4.4 - Culturally Responsive, Equity-Minded Online Teaching

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As you are hopefully aware, equity is an ongoing area of focus at LATTC College. Equity-mindedness is not a trait that can be instilled with a few words here, but all LATTC faculty have many opportunities to be part of critical conversations that can inform our practice and help us transform our institution.

Equity is an approach that ensures everyone access to the same opportunities. Equity recognizes that advantages and barriers exist, and that, as a result, we all do not all start from the same place. Equity is a process that begins by acknowledging that unequal starting place and continues to correct and address the imbalance.

Is Equity-Mindedness for Online Teaching Somehow Different?

An important starting point in understanding the imperative for equity is data. You are likely aware that student outcomes are not equal across demographic groups. You also are likely aware that in general, student outcomes in DE classes are significantly below the outcomes for equivalent in-person classes (though this gap has been generally diminishing). But did you know that the performance gap (between online and in-person outcomes) for disproportionately impacted students is typically even greater than the gap for other students?

As PPIC researchers reported in 2014's Online Learning and Student Outcomes in California’s Community Colleges Links to an external site.,

"... younger students, African Americans, Latinos, males, students with lower levels of academic skill, and part-time students are all likely to perform markedly worse in online courses than in traditional ones ... The bigger the gap, the worse a student’s performance is in online courses compared to traditional ones. The gap is largest for Latino and African American students" (p. 9)

Local data at LATTC has generally displayed these patterns, unfortunately. You are encouraged to check the LATTC Data Dashboards Links to an external site. (LATTC portal login required) for up-to-date data in your areas of interest.

So, while there will be overlaps in pedagogical ideas for improving success of disproportionately impacted (DI) students in the classroom and online, it's clear that we need to pay particular attention to reducing the performance gaps of those students in our online classes.

It is also important to discover equity gaps in our own class data. These gaps do not mean that we are intentionally discriminating against certain student populations and individual students. Rather, our awareness of implicit bias and being situated within systems that contain inequities means that we, as teachers, must be diligent in the work of personal and professional reflection. This process of reflection must then lead to adopting practices explicitly designed to support the success of disproportionately impacted student populations.

Five Equity Practices for Teaching Underserved Students of Color Online

Dr. J. Luke Wood offered a keynote address at the 2018 Online Teaching Conference that succinctly yet thoroughly provided the background, data, and theory behind the case for equity-mindedness, particularly in California Community Colleges, and specifically for those teaching online classes. You may watch the address, Reaching Underserved Students through Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning in the Online Environment via the 2018 OTC Archives Links to an external site., and you may also view his slide deck (PDF) Links to an external site. from the talk.

Here, it is worth sharing the key equity practices that Dr. Wood offered in his talk (and note that while all of these are generally applicable in all teaching, there are some specific ways to consider these for online instruction). These are also included in the LATTC Online Quality Course Guidelines Download LATTC Online Quality Course Guidelines. Please click each tab below.

Be Intrusive

Performance monitoring: Use the data provided by Canvas to find students that may be falling behind.
Intervening: Use Canvas features to reach out to students that appear in danger of not succeeding. Encourage, don't penalize.
Mandatory interactions: Require or give extra credit for virtual or in-person office hour attendance, or other forms of direct interaction with you.
Proactive advice: Don't assume students have skills to succeed online. Encourage and facilitate use of resources such as tutoring and technical support. Provide advice on skills such as time management.

Be Relational

Live engagement: Use synchronous tools and video so people see you and hear you. Use student names. Take notes on interactions that you can refer to later when giving personal feedback to students.
Learning with interest: Find out why students enrolled in college and in your class. Help students connect class learning to their goals. Help students build on these reasons and overcome potential barriers.
In-person engagement: Provide real opportunities for students to meet with you in person.
Personalized feedback: Make sure students know that you care about their learning by authentically affirming their bigger picture goals in the context of specific class- or assignment-related feedback.

Be Relevant

Course texts: Select material that is inclusive and validating for all students. Be conscious of the voices and imagery which prevail in your course content.
Variable assignments: Following Universal Design for Learning principles, provide options for how students demonstrate assignment outcomes. Consider allowing videos, PowerPoint presentations, even songs or poems when appropriate, along with traditional assessment types such as essays and quizzes. Enable creative engagement without lowering standards.
Leadership opportunities: Set strong social presence expectations for students through authentic sharing in online discussions. Allow students to lead discussions and incorporate personal life experiences in online discussion.
Course images: As with course text selection, also be thoughtful and inclusive with the images you select to include in your online class material. You may need to seek out imagery that is inclusive of a range of folks of various races, ethnicities, ages, genders, abilities, and sexual orientations.

Be Community-centric

Introduction forums: Seek to create a sense of community and shared learning through relationship-building in introductory discussions online.
Shared reflections and perspectives: Enable students to think critically and reflect on content, and to deepen class community by sharing these reflections. Extend reflections on content to how the learning can improve personal lives and communities.

Extending Your Professional Learning

@ONE offers a 4-week online class called Equity and Culturally Responsive Teaching in the online learning environment. Look for an upcoming offering in the @ONE course catalog Links to an external site..

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