Creating an Inclusive Climate for Online Discussions

Meet Adela

Last quarter, Adela (our hypothetical student) had an online class where its discussion board went off the rails. The course lent itself well to discussion and Adela was happy to engage with their peers in the discussion boards.

However the controversial themes of the discussion board weren't moderated well and some posts turned into attacks on Adela for the views shared. There were no clear expectations in the discussion board prompt, proper etiquette wasn't defined for Adela's peers, and the instructor wasn't very active in the discussion and didn't notice the attacks until much later.

To make matters worse, the instructor felt trapped by their existing grading policy. The other students were technically meeting all of the discussion requirements, even while they were marginalizing Adela's contributions. 

What Can We Do?

How do you imagine Adele will approach discussion boards the following quarter if she ends up in your class? What policies do you have in place to establish an inclusive classroom climate? How do you set a tone of civility?

In a world becoming more politicized and divisive than ever, it's important to consider some of these questions. Columbia's Center for Teaching and Learning developed an inclusive online teaching guide that worth reading and reflecting on. 

Five Principles of Inclusive Teaching Links to an external site.

While not meant exclusively for discussion boards, I thought this guide helps frames an inclusive course design approach. Which of the listed principles laid out in the guide could have improved Adela's experience? 

For the next activity in this module, we will look at either one of the prompts or policies in our courses and consider strategies we can use to improve upon them.