Join us as we kick off the 2022 Peralta Online Equity Conference with opening remarks by the conference organizers, Didem Ekici & Kevin Kelly, and a recorded welcome address by Peralta's Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, Dr. Stephanie Droker.

Outcomes

• Communicate the importance of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) in a healthcare curriculum to your institution

• Identify opportunities for the incorporation of DEI content within the curriculum

• Initiate a DEI assessment and evaluation program

Description

Infusing elements of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into an undergraduate medical curriculum is critical to successfully graduate culturally responsive healthcare providers and should promote the desired outcome of reducing the prevalence of systemic racism and implicit bias within the healthcare system. Beginning the fall of 2021, PCOM embarked on an effort to address the needs of a diverse student population through curricular enhancements, hiring and retention practices, and training and development initiatives. Our efforts resulted in a single centrally administered curriculum delivered to a cohort of approximately 475 students across the 3 locations. The three campuses are located in Philadelphia, PA; Suwanee, GA; and Moultrie, GA in the United States; and represent urban, suburban, and rural settings, respectively.

The session will highlight the importance of diversity in education, assessments and evaluations including their impact on the students, institution, and communities our graduates serve. We will share an overview of the new medical curriculum which incorporates elements of DEI through cases, standardized patients, interprofessional education experiences, humanities, patient perspectives, and assessments - to name a few. Through the use of audience polling, attendees will discuss strategies for curricular change relevant to DEI which will enable participants to identify opportunities for creation of more inclusive curricula, assessments, and evaluations at their home institutions.

With this in mind, we will facilitate an engaging discussion that will challenge, and help participants move forward in developing actionable strategies to help create and /or improve an inclusive curricula, assessments, and evaluations for undergraduate medical education.

Outcomes

• Analyze how diversity improves learning in classrooms, workplaces, and communities

• Enhance skills towards becoming equity-minded practitioners

Description

With the landscape of education changing, what essential areas must we focus on to provide opportunities for individuals to obtain employment while adapting to the needs of the current job market? How can we offer an equitable solution in educating teachers to provide students with a high probability of success? How can we provide opportunities to improve online instruction skillsets to allow individuals to be competitive in the field? In this interactive session, the presenters will share information and strategies for current and future online teachers to excel in their practice. We discuss various strategies for a high-quality, online learning experience using the best practices and proven techniques to provide students with (a) technologies to strengthen their voices and foster inclusivity, (b) easy access to support services and resources, (c) UDL to support student learning, (d) diversity and inclusivity, (e) meaningful content, and (f) sense of connection and belonging.

Outcomes

• Describe the importance of preparing first generation college students early in their school careers, preferably no later than fourth grade, and supporting them until they obtain some type of post-secondary credential

Description

First generation students struggle when they get to college because they are not familiar with the world of academia. In order to help these students succeed, they obviously need support navigating the processes involved from enrollment to graduation. However, preparation and support for first generation students should not begin at the point of enrollment in college. They need to begin earlier in elementary school. Those students then will be better prepared and more likely to succeed at the post-secondary level. Positive relationships must be formed early so students' needs can be addressed. Those relationships will help first generation students feel part of the place, which is imperative. This presentation will focus on research about first generation college students and will also share perspectives of some of those students from around the country.

Description

Educational equity refers to closing the achievement gap between different groups of students, e.g., majority vs minoritized. Metacognitive equity refers to closing the gap between students who have acquired effective thinking and learning strategies and those who have not. Often, whether a student possesses those strategies—rather than any lack of innate ability or talent—makes the difference between academic success and discouraging failure. However, effective learning strategies can be taught, sometimes with immediate and dramatic improvements in academic performance. This interactive session will present research-based learning strategies that have proven effective for increasing student success. We will discuss research on promoting student learning through metacognitive approaches, with a particular lens on improving equity in the classroom. The session blends cognitive science and learning theory, providing evidence-based approaches that are broadly applicable to all disciplines. Participants will also examine the impact of students’ mindsets about intelligence on their academic success.

