Hablamos Español: Shaping Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in Bilingual Latinx Online Course Developments

Concurrent Session 6

Brief Abstract

This presentation highlights the collaborative development of a series of online journalism courses. We discuss best practices in inclusion and belonging that led us to adopt translanguaging as an assets-based approach to empower bilingual and Latinx students. Together, we explore how design and teaching collaborations strengthen diverse voices online. 

 

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Jessica Zeitler, University of Arizona

I am a multilingual Agile Instructional Designer, project manager, and foreign language faculty. Originally from Arizona, I am an avid runner and soccer player, I am also passionate about learning languages and helping people learn. This includes helping institutions create engaging learning experiences and lowering barriers for all learners. In addition to collaborating with faculty on course mapping, ideating, and building courses and interactives, I also design templates. I value diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging and iteratively integrate these values across all of my project collaborations and courses that I teach. When I am not designing, presenting, or collaborating with colleagues, you can find me running, traveling, or continuing my learning through reading, writing, or coding activities.

Additional Authors

Extended Abstract

As online education expands rapidly to meet demand each semester, we, as faculty and instructional designers, strive to continuously improve student-centered online learning. We often forget to pause and reflect in this rhythmic sprint of constant change to improve online courses, make them accessible, and support an increasingly diverse student body. Considerations about best practices and which best practices are relevant and applicable to our specific student body are sometimes left in the dust in the flurry to begin the next session.

Questions like how we can shape spaces where diverse student identities feel welcome, included, and like they belong. Or, what does an assets-based approach versus a deficit-based approach mean? And, what would that look like from the design and teaching perspective? We may be reaching here, but we asked ourselves,  how are we using our institutional agency to have a positive impact not merely to support equitable access within online classes, but to consider how we can also impact equitable outcomes.

These are all complex questions with probably even more intricately complex answers, and we, admittedly, do not have all the answers. In this presentation, however, we will share how an instructional designer and faculty collaborated to develop a series of online journalism courses founded on diversity, equity, and inclusion principles. We discuss best practices in inclusion and belonging that led us to adopt translanguaging as an asset-based approach to empower bilingual and Latinx students.  We will also discuss other examples of how we used project-based learning and institutional agency to foster community building and equitable outcomes for diverse student body. Together, participants and attendees will explore how design and teaching collaborations strengthen diverse voices online.

Participation: 

This presentation takes a collaborative approach through the use of sketchnoting. We intentionally chunk content into smaller pieces to foster intermittent sharing amongst the attendees and panelists.  We invite attendees to join presenters and reflect on questions about best practices in developing and teaching online courses that serve diverse student populations.  While discussing inclusion and the sense of belonging of minoritized students in online classes, attendees are asked to identify a barrier or challenge they have experienced in design or teaching for diverse learners and share that challenge for later group discussion. The presentation concludes with group brainstorming on use case scenarios and how to iteratively embed diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging approaches in course design and teaching to support all students.  

Session Goals:

Participants attending this session will be able to discuss several strategies in design and teaching to empower Latinx and minoritized students in online courses.  They will be able to describe assets-based approaches and how they might support their student population. Finally, participants will be able to discuss how to leverage collaborations between Instructional Designers and Faculty to further diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in online course developments.