Connecting with Instructors for Inclusive Online Courses

Concurrent Session 7

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Brief Abstract

A lively discussion with a panel of instructional designer on how to engage instructors to design and facilitate inclusive online courses. We will give examples of strategies to persuade instructors to build these types of courses and exchange ideas on how to encourage implementation of inclusivity online.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Melody Buckner, University of Arizona

Melody Buckner is the Director of Digital Learning and Online Education for the Office of Digital Learning, and the Interim Dean of UA South. In her role as director, she oversees the design, development and maintenance of over 700 courses within almost 80 fully-online programs the UA Online campus. She began at the UA almost a decade ago as an Instructional Designer, charged with helping faculty create online courses that reach out and engage students in an online UA experience. Before coming to the University, she served as an Instructional Designer in Professional Development and as an adjunct faculty for Pima Community College. Her educational background includes, a Bachelor of Science from the College of Architecture at Arizona State University and a Masters in Educational Technology at Northern Arizona University. She is earned her Ph.D. in Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies at the University of Arizona in 2015. Her informal education consists of living in over 40 different places including several countries overseas.

Extended Abstract

In this session, we will conduct a lively discussion with a panel of instructional designers about how to engage instructors to design and facilitate inclusive online courses. Creating courses sensitive to inclusivity is at the heart of student success. Through the framework of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), instructional designers can encourage instructors to develop these inclusive learning environments. Having the UDL framework with data to back up success is useful tool for all instructional designers. We will talk about how we implement this framework in conversations with instructors.

The panel will continue by giving examples of strategies to persuade instructors to build these types of courses and exchange ideas on how to encourage the implementation of inclusivity online. Building a relationship with instructors is the key to gaining trust during the design phase. Our panel of experienced instructional designers will share stories about their unique journeys of establishing rapport in building dynamic inclusive online courses.

We will wrap up the discussion by showing examples of the inclusive courses we have developed with the UDL framework alongside the expertise of our instructors. Finally, we will round out the session with questions from the audience.