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Tag: diversity and inclusion

“Inclusive College Classrooms: Teaching Methods for Diverse Learners” offers 200 examples for your classrooms

Book cover of Inclusive College Classrooms: Teaching Methods for Diverse Learners.

UA English professor Lauren Cardon published a book co-authored with Dr. Anne-Marie Womack of Rice University. It will be published on on December 27, 2022. Here is what Dr. Cardon has to say about it: Our book emerged from a series of conversations Anne-Marie and I have had over the years about teaching––what has worked for us, what we wish we had known when we started teaching, and perhaps most importantly, how we have worked to make our teaching more […]

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What Does a Syllabus Convey? Insights from the Student Experience Project

colorful sign saying "you belong" surrounded by plants

by Deborah Keene, Blount Scholars Program, and Luvada Harrison, Department of Theatre & Dance This past summer, we were able to participate in the pilot program for the Association of Public and Land Grant Institutions (APLU) Student Experience Project’s First Day Toolkit initiative. The workshop provided an opportunity for us to review our course syllabi and the tools to conduct a syllabus review. As the most powerful tool for planning and developing courses, conducting a syllabus review gave us a […]

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Accessibility and Library Instruction

Gorgas library

by Sara Maurice Whitver, University Libraries Anyone who teaches knows that disability is present in our classrooms. As you get to know your students throughout the semester, you collectively work on learning strategies and develop a relationship that supports a productive classroom environment that helps your students achieve their learning goals. This relationship building is critical to understanding the learning needs of your students and helps you gain insight into the possible alternative ways of achieving the learning that is […]

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The Disappearing Student: How We Can Support Students Battling Depression and Anxiety

person sitting alone in a long, empty hallway

by Lauren S. Cardon, Department of English A familiar situation? Many of us have encountered students who follow a certain pattern: they begin the semester as full participants in the class, turning in assignments on time, and then all of a sudden disappear. They may trickle off­­ — missing a class here and there first — or they may simply fall off the radar. Then, after missing most of the semester, they resurface, explain they’ve been struggling with something personal, […]

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How to Create an Inclusive Syllabus

Welcome

by Nathan Loewen, Department of Religious Studies Our syllabi are among the first points of contact with our students. And if the scholarship showing that students’ first impressions of our courses typically last for the entire semester, then we should pay attention to how the syllabus is a crucial document. An ad-hoc group of 21 faculty and staff met at the Inclusive Campus Engagement Breakfast drafted a set of suggestions for inclusive syllabi. These suggestions were inspired by last year’s post […]

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What We Mean When We Say Diversity

coffee, ranging from dark to light

by Cassander L. Smith, Department of English Many of us teachers are ill-equipped to deal with racial tensions when they manifest in the classroom. We lack teacher instruction and the cultural sensitivity to identify racist moments in the classroom, or we are missing the vocabulary to elucidate the racial dynamics when the moments happen. If a student asks us to differentiate between race and ethnicity, we might struggle to nuance the terms. Because we are not sure how to talk […]

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How to Foster an Inclusive Classroom with a Constitution (Repost)

Two UK post boxes on a brick wall

by Nathan Loewen, Department of Religious Studies In Fall 2018, Cathy Davidson invited me to repost from the Teaching Hub to the HASTAC (Humanities and Sciences Technology and Collaborative) website. And so I am returning the favor this semester by reposting something I promised to write for HASTAC: “To follow up on my promise from last year, I wish to outline my process for creating a class constitution. Having a constitution is a workaround to other’s strategies of collaboratively revising syllabi at the […]

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Creating Accessible Online Courses

Cat looking up

by Jessica Porter, Office of Educational Technology (eTech) This post answers some of the most frequently asked questions about online course accessibility. To learn more about the accessibility of specific instructional technologies, visit accessibility.ua.edu or consult the official documentation for that technology. What does making a course accessible actually mean? Accessibility means all students can access and use your course from the beginning, including those with visual, auditory, cognitive and physical impairments. More specifically, it means your course follows the […]

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