hanover.edu
Academic Affairs
Inclusive and Engaging Teaching

Are your students distracted during class?

Click HERE for tips.

 

Course Design as a starting point...

Effective teaching begins with designing a course that considers the holistic learning environment. 

  1. Consider how your course contributes to the College curriculum and your department-level goals.
  2. Write out specific and measurable course learning objectives to identify what students should know or be able to do at the end of the course.
  3. Develop learning units or modules to scaffold student learning and sequence learning activities. Plan out how you'll assess and provide feedback to students at regular intervals throughout the course.
  4. Consider the instructional methods, materials, and medium for most effective and inclusive teaching.

Here is a quick 5 minute youtube video on Backwards Design

 

The IUPUI Center for Teaching & Learning has a LOT of great resources for instructional design, engaging students, and teaching in different modalities. Check out their "just in time course design" website.

Some helpful instructional design materials

  • Course Map Template. Download and fill out your course map with goals, learning outcomes, assessment points, and learning materials. 
  • Measurable Action Verbs. A comprehensive set of materials to help you select measurable verbs for your learning outcomes.
  • Design Transparent Assignments. Students learn best when work has a purpose and clear criteria. Align assignments with course learning outcomes, department learning objectives, and/or career readiness. Consider using the TILT framework (resources here).

 

Syllabus (re)Design

Check out the 2024-2025 academic year Academic Affairs "Welcome Back" page  for Syllabus guidelines, technology updates, and more.

Ready to redesign your syllabus? Start with this inclusive syllabus rubric developed by colleagues at Lawrence University. 

Syllabus Design Resources

 

Inclusive Pedagogy

Today's college students have different levels of confidence, experiences in high school, and motivations. Inclusive teaching practices encompass a set of empirically-supported teaching strategies to engage and enhance learning among students.

In 2022, Professors Viji Sathy and Kelly Hogan offered a virtual workshop on inclusive teaching for Hanover College faculty. Their workshop echoed advice they wrote here for the Chronicle of Higher Education: all faculty, regardless of discipline, are responsible for teaching inclusively, and you don't have to complete a major course overhaul to engage in best practices for inclusive teaching.

When it comes to reaching all students, start with course design! In this 2022 report, Brooks and Grady review several ways to design your course to promote inclusive, representative, and engaging pedagogy. Here are some of their takeaways:

  1. Students from all backgrounds, including highly prepared students, benefit from the integration of inclusive teaching practices.
  2. Faculty are responsible for fostering inclusive excellence in both online and in-person courses.
  3. Class size, physical classroom space, and subject field do not prohibit inclusive teaching practices.
  4. Some strategies for inclusive pedagogy: draw connections from content to lived experiences and future careers, ensure instructional materials are accessible, varied, and representative of diverse voices, and provide ample feedback and referrals to resources (e.g., Counseling Services, Gladish Center for Teaching & Learning) to encourage students.

For more information on creating an accessible course (helps all students, not just those with documented disabilities!) check out our PALNI library consortium materials. 

In order to reach and teach all students, here are a few small intentional tips you could implement in a 5 minute Association of College and University Educators (ACUE):

 

Creating Communities of Learning

Drawing on the works of bell hooks and Parker J. Palmer, in January 2023 facilitators Morgan Rumple-Whiting and Tyne Parlett led Hanover College faculty in discussion of how to create cultures of belonging and community through our teaching and elsewhere. As a starting point, instructors can help themselves and their students examine the relationship between elements of their identities and belonging by using an identity wheels exercise. Those aspects of our personal and social identities that we think about least often point to areas of advantage or privilege, and often we are especially aware of identities that result in our being excluded.

"Show me HOW, please."

Ready to move beyond the idea of inclusive teaching and give yourself some action-items? UC Berkeley colleagues created a 2022 rubric and resource guide for faculty, "Advancing Inclusion and Anti-Racism in the College Classroom" which covers a variety of actionable recommendations, from syllabi and assignments to class engagement practices.

 

Engaging Students After Midterms

Have students who are struggling in your classes or seeming disengaged? It may be time to fill out a Cares request to make sure students receive the support they need.

Faculty have several ways to connect with students mid-semester - some guidance from Gladish Center for Teaching & Learning

Check out these strategies from Faculty Focus to re-awaken and engage students after midterms: renewing connection and engagement with students. 

Try collecting student feedback using a mid-semester evaluation. Some options