Inclusive Teaching and Learning

The current COVID-19 situation has been a difficult time, with multiple challenges, including a profound shift to online teaching.

Now more than ever, you are encouraged to be mindful of your students’ differing backgrounds and needs. Many are likely to be experiencing challenges, including family responsibilities and limited or no access to digital devices and the internet. While you may not be able to resolve all these difficulties, you can still apply inclusive and equitable considerations to your online teaching so as not to unintentionally reproduce or exacerbate inequities.

Learn more about integrating equity and inclusivity into your teaching in the sections below.

Additional resources
Here are further resources to help you design online courses with inclusive and equitable online teaching practices:

• Inclusion, equity, and access while teaching remotely (Rice University)
• Maintaining equity and inclusion in virtual learning environments (San Diego State University)
• UBC’s collection of inclusive teaching resources for faculty
• UBC’s recording of the CTLT Remote Teaching Institute session “Teaching Remotely in the Midst of a Crisis: How to Keep Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Mind”
• Dr. Jessica Calarco’s webinar recording Bridging the digital divide: teaching for equity and empathy in the wake of COVID-19, resources and questions (Word | PDF)
• Open education resource accessibility toolkit (UBC)
• Final exam and assessment strategies from the University of Michigan (Dearborn) and Rutgers University

There are many working definitions of inclusive teaching. The following definition is informative:

Inclusive teaching refers to intentional approaches to curriculum, course design, teaching practice, and assessment that create a learning environment where all students feel that their differences are valued and respected, have equitable access to learning and other educational opportunities, and are supported to learn to their full potential. Rather than being a static checklist, inclusive teaching can change depending on context. It is a lens that guides instructors to consider and address the ways historical and systemic inequities continue to shape students’ learning experiences.

Many universities across the world have suddenly shifted to online learning in response to the COVID-19 crisis and online learning is likely to become more and more common, both in the short-term as a crisis response, and in the long-term as post-secondary institutions see benefits to online learning.

It is critical that an equity, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) lens informs this transition. EDI considerations are in danger of falling by the wayside as administrators evaluate which aspects of teaching and learning are deemed “critical” and which are not (Williams, 2020). Paradoxically, without an EDI lens, online learning, which is often assumed to make learning more accessible, can actually exacerbate pre-existing inequities. Similar to in-person learning environments, online learning involves widely varying levels of access to technology and resources as well as different student accessibility needs. This document provides a starting point for instructors as they adapt and develop courses and material to online formats, making them as accessible as possible while avoiding unintentionally reproducing or exacerbating inequities.

Gauge student needs

If you need to gauge students’ varying access to technologies and their needs for support, you can conduct an anonymous survey by using a tool such as Google Forms (leaving the option “Collect email addresses” unchecked). In addition, you can create multiple means for students to contact you with their needs (e.g. email, phone, virtual office hours).

Be sensitive and proactive about student needs

At the same time, be aware that some students may feel vulnerable to disclose their lack of access to technologies and request individual accommodations. It is therefore best to assume that some of your students do not have access to digital devices and/or reliable internet and design your course with flexibility in how students access the course.

Use asynchronous approaches as much as possible

Consider asynchronous approaches which do not require students to be logged in at the same time as everyone else in the course. Many students may not be physically located in the same time zone, and working with a fixed synchronous schedule can be challenging for students. Some of them might have busy schedules and/or caregiving responsibilities; others may not be able to freely access the internet or have a quiet room. Implementing online office hours, for example, can give students the flexibility to discuss issues related to the class during times that work best for them. See synchronous and asynchronous teaching for more information.

Adopt low bandwidth pedagogies

Stay as low tech as possible. Some students have limited data plans. Others may not have access to a laptop and may be following the class using only their mobile phone. Consider how this might impact content delivery. This graphic by Daniel Stanford is a handy tool to evaluate the pros and cons of high vs. low bandwidth and immediacy.

Achieving low bandwidth solutions is not always a feasible or practical option for online delivery (especially when moving your course quickly to an online platform). Informing your students of options for free internet and computing services (e.g. University Library locations) is one way to address these limitations some of your students may encounter when attending your online class.

Offer flexibility and options

Try to be as flexible as possible to allow different ways in which students can access and engage with the course. Also, adopt flexible assessment mechanisms to ensure that you assess student learning, not their access or lack thereof. Consider flexible deadlines and offer alternative assignments for students to choose from (e.g., for group work you may give students a choice between an online chat room style discussion or collaborating on a google doc). Allowing students some control and autonomy over their learning can help combat feelings of helplessness and isolation that can come with online learning.

Make your materials accessible

Evaluate your materials with an accessibility lens – who can access them and who cannot – and try to increase the accessibility of the materials as much as you can. If you are recording videos, for example, use software or platforms that can transcribe them for you using speech to text technology. Captions are helpful not only for those who have hearing difficulties but also for those for whom English is not their primary language or who need to watch the videos in noisy environments. 

