NED Teaching and Learning Conference: Removing Barriers

This session will guide participants through the steps for designing, implementing, and assessing an equitable academic intervention.

While most of us understand “why” we need to diversify our curricular and pedagogical practices to serve all students, we are much less clear on “how” to do it. This hands-on workshop will guide participants through the steps required to identify an equity problem, design and implement an academic intervention, and measure the outcomes of that intervention. Additionally, the session will provide guidelines to help faculty systematize their efforts to allow for continuous improvement and the development of a departmental culture of equity inquiry.

While trauma-informed educational practice has become an increasing part of the discourse in higher education, barriers remain in implementing it at an institutional level.

Trauma-informed education practice has become a prominent topic in the conversation on how to support the whole student. Yet, barriers remain in terms of how to implement trauma-informed practice at an institutional level. Such barriers include misconceptions of trauma, resistance to change, and legal/ethical concerns, to name a few. This session will open the conversation on how to best support students using a trauma-informed framework at the institutional level.

An institution-specific course design checklist has several advantages over the two major quality rubrics, QM and OSCQR, including the ability to customize for your needs.

The prominent quality rubrics (QM and OSCQR) have been widely used across higher education for 2 decades. They are regularly updated and each addresses the expected standards related to course design. These rubrics, however, are necessarily generic. They do not address issues of inclusive teaching, universal design for learning, or important institution-specific criteria or references. Our institution-specific course (re)design checklist improves upon the traditional rubrics by focusing on areas for improvement through an action plan and specific recommendations, by including D2L Brightspace-specific criteria and references, by being immediately responsive to national and local trends and requirements, and by incorporating elements of universal design for learning and inclusive teaching (aimed at reducing barriers to student success for all students). Additionally, this homegrown product is free to use. This checklist is designed to be used as a formal review tool and an informal self-assessment tool and can be used for any course delivery modality.

Students learn the fundamentals of using good information skills in the library! We’re knocking down barriers to success, one information training session at a time.

Too many students are entering college without the foundational skills of basic information literacy: they struggle to find good sources, or to do basic citation, or to differentiate good sources from bad. Partnering with the librarian at your school lets you focus on the content of your class, and lets an expert in finding and using information help your students. Librarians can come to your class, you can visit the library, or give projects your students could do to build their library skills. It does not matter what your content area is – your students will be stronger in your class, and stronger after they graduate, if they have the opportunity to build skills now. Incorporating information skills into classroom work can help students to have a stronger performance in that class – and every class!

Let’s discuss partnering with librarians, and some specific skills and projects your students could undertake.

Open Educational Resources (OERs) can be an excellent way of providing students with alternatives to textbooks. However, accessibility remains a concern in making sure that all learners can benefit from them. OERs may lack accessible text, images, and readability, particularly for students with disabilities. Moreover, some disciplines that make extensive use of formulas and diagrams can present formidable barriers in making such OERs accessible. The presenters will outline the common challenges involved in making OERs accessible and the resources that are available to instructors to mitigate such challenges. Making OERs accessible also has implications for instructors who wish to certify their courses through Quality Matters, which considers accessibility as one of its general standards for certification.

D2L Brightspace templates are one way to reduce cognitive load and increase engagement, self-efficacy, and learner motivation.

The key to bringing in traditionally underserved students is to create more structure in class. Structure provides students with information about how to approach the course. Structure is part the intention work of inclusive teaching. Structure may show up as guided readings, lesson objectives, or transparency. Structure may also be the use of templates and common course design elements. This session will focus on using D2L Brightspace to build structure, consistency, and predictability. Using D2L Brightspace templates increases engagement, self-efficacy, motivation, and social presence while reducing cognitive load. This session will bring examples and ideas for small-scale and large-scale implementation.

The global pandemic attributed to the mass exodus of nurse aides triggering critical shortages and jeopardizing patient safety. Nurses and aides account for greater than 80% of direct patient care emphasizing the dire need to devise pathways from the nurse aide role into nursing. This phenomenological qualitative study aimed to illuminate the revolutionary approach to embracing equity and inclusion for nurse aides, paving the way to replenish and retain the critical shortages in the workforce by removing barriers, and embracing equity and inclusion.