Equitable Online Courses Overview

Online courses and degree offerings are becoming more prevalent in higher education. Currently, the University of Michigan has 12 online degree offerings, from an online MBA to an online MSW. Equitable teaching practices in online courses are just as vital as they are in in-person courses. Online courses can include students with varying learning and technological needs as well as students from across the globe, creating a diverse classroom. Knowing the different needs of your students in an online setting impacts their learning and educational outcomes in your course. And, while online courses can create greater access to higher education for students, it depends on whether or not they possess the technological necessities for online learning. While there are many considerations to make for an online course, planning from a mindset of equity and accessibility ensures that you are taking a student-centered approach.

The importance of equitable online teaching has been made all the more relevant due to COVID-19. As classes have moved to an online format, what many institutions are currently implementing in light of COVID-19 is best described as emergency remote teaching. An online course can take months to plan, and many of the in-person courses that have since moved online were not designed to be in an online format. However, as campus communities quickly pivoted to online teaching and learning in spring 2020, we learned more about how to consider equitable teaching in online learning spaces. While there have been different tips and strategies published, there are three principles that cut across most articles. The first is flexibility—both in the development of courses (synchronous/asynchronous, types of course assignments, etc.) and in the generosity afforded to students as they shift to a new way of learning and have disparate levels of disruption due to the immediate COVID crisis. The second is accessibility. COVID-19 has called attention to our students’ unequal access to resources (such as computers, internet access, quiet places to study) that are not always obvious in face-to-face classroom interactions. Finally, you must get to know your students. If there was ever a time to learn more about your students, this is it. Without knowing them, you may miss some of the ways they can contribute to the class and where they have needs greater than others. These three principles extend beyond our current moment and must always be considered in an online course and especially as we strive to move from emergency remote teaching to resilient teaching. For further insight into emergency remote teaching, the Center for Academic Innovation created a helpful “keep teaching” website in March 2020 to provide further support for instructors.

On this page, you will find resource and activity guides that will assist you in learning more about equity and inclusion in your online classroom and provide you with activities that actively promote equity in your online classroom. At the bottom of the page, you will find links to institutions that are working to improve equity in online courses.

How to use these Resources:

The following resources have been curated specifically for online courses. The Resource Guides provide materials, readings, and strategies to further one’s knowledge and practice regarding equity in online courses. The Activity Guides provide in-class activities that can be used to build equity in your online classroom. These resource and activity guides are but a few of the many you can find on this website. If you are interested in additional resource and activity guides, you can find our resource guide catalogue on the Planning Page and our activity guide catalogue on the Activities Page.

Within each resource and activity guide, you will find:

• An Overview, providing further context about the guide and its relation to equity classrooms
• The goals associated with the resource or activity
• Two files containing a PDF and Docx version of the guide
• An associated video, where applicable, to provide additional insights into the topic

Resource Guides to Deepen Understanding of Equity in Online Courses:

Activity Guides that Promote Equity in Online Courses:

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