Inclusive Teaching Series – Part 5: Humanizing Online Learning

The inaugural Hopkins Excellence in Online Teaching Symposium brought exciting firsts to our community that are still making the airwaves. John Nash and Jason Johnston, hosts of Online Learning in the Second Half podcast, attended workshops throughout the symposium, collecting themes and quotes from the international speakers. The overarching theme of Humanizing Online Learning emerged and is the title of podcast episode 23, recorded live during the closing session and recap. The hosts condensed their notes into Six Guideposts which shaped the final conversation among conference attendees.

Six Guideposts for Humanizing Online Learning (Nash & Johnston, 2023).

1. Be human to your students and yourself.
2. Encourage students to be human to one another.
3. Create content that is human-centric.
4. Treat humans as individuals.
5. Make space for all humans.
6. Recognize that not all humans are present.

Humanizing Online Learning was also consistent theme throughout discussions with the conference participants as part of the Symposium’s Voices of Accessibility panel moderated by Dr. Olysha Magruder, Interim Assistant Dean of the Center for Learning Design and Technology (CLDT). The panel featured Rolando Méndez of Teach Access who described the mission of Teach Access in partnering with industry, academia, and disability advocacy organizations to bridge the accessibility skills gap. Panel member Christelle Daceus, Whiting School of Engineering (WSE) Course Support Specialist, explored a culturally relevant approach to accessibility with concrete suggestions for more inclusive teaching practices. Instructional Designer at Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering (WSE) Sara Shunkwiler provided discourse concerning accessibility as key to equitable access in STEM for disabled students, faculty, and STEM professionals. Panel members also emphasized that inclusive teaching encompasses more than just accessibility because all parties need to feel both welcome and included.

In keeping with the Humanizing Online Learning theme, Shunkwiler reached out to Kelly Cooney, Learning Engineer at the Hopkins Center for Staff Life Design, and Brian Bauer, Group Supervisor at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory to further explore the Six Guideposts, their implementation in the course development process and teaching practices. While the video of their entire conversation is available in the online edition of the article, here we feature a brief excerpt of their insight on the first Guidepost as shared by Shunkwiler. Additional resources for implementing Guideposts 2-6 are also available in the digital version of this issue.  

Guidepost 1: Be human to yourself and your students

Be human to yourself and your students, Guidepost 1, is at the heart of our relationship as colleagues and impacts all other guideposts. As colleagues, Kelly, Brian, and I have collectively experienced real-life challenges that impacted our course developments and teaching – new babies, children starting kindergarten, graduating from high school and college, empty nests and weddings, caregiving for aging parents and disabled siblings, job losses, career changes, promotions, and major or minor illnesses. It is likely that most of our students and colleagues have faced similar real-life challenges.

Kelly was my instructional designer (ID) when I became critically ill during a course development process. With her support, I was able to finish the development, which is featured on the Hopkins Universal Design for Learning website (https://hudl.jhu.edu/). I was the ID for Brian’s two courses in the Space Systems Engineering Program when another engineering faculty member challenged me to own my disability story saying students needed disabled role models. Kelly, Brian and I now share our collective disability story and present internationally on equitable access to STEM through inclusive teaching, faculty support, math accessibility, and UDL as a social justice tool. 

When asked during the Symposium panel if I have advice for others who may be uncomfortable talking about disability, I reply that Kelly, Brian, and I are often uncomfortable, but we talk about disability because it is part of the human experience – our own, our students, and likely yours (if not now, then perhaps in the future). Humanizing course development for our faculty and staff is a first step towards humanizing online learning for our students.

Additional Resources

Inclusive Teaching Series Faculty Forward Magazine Articles:

• Inclusive Teaching – An Introduction to Terminology
• Inclusive Teaching – Disability as Diversity
• Inclusive Teaching – Universal Design for Learning
• Inclusive Teaching – Math Accessibility

Presentations

• Humanizing Online Learning: A Conversation on the Six Guideposts Video
• The Ripple Effect: Supporting STEM Equity Through Course Design Poster
• This Ability Clinic – Accessibility of STEM: featuring Sara Shunkwiler (Part 1)

References

Nash, John and Johnston, Jason (2023). Excellence in online teaching symposium 2023 (No. 23) [Audio podcast] In Online Learning in the Second Half. https://www.onlinelearningpodcast.com/