Outcomes

• Explore tools and resources available through the EmTechWIKI are excellent sources to help find and create Open Educational Resources (OER) using a variety of media-rich modalities

• increase your ability to successfully engage with and implement freely available established and emerging technologies

• Gain a greater understanding of the SUNY #EmTechMOOC open educational resource to potentially implement this free learning opportunity within your own campus or another learning context

Description

In this presentation, participants will explore the State University of New York’s “Exploring Emerging Technologies for Lifelong Learning and Success.” This Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is an open-access resource targeted toward a diverse group of learners, including students, faculty, and anyone from across the globe with an interest to learn how to use freely available established and emerging technologies to succeed in today’s rapidly changing environment.

Learners in this MOOC gain an understanding of the value and implications of using technology tools for career and personal advancement in a framework of lifelong learning strategies and the 4Cs of 21st-century skills; communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. The modules feature Discovery Learning Exercises for hands-on learning about a variety of available technology tools and resources. The final module involves a peer-review activity of the ePortfolio that participants develop that highlights the artifacts created in the first four modules. The MOOC’s complementary EmTechWIKI is a socially curated collection of technology tools and resources that is also available as a stand-alone open educational resource.

This session begins with an introduction about #EmTechMOOC followed by hands-on experimentation and play in the actual MOOC. Participants build a personal toolbox and learn about web-based technology tools and explore the continued use of the MOOC in their own lives for personal and professional growth.

Visit the project website to learn more: http://suny.edu/emtech

Outcomes

• Describe the plight of contingent faculty during the Great Recession

Description

This national descriptive-interpretive qualitative study seeks to investigate contingent faculty members’ attitudes about their employment in the context of the Great Resignation and the COVID-19 pandemic. The 54 participants were selected through random and convenience sampling. Participants completed a digital survey protocol. The resulting data underwent two cycles of coding, descriptive and pattern coding, which revealed four findings: contingent faculty members identify as effective educators who are overworked and exhausted; perceive that their labor and humanity is not valued in academia; express resentment and disillusionment about being duped by graduate school; and report feeling powerless to escape academia. The study concludes with a discussion of the findings and areas for future scholarship. 

Outcomes

TBD

Description

Creating an inclusive classroom that embraces diversity to new college students can be extremely rewarding, but also challenging. The instructional approach must be organic, curriculum must integrate a balance of theory and practice. Keeping a new breed of Generation Y students engaged in the classroom (on-campus and online) and interested in the curriculum requires real-life examples. Integrating social media conversations relating to race, ethnicity, sovereignty, religion, culture, transnationalism, power and intersectional identity. David Boje (2008) believes that storytelling is an important part of development and contributes to their learning process. This panel presentation will cover best practices and lessons in storytelling teaching to foster inclusion and celebrate diversity in the classroom. Three professors from different universities, disciplines, and programs will facilitate the discussion, including examples that the audience can use in the classroom and throughout the institution.

Outcomes

• Gain strategies and examples of teaching history in alignment with the Peralta Online Equity Rubric and California Virtual Campus-Online Education Initiative (CVC-OEI) Rubric

Description

Engaging students and making them feel included in an online history course can be a challenge, especially if students' prior history courses have focused primarily on people in power, or revolved around memorizing dates and facts. In this presentation, I will describe how taking the Peralta Online Equity Rubric training transformed my approach to history instruction--not just for my online course, but for my in-person courses, as well--to include more creative, inclusive, and engaging forms of history instruction and assessment. Participants will come away with an understanding of how the Peralta Online Equity Rubric applies specifically to online history instruction, as well as some strategies for engaging students and improving equity outcomes in the history classroom.

Outcomes

• Use language justice concepts to revise approaches to grammar feedback and assessment

• Explore course texts that can be used to raise student awareness of language ideologies that promote standardized English and the devaluing of other English language varieties

Description

With Master’s degrees in English with an emphasis in TESOL, our understanding of and ability to teach standardized English has been an important part of the toolkit that we bring to the composition classroom. As we attempt to renegotiate our stances towards grammar to contest the precedence of standardized English, our students' expectations of feedback on and instruction in grammar remain unchanged. Students should have agency to decide how to develop and use English to meet their own language development goals. However, we can’t ignore that these language learning goals are often driven by culturally-embedded language ideologies which they have never examined nor been encouraged to challenge. Is there a way to address students’ desires to learn the syntax and lexicogrammatical features of English without perpetuating standard language ideologies?

