Moving the Needle - Steps to Start

Purpose:

This assignment acts as a nudge to consider and to implement small (and big) steps to increasing equity and inclusion in the online environment. Reflect on your course design. What tone do you employ? What course materials do you use? How do you provide platforms for all voices? 

Task:

Review the strategies presented throughout the content pages in the module and identify which you would like to implement. Select one strategy from the "right now" and the "long term goals" pages that you wish to implement (or other strategies on increasing inclusivity are welcome!) List the strategies selected and provide a brief explanation of how you see yourself implementing these. 

Criteria:

Providing a reflective commentary on the strategies you wish to pursue is the goal here. Below is an example of some of the strategies that I've experimented with over the years.

One of the courses I taught (Ben here) used a pretty out-dated text book that while it was marketed for all types of students, it was definitely tailored to the experience of Japanese students learning ESL. It didn't reflect the experiences of American immigrants or refugees or even the majority of international students at the time. I began replacing these texts with online OER material and when doing that I made sure to use images that reflected the students in my classroom. I could immediately tell they were more engaged in the material. One activity I created was an open-pedagogy assignment, meaning students had the opportunity to help build the curriculum by finding readings that reflected their experiences. These readings would be used with future courses. They loved that idea and many felt it made them feel directly in control with their learning. While I didn't use all of these readings for future classes, some ended up being used over and over again.