Week 5: SUPPORTING DIVERSE LEARNERS ONLINE

Outcomes:

Given academic readings you will develop strategies to appropriately address learner diversity in your online course(s)/ modules

• Create inclusive online environments, in which diverse perspectives and experiences are respected and considered integral parts to the learning that happens in this space.
• Encourage participatory, connected learning among diverse learners.

Since the early beginnings of online learning, people have debated who online learners are, what reasons motivate them to participate in online courses and how their backgrounds or personal preferences impact their learning within online environments. Much like in-class courses, online courses are not value-free zones, but virtual spaces in which humans meet other humans, each person coming in with his/ her/ zir individual beliefs, identity, needs and motivation to succeed. Similarily, “instruction is not culturally neutral, but instead is based on the particular epistemologies, learning theories and goal orientations of the designers themselves.” (McLoughlin and Oliver, 2000).

In fact, classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse and there are various perspectives as to how best to respond. As a matter of fact, the diversity of online learners requires flexible and responsive teaching approaches to provide support on the broad spectrum. It also means to balance the possibilities of the technologies available for online learning with an awareness for potential risks and purposeful pedagogy that includes all learners on the broad spectrum of abilities, backgrounds, and expectations.

In this module, you will spend some time thinking about who the individual learners in your course might be with regards to their gender, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, individual abilities, learning preferences and personal experiences to determine how to best match their learning needs with your teaching intentions. This will allow you to strategize a facilitation of engagement, equity and fairness in your online environments.

TASKS THIS WEEK: 

ACTIVITY 1. Topic Choice – You browse the list of suggested topics and resources regarding learner diversity to formulate 3-5 questions that are of interest to you and your own online teaching.

ACTIVITY 2. Research Topic –  You choose a topic and a question for further investigation with the goal to answer some of the questions posed in Step 5.1.

ACTIVITY 3. Research Summary – You answer your question of choice by synthesizing the information you have accessed in a summary paragraph.

ACTIVITY 4. Collaborative Collection of Strategies– You add to the collaborative collection of strategies to working with Diverse Learners Online.

ACTIVITY 5. Wikipedia II – You submit an entry based on your readings in the last two weeks to add to our course glossary.

Schedule and Deadlines

References:

McLoughlin, C., & Oliver, R. (2000). Designing learning environments for cultural inclusivity: A case study of indigenous online learning at tertiary level. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.1822