In this presentation, we will share how we have renegotiated the role of grammar in the context of our first-year writing courses for multilingual students to address this question. We will share our suggestions for course texts and writing assignments that expose students to a variety of Englishes and interrogate language ideologies. We also share how we adjusted our approaches to feedback and assessment of grammar to unsettle notions of standard English and correctness.

Poster Session Titles

• Carlson - A Brief Overview of Power Dynamics within a Classroom

• Hamm - Research Concerning Equitable Course Design and Student Success

• Lopez - Increasing Sense of Belonging by Recognizing Cultural Wealth at an HSI

• Malcolm & Walker - Using Lessons From the Pandemic to Promote Equity in Medical Education

• You & Wu - A Lesson Learned from Business Students’ Perspectives on an Optimized Modality of Online Teaching and Learning

Outcomes & Descriptions

See 2022 Poster Sessions for more details

Outcomes

• Review preliminary findings from a research study of online STEM faculty

• Identify professional development as strategic equity infrastructure

• Receive a Humanizing Online STEM Toolkit to share with your institution

Description

In this session, Michelle Pacansky-Brock will share preliminary research findings from a study of California Community Colleges (CCC) and California State University (CSU) STEM faculty that is exploring the impact of equity-focused, online professional development on faculty mindsets. The data shows that online PD can make significant changes in how faculty perceive the impact that their teaching behaviors have on students, resulting in an increased responsiveness to different student needs. 

Outcomes

• Gain more awareness of different dialects and how those dialects shape identity

• Break from preconceived evaluations of those dialects

Description

Language is one of the primary ways each of us expresses our identities. This expression ranges from the word choice we use around different people to the words we choose for emotions like fear, happiness, or anger. By better understanding how different speech communities express themselves, we not only learn more about other forms of English, we also learn more about how to appreciate individuals from those communities. This goal of this presentation is to help the audience understand the reasons for various forms of English so that those who attend can better engage with individuals whose identities are tied to their respective speech communities. 

Outcomes

• Examine the Community of Inquiry as an approach for course design; describe teaching and cognitive presences with an emphasis on the overlap with social presence 

• Describe the intersection of interactions for learning, socialization of content, and community development as catalyst and nurturer of sense of belonging

• Appraise sense of belonging and its importance for enhancing engagement, satisfaction, and achievement

Description

When students feel a sense of belonging within their learning organization, they show improved emotional and behavioral engagement. Sense of belonging contributes to enrollment satisfaction and student retention. When a sense of belonging is developed, students may also experience higher academic achievement. Critical to developing a sense of belonging is the social presence of the instructor in a course regardless of modality. This discussion examines the applicability of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework for course development. The emphasis in the discussion is the increased role of social presence as proposed by a revision to the CoI framework. We discuss the implications of interactions for learning, socialization of content, and community development through the lens of a enhancing a sense of belonging. These discussions will appraise course design decisions across modalities that improve the overall educational experience. 

Outcomes

• Discuss useful strategies for making the hiring process more inclusive

• Identify challenges that arise when applying best practices for hiring processes

• Obtain resources that may be useful for other teams implementing similar initiatives

Description

Faculty development is a field that struggles with diversity. For example, the POD Network, a professional association of educational developers and similar positions, conducted a survey in 2016 and found that 86% of its membership was white. In line with this trend, the Center for Transformative Teaching at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has struggled to hire instructional designers from historically underrepresented backgrounds. To address this issue, in spring of 2021, we started a full review of all aspects of our hiring process to ensure we follow best practices for equity and inclusion at every step. 

In this session, we will explain actions we took such as revising our job description, innovating new recruitment and advertisement techniques, revising our interview format, and integrating historical data into our search charge document for the hiring committee. We will discuss successes and challenges from recent searches using the new procedures and our plan to assess the procedures over time.  

We will make some of our materials available to participants, including the checklist of steps we developed, our original vs updated job description, and new search charge. We will be using the Padlet board throughout the session to give participants the opportunity to share practices that have worked for their units and insights they’ve learned from similar initiatives. 