Scaffold online learning

Make assignments low stakes or no stakes if you’re using a new online tool or platform. Focus first on allowing students to grow accustomed to using different functions of the platform (e.g., contributing via a chat function, posting in discussion threads, sharing their reactions via buttons). Once students get more comfortable with the format you can consider adjusting to more high stakes assignments.

Offer frequent and transparent guide for student learning.

Continue to stay in contact with students, and stay as transparent as possible. Explain why you’re prioritizing certain material or asking students to read or do certain things.

Start small and recognize that your course is a work-in-progress

You may find all the considerations we have provided in this document overwhelming. Instead of trying to implement them all at once, start with something small within what your capacity and resources allow. You may begin with making one small change for one particular student's needs addressed, and you can start building your inclusive online teaching practice from there. Keep in mind that even one small change can help many students in different ways and that your course will continue changing because what works best for one class may need adjustment in another. You will always need to be attuned to students’ needs as well as what works for you, while making changes along the way.

Additional Resources

For more information and support, check the Accessibility Resources page for instructors and for students.

• WAVE tool (website accessibility) - This tool is a chrome extension that can be used to assess your eClass site’s accessibility. This tool will also show you how to fix the errors. Some students may have visual acuity issues that we are unaware of and WAVE helps us to see how we can make our course sites more accessible.
  
  

Additional Reading

• Selfe, C. L., Selfe, R. J. (1994). The politics of the interface: Power and its exercise in electronic contact zones. College Composition and Communication, 45, 480–504. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/77850/

This section is an adaptation of University of British Columbia’s Centre for Teaching and Learning and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 license.

Most instructors will teach some students with disabilities throughout their career. These students will be among the more than 1,300 undergraduate and graduate students who are registered with Accessibility Resources.

Since the instructor's role is central to the student's learning experience, the Accessibility Resources office collaborates closely and frequently with you, together with our shared students, throughout the academic year.

What pedagogical or practical strategies do you use to accommodate students with disabilities?

Is your course content available in both written and audible forms?

• For example, do the videos you share have closed captioning capabilities and transcriptions?

Have you scaffolded learning which attends to the needs of students with learning challenges?

• For example, is your course content designed logically and easy to follow with limited instruction?
• If students are meant to work in groups, converse in forums, or support their student colleagues learning does this require a skillset or knowledge of the LMS system (eClass) to engage in these activities?

For more information and support, check the Accessibility Resources page for instructors and for students.

Racism is manifested in many ways in our daily lives. As Robin DiAngelo shares, “racism is a structure not an event” meaning that racialized ideology is embedded within our social structures and we need to work hard to eliminate racism and bias.

Ask yourself these questions when developing course content or selecting course resources:

1. Do these resources offer multiple perspectives such as those offered by Indigenous, Queer, Black and Persons of Colour?
2. What is the language like in the resource? Can this language be potentially harmful?
3. Does this resource or activity offer an intersectional lens?
4. Who is the author or the resource? Is this an individual who is speaking for a community or are they from the community they are seeking to represent?

Universal Design (UD) is the design and composition of an environment (any building, product, digital, service or learning environment) so that it can be accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability or disability. All environments should be designed to meet the needs of all people who wish to use them.

By considering diverse needs and abilities of all throughout the design process, universal design proactively creates products, services and environments that meet individuals' and groups' needs. This is not a special requirement for the benefit of only a minority of the population.

Accessibility Resources provides more information including the principles of universal design. For practical tips on how design contributes to effective learning, please read “The importance of design on effective learning”.

If you are developing or sourcing new content for your online course, you may find these websites useful to visibly represent the diversity of your class in powerpoint slides, online handouts, and other media. Facilitating an online class automatically creates distance between instructors and students and may limit your opportunity to create relationships. Integrating visual cues of inclusion throughout your material is one way to help students feel more comfortable showing up in authentic ways in your online class engagements.

• Gender Spectrum Collection - open licensed stock photo library of trans and non-binary models
• PICNOI - open licensed images coop for a Colorful World

Having access to computers and / or technology can create barriers for students when participating in online or remote learning (please see synchronous and asynchronous teaching). Students may be sharing a computer, have unstable wifi, or not have access to technology at all.

Selfe, C. L., Selfe, R. J. (1994). The politics of the interface: Power and its exercise in electronic contact zones. College Composition and Communication, 45, 480–504. 

Additional Resources

• For more information and support, check the Accessibility Resources page for instructors and for students.
• WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool is a Chrome extension that can be used to assess your eClass site’s accessibility. This tool will also show you how to fix the errors. Some students may have visual acuity issues that we are unaware of and WAVE helps us to see how we can make our course sites more accessible.

• Accessibility Considerations in Constructing eClass Courses