This past summer, thirteen graduate students from the College of Liberal Arts successfully completed the Inclusive Course Design Institute, a pilot program developed by the Graduate Student Development program at the Center for Teaching and Learning to support AIs who were designing a course from the ground up for the first time. Graduate students who completed the Institute received a stipend of $100, generously provided by the College of Liberal Arts.
Spread across two weeks in August, the Institute comprised three modules: Principles of Inclusive Teaching and Learning, Equitable Assessment Practices, and Equitable Learning Experiences.
Designed to meet AIs in the process of designing their course, each module gave the participants a selection of asynchronous materials in multiple modes (articles, podcasts, videos) to meet their own learning goals–they could read, watch, or listen to more or less material depending on what they needed that week to complete the assignment. Canvas discussion boards and interactive polling tools allowed participants to connect between the synchronous meetings.
In each of the three two-hour synchronous meetings, participants came prepared to discuss inclusive pedagogies, brainstorm ideas, and get peer feedback on artifacts they had produced for their course (e.g., a class assignment, a lesson plan, a draft syllabus).
“I learned quite a bit of theoretical background for UDL and critical pedagogies that I was not exposed to previously,” wrote one participant in comments following the session. “So many great resources that I plan to go back to!” wrote another.
The Center for Teaching and Learning plans to continue the program and hopes to expand to a broader audience next summer.