Outcomes

• Gain an insight into emotional intelligence, what it is and how you can use it 

• Identify how Emotional Intelligence shows up in DEI work 

• Evaluate your current level of emotional intelligence

Description

There's a lot of buzz centered around Emotional Intelligence in the workplace and related to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Studies have shown that emotional intelligence can have a profound effect on a person's ability to create more rewarding, collaborative and satisfying workplace relationships. This, in turn, leads to greater productivity, reduced stress and anxiety, higher levels of performance and a greater sense of teamwork and camaraderie — all critical components of a successful, productive workplace. All things that are important for those leading DEI work within their organizations and/or institutions. During this session participants will learn the basics of Emotional Intelligence and how Emotional Intelligence plays a major role in the DEI work we do within our organizations and/or institutions. In addition, participants will also walk away with strategies on how to improve their Emotional Intelligence as they do this work.

Outcomes

• Investigate the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Framework, how it promotes equity, and techniques for implementing UDL techniques.

Description

This presentation will introduce the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework and how it can be utilized in higher education courses to promote equity and diminish barriers to learning. Techniques for providing multiple means of engagement (various ways to practice what is learned), representation (different formats of course materials), and action and expression (assignment options) will be shared. Accessibility considerations and features will also be discussed. Educational technologies can be used to implement UDL in online, hybrid, and face to face courses to improve student learning and meet the needs of a diverse student population.

Outcomes

• Gain awareness of the Digital Ethics Principles in ePortfolios as valuable resource in their further investigation into the topic

• Recognize the value of creating activities with digital ethics in mind

• Realize that you often already engage in ethical practices 

• Identify at least one ethical practice that you want to follow up on and research more

Description

Digital ethics as an explicitly stated concept and practice is becoming increasingly commonplace in education and is on many people’s mind when creating educational experiences for learners of all ages. For some people, this might look like a new concept and maybe is even a little frightening because they ‘don’t want to get it wrong’. But is it all new?

In this LEARN presentation, I’d like to look at how principles of digital ethics can be used when creating portfolio activities and portfolio content, and also show that many working with portfolios are already employing digital ethics principles that they may not consciously think about. This is not to say that there is nothing new to learn. There are many aspects where we can do better and learn from each other to create sound activities and content that follows digital ethics principles. I will be using the AAEEBL (Association of Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning) Digital Ethics Principles in ePortfolios as basis that form a practical guide to the topic for those engaging in ePortfolio work.

Outcomes

• Consider how the Online Equity Rubric can serve staff and administrators, not just faculty

Description

Come learn about the CARE course we piloted at Moreno Valley College last fall. CARE stands for Culturally Responsive, Anti-Racism, and Equity. This interactive 5 week course for faculty, staff, and admin was designed based on the Peralta Online Equity Training course, and we are excited to share our ideas and hear yours!

Outcomes

• Differentiate between current approaches to grading

• Identify meaningful, equitable grading practices that can integrate well into their own teaching context

Description

Grading from the gut equals inherent bias.

Elaborate point systems kill students’ curiosity.

Why would you grade if you can ungrade?

Grading. There seem to be so many ways to do it terribly wrong. Discussions with students can devolve into mind-numbing math problems (“Just 2.13 more points and I can get a B!”); discussions with faculty can disintegrate into gripe sessions and fantasies about teaching at Evergreen College, where letter grades are not assigned.

But grading is integral to teaching and learning. (Even Evergreen has passing standards!) Students deserve grades that are transparent, equitable, and meaningful—grades that are integrated into, not separate from, the classroom experiences that we so carefully design to build students’ motivation, sense of belonging, and mindset.

In this session, we will explore how to grade in alignment with both our own beliefs about equitable teaching and learning as well as our institutions’ requirements.

We will unpack the similarities and differences among several common approaches to grading, including Ungrading, Labor-Based Grading, and Mastery Grading. We will identify the underlying research and principles for each approach. We will then examine a case study that aligns a P/NPY (pass/not passing yet) system of classroom grading with the required course-level letter grading. Finally, participants will generate ideas for grading practices appropriate to their own contexts.

Outcomes

• Describe first-year undergraduate students’ experiences when completing an on-campus physical campus walkthrough

• Shift first-year students' understanding of equity-mindedness

• Allow students to re-envision the campus and identify racialized structures and practices in it 

• Empower first-year students from diverse backgrounds to bring to the self-reflection aspects of their cultures through a reflective, learning ePortfolio embedded with equity-minded prompts

• Explore how first-year students’ ongoing success in college is critically attached to their new-found confidence through equity ePortfolio practice

• Help students practice an equity-minded self-reflection of campus. Strive for systemic change by facilitating individual exploration of scholar social identities and capture perceptions of their well-being and campus belonging

Description

This presentation will provide scholarship references that demonstrate that ePortfolios enable students to collect work over time and reflect upon personal, academic, and career growth. In addition to these outcomes, I will discuss our findings on how ePortfolios can also help first-year students to describe their equity-mindedness and document their campus belonging perspectives. I will share a point-in-time, qualitative research study that describes first-year students’ experiences over a three-year period enrolled in a yearlong Freshman Inquiry course who have completed an on-campus physical walkthrough at Portland State University. I will review the methods we employed in 1) analyzing students’ formative and summative reflections within their portfolios, and 2) their anonymous pre-learning surveys each spring term, and 3) when completing an on-campus walkthrough utilizing a Campus Equity Walkthrough Evaluation (CEWE) learning ePortfolio, and 4) their final summative reflective essay. I will identify the three themes the study found and review the results that suggest the CEWE does shift first-year students’ understanding of equity-mindedness in three ways: 1. First-year students identify racialized structures and practices on campus; 2. The equity-minded ePortfolio framework develops students’ capacity for self-reflection; and 3. Students determine that racialized structures and practices on campus impact their campus belonging. 

Outcomes

• Become empowered with the knowledge to recognize ableism, the barriers that students with disabilities face, and the importance of not just complying with the ADA, but carrying out its' spirit 

• Describe the many benefits of doing so for their students, their classroom, their institution, themselves, and society at large

Description

This presentation addresses and defines ableism and its impact on students, teachers, institutions, and society. It begins with defining and identifying ableism. Next, I cover the Americans with Disabilities Act and its history. The workshop continues on to dispel many stereotypes. The presentation then moves on to discuss the differences between sympathy and empathy, how each has a different impact, and why. Finally, the audience is shown how to move beyond mere compliance with the ADA and onto practically carrying out the true spirit of the law, especially in relation to reasonable accommodation. 

Poster Session Titles

• Terry-Bowles et al. - Online Equity Institute: A learning experience for instructors

• Ko - Teaching Practices Equity and Inclusion Rubric: Gone Online

• LaGrow - Designing Courses for GRACEFUL Teaching

• Stuntz - TiLT: Before and After

Outcomes & Descriptions

See 2022 Poster Sessions for more details

Outcomes

• Explain how critical humanized learning is for students and how it is a significant strategy for teaching effectiveness and inclusivity efforts

• Access the Purposeful Learning Framework as a means to inform course design and delivery to be more humanized and inclusive

• Adopt or adapt session resources for creating more humanized course elements and experiences

Description

Questions regarding distance learning and which format is most effective in meeting learning outcomes continues to be a source of debate across institutions of higher learning, webinars, and professional development workshops. In preparing faculty to meet the demands of 21st century learners, institutions have focused substantially on the technical-architectural or platform perspective so that faculty have the tools and technical skills they need to deliver instruction in a distance learning format. During this time, however, another critical dimension of learning that has emerged as we continue to deliver instruction through various modalities, is the need to address the social-emotional aspect of learning and create learning experiences that are more humanized and inclusive. In humanizing the learning experience for students, an ethic of care, empathy, and community is established that both inspires and enables students to take intellectual and creative risks, as well as find personal meaning in the work they produce. This interactive session features a menu of instructional practices, learning technologies, and resources implemented at CSULB and other institutions through the desire to create educational experiences that are invitational, accessible, responsive, and humanized. This includes humanizing aspects such as an invitation to learning, welcoming tone, creating a sense of belonging, learner connectedness, accessibility, and inclusivity.

Outcomes

• Discuss how grading policies impact student equity, inclusion, and success; Develop a working definition of "ungrading" as a teaching practice

• Identify LMS tools and techniques that can support ungrading; Provide an annotated bibliography of ungrading theory and practice.

Description

“Ungrading” is a provocative concept that encompasses a wide spectrum of assessment and classroom policy design decisions. As Jesse Stommel put it, “‘Ungrading’ means raising an eyebrow at grades as a systemic practice, distinct from simply ‘not grading.’” In this session we’ll explore how grading policies relate to student equity, inclusion, and success, and we’ll unpack some ungrading theory, practices, and techniques. We’ll also discuss how your LMS can support ungrading, and share a bibliography of additional resources to help you dive more deeply into this emerging topic.