Empathy by Design (Spring 2026)

February 2 – 22, 2026

Short Course

Description 

This course is intended for Minnesota State faculty who are either teaching or planning to teach an online or hybrid course and are interested applying evidence-based strategies for humanizing the learning experience through effective facilitation and course design. The course is online and asynchronous. Although there are no scheduled class meetings, participants may engage in virtual meetings with other students and course instructors as needed and at their convenience. The course is designed to take no more than 10 hours of work per week to complete. 

This is a facilitated, collaborative learning experience that models many of the humanizing strategies that instructors might choose to include in their own courses. Participants will learn experientially by engaging with an instructor and colleagues from across the system in activities that showcase humanizing practices in action. 

Faculty will develop their professional knowledge by reviewing the current theory and research in the area of humanizing online learning and engaging in independent reading in their own disciplines, contributing what they discover to a shared knowledge base. They will then reflect on their own teaching style and practices and select evidence-based, humanizing instructional strategies for implementation or refinement in their own online courses. They will evaluate and select specific techniques and tools for supporting those strategies and learn how to apply them. 

By the end of the course, faculty will be able to make informed decisions regarding humanizing instructional strategies, they will have a fully articulated plan for implementing and refining two or three humanizing strategies in their own courses, and they will have the opportunity to join a growing learning community through which they can continue to learn and share the results of their humanizing strategies with colleagues from across the system. 

Course Learning Objectives 

• Define “humanizing” as it relates to online teaching and learning and explain why it’s important. 

• Discuss research findings connecting humanizing facilitation and course design strategies with online student success. 

• Evaluate three tools and techniques for implementing evidence-based humanizing strategies to your own discipline/course. 

• Develop a fully articulated implementation plan for introducing or enhancing two to three evidence-based humanizing strategies in your online courses that best fit your teaching style. 

Technical Skill Requirements

• Use a web browser  
• Create, save and upload Word documents  
• Navigate Microsoft Windows  
• Create and send an email using your Minnesota State account  
• Evaluate and decide whether or not to use OneDrive  
• Perform basic tasks associated with the following D2L Brightspace tools: Content, Quizzes and Assignments 

Materials Required 

Prior to beginning this course, you should complete the following activities: 

• Select a course that you’d like to which you’d like to apply these concepts 
• Contact your campus D2L/IT Helpdesk to create a D2L Brightspace “Sample/Sandbox” Course if you do not have one.

Suggested Audience 

Faculty (Full-time and part-time), Instructional Designers and Technologists, Faculty Developers/Trainers, and Concurrent Enrollment instructors. 

Estimated Time Commitment 

The course is designed to be 4-6 hours of work per week to complete. 

Reflect on your Professional Development 

As you progress through this course, please consider how you can use the assignments as a way to highlight your work on your Professional Development Plan. Consider sharing your work with your leadership team. 

Course Location 

This course is hosted and facilitated using shared D2L Brightspace instance of Minnesota State called, MnSite.