incorporate into their own courses immediately.

Outcomes

By the end of this workshop-style session, participants will be able to…

• Identify how issues of DEIBD and digital ethics intersect with ePortfolio practice

• Reflect on their own activities from the diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and decolonization (DEIBD) perspective.

• Name at minimum three strategies to make their ePortfolio practice more inclusive.

Description

For two years, a task force created by the Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL) has investigated digital ethics in ePortfolio practice. The work resulted in principles promoting ethical ePortfolio practices to educators, staff, students, and platform providers. There is an introductory (pre-recorded) poster session that provides an overview of that work.

One focus area of the second year of the task force is DEIBD (diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and decolonization) in ePortfolio practice, which is rooted in general DEIBD practices within education. After a brief introduction, attendees will reflect on their own practices, guided by questions that challenge the status quo. Constructive small group discussions are intended to bring to the forefront ideas of how to apply DEIBD principles mindfully, respectfully, and to the benefit of all learners and the wider learning community.

Outcomes

By the end of this workshop-style session, participants will be able to…

• Identify how issues of DEIBD and digital ethics intersect with ePortfolio practice

• Reflect on their own activities from the diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and decolonization (DEIBD) perspective.

• Name at minimum three strategies to make their ePortfolio practice more inclusive.

Description

For two years, a task force created by the Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL) has investigated digital ethics in ePortfolio practice. The work resulted in principles promoting ethical ePortfolio practices to educators, staff, students, and platform providers. There will be an introductory (pre-recorded) poster session on Day 1 of the conference that provides an overview of that work.

One focus area of the second year of the task force is DEIBD (diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and decolonization) in ePortfolio practice, which is rooted in general DEIBD practices within education. After a brief introduction, attendees will reflect on their own practices, guided by questions that challenge the status quo. Constructive small group discussions are intended to bring to the forefront ideas of how to apply DEIBD principles mindfully, respectfully, and to the benefit of all learners and the wider learning community.