Columbia University Brings Inclusive Teaching to Global Platform with Free Online Course

NEW YORK, New York — On June 26, 2019, the Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) will launch the first ever MOOC (massive open online course) dedicated entirely to the topic of inclusive teaching in higher education. The MOOC, titled Inclusive Teaching: Supporting All Students in the College Classroom, provides practical, accessible, and usable strategies that instructors can implement in their classrooms to create and maintain a supportive learning environment for all students. The self-paced course is open to all.

Inclusive teaching is a topic that has received increased attention on college campuses around the country and world. Despite the fact that research has shown that ​creating an inclusive teaching environment is beneficial for ​all​ students’ learning, issues around inclusion and disinclusion are rarely discussed in practical terms. This course aims to provide instructors with tools that are immediately applicable to their teaching contexts. The course was created following the success of the Guide for Inclusive Teaching at Columbia, written and released by the Columbia CTL in 2017.

“Excellence in teaching and learning necessitates the inclusion of every student’s unique identities, experiences, and talents,” said Soulaymane Kachani, Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning at Columbia University.

“Creating equitable access to learning is at the heart of all the work we do with faculty and graduate students at the Columbia CTL. Inclusive pedagogies are grounded in deep reflective practice, and require both intentionality and a willingness to question long-standing pedagogical practices,” said Catherine Ross, Executive Director of the Columbia CTL.

“Inclusion in learning requires an unflinching examination of power, privilege and the dynamics between faculty and students and among the students who are learning together. But the results are worth the effort: a transparency of intention, explicit conversations about learning, and a sharing of the responsibility to make learning happen,” said Amanda Irvin, Director at the Columbia CTL.

In addition to content discussions led by Amanda M. Jungels and Chandani Patel of the Columbia CTL, the MOOC features several experts who offer strategies and insights from their own research and teaching contexts, illustrations of concepts, a glossary of terms, activities for exploration and application, reflective prompts, and interactive assessments. It is expected to take the average learner six weeks to complete, with workload estimated at 2-3 hours per week.

The course centers around “five evidence-based principles of inclusive teaching, and offers instructors a foundation for thinking about, and planning for, how they will be inclusive in their classrooms,” said Jungels. “Each of the modules is organized around a set of reflective activities designed to move instructors forward in creating inclusive classroom environments that enable all of their students to thrive,” added Patel.

Inclusive Teaching: Supporting All Students in the College Classroom is available on edX at bit.ly/InclusiveTeachingMOOC