Creating Inclusive Virtual Learning in Unexpected Times

With the surge of virtual learning for K-12, Higher Ed, and corporate communities in response to COVID-19, the spotlight is on online spaces and their effectiveness as augmented places to learn. Teachers, professors, trainers and designers are left to wonder if it’s possible to create engaging virtual experiences that can feel as authentic and meaningful as in person. 

You might be asking: “how can I connect with my learners? how can I be as available to them as I am in person?” and above all, “how can I make these experiences inclusive?”

As you are considering how to tackle these questions, keep in mind that the digital divide might impact learner’s access to the full experience you are trying to create. Learners might not be able to video chat or stream audio based on their bandwidth or they might not have other equipment such as a printer or a camera or even a computer. A general best practice is to always have alternative approaches. For example, if you are giving a lecture, provide an accompanying downloadable transcript.

Now more than ever, the need to create a sense of belonging when learners and instructors are feeling displaced and uneasy is in the forefront. By integrating these Four Pillars of Inclusive Instructional Design below, you can transition your in-person learning experience to an engaging and inclusive online one with dynamic and meaningful interaction. 

Pillar 1- Personalized

Personalized learning not only makes learners feel like the experience is their own, but they’re also more committed to and reflected in the learning process.

• Offer pre-assessments before a training or a course starts. This will not only help you gauge where your learners are when coming into the learning but they also get to assess their own proficiency in a subject. 
• Allow the space for learners to create their own learning paths. This helps determine based on what they want to learn and what they already know.
• Provide various assignment options for learners. Allow options such as tests, essay writing, and practical projects. Learners can pick the way to execute these assignments based on what works best for them. 
• Deliver the learning content in multiple formats.  Offering video, audio, written, and even a practice format gives the learner choices as to how they absorb information. 
• Create flexible pacing options. This can come in the form of video playback features, untimed testing or how you approach your assignment/ assessment cadence. 

Pillar 2- Responsive

Learners are becoming more represented in their own learning. Instead of squeezing and adapting, teachers and designers have begun to adapt to their students, even co-create in some cases and to do so, they have to be responsive.  

• Conduct a pre-course survey. This provides an opportunity to find out who will participate in your class and gauge what resources learners have access to, allowing you to adapt your design and delivery to meet their needs.
• Provide timely feedback. Reply to emails and discussion board posts within the week they are posted so the learners feel your mutual presence and engagement in the experience.
• Create one to one connections for your participants. By encouraging students to talk to each other, an entirely new learning dynamic is established. 
• Stay involved in the conversation. If needed, facilitate and even monitor so that all learners feel safe and heard in the learning space you are all forming together. 

Pillar 3- Flexible

By incorporating flexible design practices into the learning experience you will in turn allow for learners to personalize and, for you as an instructor or facilitator, to be responsive to your learners.

• Have pause, speed setting, and rewind features in your video/audio players. These empower the learner to be able to move through multimedia content at their own pace. Also, offering closed captioning is imperative for learners who speak a different language than you offer in your course or those with hearing or cognitive impairments. For the same reasons and to support your learners who prefer writing or might have a lower bandwidth, provide a transcript in a downloadable format. 
• Be careful about how you approach timed testing.  It can be a huge disservice to learners who are differently abled to be under a time pressure. By dropping the timed testing, you don’t alienate these learners. And if you are worried about people having time to search for answers on the internet, establish a strict policy about this and make sure you enforce it. 
• Offer an extended assignment deadline and be consistent. For example, in the online courses I’ve taught, I request everything for that week be due Sunday night at 12 midnight (time zone flexible).  This way learners know the expectations and they have the entire week to work on assignments and plan their time accordingly. 

Pillar 4- Communal 

If there is one fundamental design element to apply to make a learning experience more inclusive it is to create community in the space you provide for learners. The beauty of this effort is once you start to support connection between the learners, it will take on a life of its own.

• Create a welcome and introduction to the course. By sharing your goals and vision for the learning experience while also telling personal stories and anecdotes, you are letting your learners get to know you as you want to know them. This can set the tone for openness and safety right from the start. 
• Use discussion boards and polling. This allows participation without the pressure of being in the spotlight and gives learners time to consider what to say before they say it. This also reveal peers’ thoughts and opinions and encourage conversations between people from different cultures who may be connecting and learning about each other for the first time.
• Create group projects or study groups. Think about how meaningful it is to have people from different cultures bring in their perspectives and learn from each other. 
• Experiment with peer-to-peer grading or evaluations. This builds relationships and offers the learner, as a grader, a different point of view to understanding the material. It also gives them a deeper sense of ownership over their learning and that of their peers. Creating a rubric will further ensure your learners, who are grading their peers, are clear on the assignment’s expectations. 
• Form a group on a social media outlet like Facebook or LinkedIn. This is a way your learners can stay in touch after the course is done. Creating fun, personal prompts that relate to the course topic can kick off the page. And then ask for a volunteer in the course to take over as the administrator.

While we are all grappling to truly understand the effects of this pandemic, virtual learning does not have to seem like a default or a last ditch effort. Perhaps instead it's a silver lining to stretch and explore all that virtual learning offers. As a result, let’s take advantage of the space and shift our perspective on the true potential that this new frontier offers. And make sure to not leave any learner behind in the process. 

To learn more about Inclusive Instructional Design, check out my course here.