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The Inclusive STEM Teaching Project is a 6 week course designed to advance the awareness, self-efficacy, and the ability of faculty, postdocs, and doctoral students to cultivate inclusive STEM learning environments for all their students and to develop themselves as reflective, inclusive practitioners.
Throughout this six-week online course, we will ask you to engage in deep reflection and discussions around topics of equity and inclusion in learning environments across a variety of institutional contexts. This course is designed to improve our participants’ awareness, self-efficacy, and ability of doctoral students, postdocs, and faculty to create inclusive STEM learning environments for their students. To center the identity of faculty and students and facilitate deep reflection, we employ key features including: embodied case studies, affinity spaces, and an inclusivity framework portfolio. These activities are collectively designed to nurture a transformative mindset and help our participants reflect deeply on key identity-related aspects of each module as they go through the course, and to help them apply these aspects in tangible ways to their own teaching and learning contexts.
Course participants are expected to enter recognizing 1) racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, ageism, classism, etc. are real and present and 2) being a reflective, inclusive instructor is a lifelong process of discovery that requires continuous learning.
Participants in this course will...
Examine issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education
Reflect on their own and their students’ identities and experiences
Question their assumptions about all aspects of instruction
Identify and implement learner-centered structures and strategies
Apply principles of evidence-based inclusive teaching
Use their student learning data and feedback to inform pedagogical and curricular choices
Introduction: In this welcoming session, participants will be introduced to the concepts, ideas, and terms that relate to fostering inclusive classrooms and learning environments in higher education. The concepts reviewed in this session will be reinforced in the content throughout the rest of the MOOC. ****
Module 1: DEI in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: In this module, participants will examine issues of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), especially around power, privilege and positionality, in both their local institutional context (e.g., classroom, laboratory, research group) as well as at a national level. ****
Module 2: Instructor Identity and Authority in STEM Classrooms: This module will guide participants from a range of backgrounds to reflect upon their individual identities and the ways in which those identities influence their experience as instructors and impact their students’ learning.
Module 3: Student Identities and Experiences in the STEM Classroom: In this module, participants will review social identity frameworks introduced in the Instructor Identity and Authority module and explore how students’ social identities impact teaching practices and student learning. Participants will also explore key theories of implicit bias, growth mindset, stereotype threat and imposter phenomenon and their impact on students’ classroom experience and learning.
Module 4: Creating an Inclusive STEM Course: In this module, participants will explore and apply strategies for designing an inclusive course. Participants will explore the typical approaches to course design and unpack the structures and assumptions related to power, positionality, and privilege that cause those approaches to create barriers for student learning.
Module 5: Fostering an Inclusive Climate in the STEM Classroom: In this module, participants will become aware of, reflect on, and explore how to develop and implement inclusive and evidenced-based teaching practices that are drawn from research and student experiences of learning.
Director, Faculty Initiatives • Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching at Northwestern University
Assistant Provost of Professional Development and Postdoctoral Affairs • Boston University
Director • Teaching and Learning Center at Des Moines Area Community College
1. What is the difference between audit and verified track?
The verified track is $49, and upon course completion, edX provides a certificate. The audit track is free, and upon completion, the Inclusive STEM TEaching team provides a certificate. In both tracks, the content and activities are identical.
2. Will I have access to the course after it closes?
Yes, all learners in both the audit track and verified track will continue having unlimited access to the course content and materials after the course ends.
3. How much time commitment is expected?
There is ~2 hrs of content each week, 45-60 min of video from experts, the team, and students, and ~60 minutes of reflection and writing in discussion boards, affinity spaces and “your inclusivity framework.”
4. How do I get involved in the research so I can assess the inclusivity of my course design, classroom environment, and attitudes of my students?
Upon registering and starting the course, you will be invited to participate in the research portion. At that time you will be asked to consent to the research process.
5. What is an affinity group and how do I engage?
There are benefits to having spaces for conversations about one’s identity-based experiences with others who share similar identities. One of the strategies we are using is affinity groups, based around the following social identities : Black, Indigenous, and People Of Color (BIPOC), White, Women/Womxn, and Men/Mxn. See more on our website FAQ.
6. How do I complete the course and receive a certificate?
Course completion is achieved by answering 50% or more of the inclusivity framework questions (of a total of 14 questions). Two of the seven that you complete (or more) must be from Module four or later in the course. See more on our website FAQ.
7. What is the Inclusivity Framework?
The “inclusivity framework” helps you reflect deeply on key aspects of each module as you go through the course, and helps you apply these aspects in tangible ways to your own current and/or future teaching and learning contexts. See more on our website FAQ.
8. How can I join a local or virtual learning community?
You can sign up for a local learning community through our website here.
9. Can I use the course materials at my institution?
Yes - as required by all NSF funded projects, our course content is available to any course participant for their use under the Creative Commons (CC) 4.0 non-derivative non-commercial license. See more on our website FAQ.