Teaching Across Modalities

Inclusive Online Teaching

It can be difficult to create an inclusive community online. Moore's Theory of Transactional Distance (1997) helps us understand that with the physical distance that comes with online learning, there is also "a psychological and communications space to be crossed, a space of potential misunderstanding between the inputs of instructor and those of the learner."

Here are a few things to consider as you work toward bridging the distance to creating a meaningful, inclusive online learning experience for all of your students.

Consider Potential Access Issues

Remember that not every student has equal access to technology or the internet, nor do they always have a quiet place to take an online class. 

Think about where you can build in flexibility; can students watch recorded lectures at a different time? Can they access course content on a cell phone? Can you provide resources in alternative formats (video lectures as audio clips? Infographs as screenreadable pdfs?) Can your students attend remote lectures with their videos off? 

Check in with your students before class begins about their access to technology (you can even do this anonymously.)

Check all your course links, and provide instructions about how to use technology--there can be a learning curve for everyone. 

Build Online Community

We want to make sure that students feel like they belong in online spaces as much as in spaces on campus.

Create a shared list of ground rules or understandings for what it means to productively and respectfully engage in course discussions. 

Use introduction boards, icebreakers, small groups, or even backchannel chat opportunities like discord, slack, or teams to give students an opportunity to get to know each other as people and show their interests and personalities. 

Find a way that feels authentic to you for students to get to know you; what are you enthusiastic about in your field? What is something you value in your own culture? Maybe you show your dog on camera, or include a photo of you in a place you love to travel to. 

Monitor and update the course frequently; find ways to show your presence in the course. You can have video or audio introductions for each new week or unit, announcements about upcoming deadlines, or you can share timely events that relate to your course. 

Emphasize Clarity and Consistency

Being clear and consistent is important regardless of modality, but it's even more important in an online setting in which students have to be more self-regulated.

Be intentional with the design of your online course space; Use labels, and try to create a cadence of when students are expected to read, engage, and submit assignments. This allows students to focus more on the course content and not be weighed down by the stress of wayfinding. 

Students may engage with your online course in ways you don't intend or expect, so consider repeating the important dates and reminders in different places. 

Provide examples or rephrase instructions whenever you can; we tend to do this naturally when we explain things in person, but written words are often up for interpretation when they do not have the benefit of follow up questions, tone, or nonverbal communication

Resources

HyFlex is a term that is used to describe teaching in a multi-modal learning environment. While a hybrid flexible approach can look very different across settings, below are some resources to provide a general understanding of what it is and how you might see it being implemented.

• HyFlex Teaching: One Class, Three Modalities (Columbia University)
• Teaching in a Classroom with HyFlex (University of Florida)
• HyFlex Course Delivery: A Practical Guide (University of South Carolina)
• HyFlex Basics (The City University of New York)
  

Digital Accessibility Information and Resources
Digital accessibility refers to designing and developing digital content, applications, and services in a way that ensures equal access and usability for all individuals, including those with disabilities. This page provides guidelines and resources to aid faculty and staff in making informed decisions about how to ensure their digital content is accessible.

Resources

• Creating and Adapting Assignments for Online Courses (Ohio State University)
  This comprehensive guide provides faculty with important strategies they can use to design and modify assignments for their online courses. Core strategies that are emphasized include aligning assignments with learning outcomes, providing authentic assessments that mimic real-life tasks, and adopting universal design principles to ensure accessibility. Important topics such as promoting academic integrity, communicating detailed instructions, encouraging student interaction and collaboration, and choosing technology wisely to support learning outcomes without overwhelming students are also included.
• Teaching Tools Active Learning Library
  The Active Learning Library is a free collection of over 40 assignment and activity types you can search and filter based on your teaching context, including large class sizes. This extensive library provides a concise set of best practices for facilitating each activity type that you can adapt to your course content. Teaching Tools is a collaborative project created and maintained by an educational developer at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland.
• Project Zero's Thinking Routines Toolbox (Harvard)
  This toolbox highlights different thinking routines, which are a set of questions or a brief sequence of steps used to scaffold and support student thinking, which can be used to conceptualize assignments across modalities. These routines were designed specifically to deepen students’ thinking and help make that thinking “visible”, which can help students to become more explicitly aware of their learning and apply it in other contexts.

Resources

• Community Building in the Classroom (Columbia University)
  This research-informed guide discusses the importance of community building in courses and provides practical strategies for fostering a supportive learning environment. It covers synchronous and asynchronous community building techniques, including social icebreakers, metacognitive activities, and content-based activities. Considerations for large courses and asynchronous modalities are also included. 
• Workshops and Events: View scheduled trainings from offices across campus

Resources

• How to Be a Better Online Teacher (Darby, Chronicle of Higher Education) Access through Auraria Library
• Course Mapping: A Brief Overview (Academic Partnerships and Wiley University Services)
  This resource introduces the basics of course mapping, a key process for designing effective online courses, by focusing on the alignment of learning objectives, assessments, and instructional materials to create a cohesive learning experience.