Outcomes

• Explore how to use MERLOT, a referratory of open educational resources

• Discuss how MERLOT can help you and the learners you support

Description

Learn the basics about Multimedia Educational Resource for Online Learning and Teaching (MERLOT), a referratory of "curated online learning and support materials and content creation tools, led by an international community of educators, learners and researchers." Find out how it can help you with your work and assist learners. 

Outcomes

• Outline the various efforts made by an Open & Distance Learning Higher Education Institution in a developing country to successfully sustain educational outreach to key stakeholders during COVID-19 

• Describe the methods developed and adopted for reaching the target audience

• Gain awareness of the digital national repositories and knowledge resources that may be utilized by participants for their educational ecosystem

Description

Ours is a national Open & Distance Learning (ODL) public higher education institution (HEI), mandated to provide educational opportunities through sustainable ecosystems for the hitherto deprived and unreached population. The main objective is to build equitable knowledge societies by inclusive methods, innovative technologies, and converging means of teaching and learning. It aims to contribute towards enhancement of the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in higher education by reaching out to the impecunious and disadvantaged segments of the society.

Over a period of more than three decades, the University has developed and implemented a multitude of strategies for the achievement of institutional aims and objectives. Reaching out to the massive human resource of the country has been a mammoth task which gets further complex with the geographical variations. The daunting assignment got further catapulted with the sudden constrained circumstances caused by COVID-19. The University like all other educational institutions across the globe scrambled to determine methods to reach out to learners during Pandemic and redefine its Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) policies and procedures.

In the proposed synchronous session, we plan sharing institutional challenges and experiences of this sudden difficulty in reaching out to the learning communities. We would showcase the efforts made by the University in successfully sustaining through this situation and reaching out to the stakeholders of the society. In the light of aforesaid deliberations, our workshop focuses on the methods developed and adopted for reaching the target audience. The participants will gain an understanding of the digital national repositories and knowledge resources that may be utilized by them for their educational ecosystem.

Outcomes

• Compare and contrast different alternative grading schemes

• Outline necessary steps to establish alternative grading in your course

• Identify features of the Canvas learning management system (LMS) that support alternative grading

Description

Alternative grading approaches such as specifications grading or mastery grading provide new opportunities for instructors to remove historically marginalizing educational practices and increase equity in their courses. However, implementing a new grading approach can be daunting. How does one need to reorganize their existing course content? How will their assessments need to change? And perhaps most importantly of all, how can one’s learning management system (LMS) be configured to support this change? In this workshop, we will discuss the pros and cons of implementing these alternative grading systems in our courses. Moreover, we will share tips for how to design our course websites to support this system, focusing on Canvas as our main LMS. The presenter will share lessons learned from a recent intro biology course that ran on Canvas using a combined contract grading and mastery grading approach.

Outcomes

• Explore a flexible Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) annotations framework compatible with multiple course design rubrics

• Review draft annotations, offer input, and suggest missing DEI practices

• Discuss whether your organization could use the DEI annotations

Description

Learn more about a cross-institutional collaboration to simultaneously address Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) and online course quality. The State University of New York (SUNY), Cal State LA Center for Effective Teaching & Learning (CETL), and others are working to develop the Annotations for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Online Course Design.

Come see and offer input on a series of draft annotations that provide detailed guidance on connecting online course design standards with inclusive teaching practices. Annotations include specific techniques, course design and facilitation considerations, and the specific California Virtual Campus-Online Education Initiative (CVC-OEI), Open SUNY Course Quality Review (OSCQR), Cal State Quality Learning & Teaching (QLT), or Quality Matters (QM) rubric standard addressed.

This flexible framework infuses DEI practices into any online course quality rubric. This approach helps institutions, faculty, and instructional designers ensure equitable, diverse, and inclusive online teaching and learning environments without disrupting existing quality assurance processes. We’ll also demo a working prototype of the annotations platform.

Our project scope is ambitious, and we welcome additional collaborators. Join our session to learn more and get involved. 

Outcomes

• Describe how white privilege affects employee retention 

Description

We live in a society where privilege is used to include or exclude individuals in the workplace, specifically black and brown people, and white women. This presentation discusses how allow and ask effect retention. Allow is to include and ask is to decide whether to include, hire, a seat at the table or a voice in the discussion. Often black and brown people and women leave jobs because they do not feel valued. Marginalized groups are not paid, promoted, or hired at the same levels as other ethnic groups. In this presentation, we will dissect privilege and its impact on the work place. 

Outcomes

• Develop your own strategies to build a community for students

Description

Since returning campus to teach in person, many instructors have recognized the dire need for the students to re-connect with each other in the physical environment. When students were sent to group discussions, we are more lenient to let them talk about their lives when they finish discussing the prompts given. With the general goal of having students interact with each other, we can achieve our learning objectives with more activities to give students chances to work with each other. We will develop strategies based on our in-person experiences, but some of them could be applied to online classrooms as well.

Outcomes 

• Recognize when a student is struggling personally

• Adopt effective strategies to practice and model self-care in the classroom

Description 

We all know that our professional and personal lives can make us vulnerable to stress. What about our students? Just like us, our students are often dealing with stress on and off campus, and they may lack the coping skills and strategies to help them work through the stress in a healthy way. In this session, you will learn how to recognize when a student may be struggling personally. You will also learn effective strategies to practice self-care in the classroom. 

Outcomes  

• Investigate practical strategies for adding welcoming and inclusive teaching strategies into an online course experience

• Share what you are already doing to create welcoming and inclusive online courses

• Create a plan for applying one or two ideas to your own courses, even if you do not teach online

Description 

In Fall 2021 and Winter 2022, the Colorado Community Colleges System conducted the Welcoming and Inclusive Teaching Institute, a 5-part series of interactive workshops that placed equal emphasis on the technological and pedagogical decisions related to creating and facilitating welcoming and inclusive online courses. For each workshop, participants joined a live virtual session (or watched the recording) and then did follow-up work in an online “CoLab.” Faculty and staff across the system came together to explore how course structure, assessment, engagement, content review and even student support services play a role in creating welcoming and inclusive learning experiences.

Join our session to get a taste of what we did during the institute. Together we will investigate and discuss a handful of practical strategies. You will be encouraged a) to share what you are already doing to create welcoming and inclusive online courses, and b) to create a plan for applying one or two ideas to your own courses, even if you do not teach online.

Description

We often talk about students, but we really need to talk to them as well--especially when it comes to increasing learning equity. During this discussion session, a panel of students will describe how they define equity, share ideas about increasing equity and answer questions from conference participants. 

Description 

Join us for a brief session to end the conference and outline how you can stay connected to this global equity community!