Strategy 6: Strengthening Equity in Online Courses

Online vs. Face-to-Face 

Good teaching is good teaching, no matter the format. While the majority of the strategies discussed in this module can be applied in onground, hybrid, online, and flex modalities, it is worthwhile to address the specific equity challenges and needs of online classrooms.  

The following strategies are developed with the online experience in mind, but you are also encouraged to review the previous modules for additional ideas that can be used and/or modified for your online classrooms.

 

Specific Strategies

1. Provide Multiple Learning Assessments

Rather than having only one type of learning assessment - exams, essays, presentations - design a course that allows students to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways. There are always a variety of assessment measures available, and it it is really important to keep your course learning outcomes in mind. For example, if your outcomes do not include writing as a student goal, than requiring papers may not be the best way to assess learning. Allowing students a variety of ways to demonstrate their learning makes room for a variety of strengths to shine. For more details, see the online modules about online student autonomy, University of Denver's "Online Assessment Links to an external site.," and Darby's Small Teaching Online. 

2. Ensure that Technology is Not an Obstacle

The digital divide can be an unintended barrier to student success. From the basics of having needed laptops or other technology to reliable internet access, students face many challenges in online courses. The more that you get to know your students, their individual circumstances, and their possible challenges, the better you can address their needs. Some of the possible strategies for addressing technology issues include:

  • clearly identify the hardware and software required to be successful in your courses
  • scaffold technology use (especially specialized programs), providing opportunities to learn skills and get feedback with low-stakes assignments
  • survey students the first week of the quarter so that you know the technology they are using, addressing problems early and allowing for flexibility later

3. Focus on Class Community

Connecting with students on a human level is essential. In the recent Fall Faculty Institute, Highline College's Laura Soracco reminded faculty that being valued as a person is not a "touchy-feely," soft-skill kind  of experience - it is a base of a student's hierarchy of needs. Students will not do the work and invest the time if they don't feel valued. To express genuine care for students, we don't have to overstep appropriate professional boundaries. But, we do need to communicate our support and belief in individual's capacity for success. 

When interviewed by the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Courtney Plott' Links to an external site.s shared strategies for building class community: 

What we’ve done is we’ve made online learning transactional.... I do this, you do this, I do this, you do this, I’m going to grade this, you’re going to reflect on it then you’re going to do better next time. Psychologically, if we really want learners to be interdependent and we want them engaged, if we want them to do everything that we say we want them to do like read the syllabus, and participate three times a week, and do peer reviews, we have to set the climate for them to do that.

One of the easiest things that helps do that is outlined in your announcement, what your sense of community is, because sense of community is in the literature, all over the place, is something that’s important but no one’s talking about building it and defining it. Just like you’d post an announcement to say, “Hey, everything’s due here.” Before you even post that, you should say, “This is how you should feel when you enter. This is what my values are for this learning community. This is what it’s not, and I’m going to grade it.”

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One of the easiest things you can do is identify values to your sense of community..... Show me community and I’ll participate. Show me that I’m safe. Show me you understand my concerns that if I’m an African-American male, show me that you will respond if someone is saying something that’s inappropriate. What is the value of the community? Instead, we do this individualistic thing, and now we wonder why we’re losing Latin-American and Latino students all over the place in online learning. What it comes down to is, we can absolutely look at a sense of community and grade it.

People always say, “Well, Courtney, what does that look like? What is this grading a sense of community look like?” It looks like you outline some values, just some examples off the top of my head, whether it’s something like civility. Whether it’s something like appreciation for diversity, whatever those constructs are that you want to look at. You post that each week in the announcements section, and you grade them as a group to show that it’s not just about you, it’s about the interaction, it’s about these other pieces. 

 

Additional Resources

From Chronicle Webinar "Bridging Equity and Engagement Gaps in the Virtual Classroom," below are the panelist’s top recommendations for remote teaching resources:

Lastly, below is a great list of further reading and resources that Lindsay McKenzie recommends: