Creating a Welcoming Online Classroom

Screenshot 2020-05-11 10.54.18.png

Building a welcoming space for our online students is one of the first steps we can take in fostering equity. Think about how you use your first few days of class. What might you do differently to ensure that students feel welcome, safe, and free to take intellectual and social risks?

These are themes that this part of the module will address. Equity-Minded educators welcome all students with enthusiasm and genuine caring. Often, such values can be challenging to exude in an online context. We must learn to better express ourselves without ever coming face to face with our students while teaching online.

We can address these challenges through collaboration, creativity, and honesty. For creating a welcoming learning environment, the techniques must come before the technology. In other words, if we take the time to reflect on the fundamentals of welcoming students, then our technological know-how will naturally follow.

Some fundamentals may include a couple of the other Equity Precepts. For instance, if we solely focus on the Canvas Home Page, this can be a space for: Representing diversity in the use of images and media. Also, creating a Partnership by using "We" "Our" and "Us" language. Demystifying our expectations with clear and concise hyperlinks and navigation tools. Let us keep these in mind as we move forward.

The Online Classroom as a Cultural Space

Consider pragmatically the first impressions that your online classroom might give when students log in to Canvas. Specifically, consider the following:

- Are they taken directly to the Modules Page, rather than a face page?
- If you have a home page, how much and what kind of content does it contain?
- Are there images/videos present on the home page?
- Is there an organizational theme to the home page?

Thinking about these, and more, questions can often be very informative. We encourage you to take this reflection one step further: Rather than conceptualizing your online class as a medium through which knowledge is delivered, reframe it as a learning space for your students to go. For instance, see several questions designed to assess Equity-Minded on-campus classrooms:

1. How difficult was it to find the room? (Signage, pathways, people to guide you)
2. What do you see as you walk through the door? (Decorations, lighting, seating arrangement, equipment)
3. Does the space adequately accommodate the students? YES, NO (Is anyone sitting on the floor, off to the side)
4. What is the condition of the classroom? (Temperature, paint, desks, etc.)
5. What is the seating arrangement?

(Source: USC Center for Urban Education, Classroom Inquiry Guidelines for Equity-Minded and Culturally Inclusive Practices).

Now, think about how these questions can be modified to better assess our online class spaces. To this goal, please evaluate and write a few notes on the following questions as they apply to your online course:

How difficult was it to navigate through Canvas?
(a) Examine your Canvas site as if you were a new student using Canvas for the first time. Better yet, get a friend or family member to explore your site. Note their reactions about how easy or difficult it was to navigate the site.
(b) Write some notes to yourself on how the navigation might be improved. Which hyperlinks need to be more descriptive? Are the titles of the modules clear? Is there a reasonable amount of content per page?
What do you see as you first log into the class?
(a) Again, imagine yourself as a new student who is engaging in their first distance learning college course. What do you see when you first log in? Do you feel welcomed? Do feel like this is a space that is made for you?
(b) Write some notes to yourself on how your site might make a more welcoming and impactful first impression.
Does the online space adequately accommodate the students in discussion/creativity/collaboration?
(a) Reflect on your past experiences with online teaching. What technology/modalities do you use to bring out discussion, critical reflection, creativity and collaboration? (E.g., Discussion Boards, Zoom Breakout Rooms, Padlet, Collaborations, etc.)
(b) How successful has this been in the past? (Is everyone posting/participating? Is real learning going on? Are there opportunities for student collaboration? Are there opportunities for student creativity?)
(c) Write some notes on the ways that you feel that your past practice has fallen short of your expectations. Note ideas that you have for improvement, and questions that you have for the other participants about how they achieve these goals.
What is the condition of the online classroom?
(a) Looking at your Canvas site as a whole, what are your general impressions? Is it organized, current, user friendly, welcoming and supportive? Is it rich with resources, or sparse? Is it visually stimulating? Do your images represent the diversity of our student body?
(b) Write some notes about how you would like to improve your site as a whole.
What is the virtual “seating arrangement?”
(a) When we consider the seating arrangement of a physical classroom, a dominant factor is whether all desks are facing the front towards “the sage on the stage,” or whether they are arranged in a way that focuses on student collaboration. In a similar fashion, you can reflect on your online space. How much does the space focus on you, the instructor, and how often does it turn the students toward one another to collaborate and learn from one another?
(b) Write some notes about how much the site focuses on you, vs. how much it focuses on the students and their collaboration. What is your goal here, and to what extent are you achieving your goal?

By reframing such inquiries, we can better make informed decisions about creating a welcoming online learning space. Let’s continue to the next tab above to see some examples of what this may look like.

The Equity-Minded Home Page

Let’s now focus on some very specific examples of what Canvas Home Pages can look like. These examples presented below are available for immediate import into your Canvas course by using the Canvas Commons (a place to share templates and assignments for campus-wide usage). If you are unfamiliar with Canvas Commons, please click the following resources:

How do I use Commons?
How do I preview resources in Commons?
How do I import and view a Commons resource in Canvas?

See For Yourself

Much like with the equitable syllabus review, sometimes we can gain inspiration for our own classes by viewing the work of others. Additionally, we understand that oftentimes there is no need to reinvent the wheel.

Keeping both of these points in mind, the resources below are links to view individual faculty Canvas Home Pages followed by links to the Canvas Commons if you would like to import any of them into your course(s). If you choose to import one of these from the Commons, please remember to change the basic information and upload your own images to better suit your class.

As you peruse these examples, make note of how various Equity Precepts are present (Welcome, Partnership, Demystify). They vary in style and length, but there is no singular correct way to create these pages.

Michael Robertson – ANTHR 2

(To import this home page into your web course, please use this link: Michael Robertson Anthropology Home Page)

Nancy Mahan – MATH 130

(To import this home page into your web course, please use this link: Nancy Mahan Math Home Page)

General LBCC Course Home Page – Created by Wendi Lopez

(To import this home page into your web course, please use this link: LB Course Home Page )

Priscilla Bravo Arias - BIO 2

Humanizing Our Online Classes

In the spirit of welcoming, we also must emphasize the importance of humanizing ourselves online. While teaching on-ground classes typically comes with an implied sense of humanity (solely by virtue of being in the same physical space as our students) we must make extra efforts to open ourselves up to web classes.

Please see the infographic below which provides some very applicable techniques to this end: (Source: Pacansky-Brock, M. (2020). How to humanize your online class, version 2.0 [Infographic]. https://brocansky.com/humanizing/infographic2.

Your Turn

Now that we have walked through some of the fundamental principles of an equitable Canvas Home Page that welcomes our students to our online classrooms, let us turn to reflecting on our own courses. To this learning objective, our Week 1 Discussion forum asks you to evaluate a mock online course. You can find the discussion here: Discussion 💬 Applying Equity Protocol to an Online Space

Additionally, one of the final deliverables for this Curriculum Audit includes the creation of a final draft Home Page based on what we have learned here. As we have suggested previously, please draw from the resources provided, collaborate with colleagues, and build a Home Page that expresses your genuine welcoming and care for students.

When you are ultimately finished, and have a newly revised Home Page for your class, you may submit here: Deliverable 2 ✅ Welcoming Home Page due by February 22, 2021.

Some Technical Assistance

If you would like a refresher on how to create and choose a Canvas Home Page, the following resources and guides may be helpful:

If you would like to see the process in a video, you may do so below:

What Is Learned Here, Leaves Here

This past few tabs of content and exercises have been primarily focused on creating Equitable and welcoming Home Pages in Canvas. Moving forward, we encourage you to expand these principles and techniques to other areas of your online course as well.

For example, some instructors may create “Welcome to Class” orientation pages, or “Meet Your Professor” videos, and even “Meet & Greet” Discussion forums for students to welcome each other into the online learning space.

The extra resources below may be particularly helpful as we extend these equity-minded practices and fine-tune our welcoming Home Pages.

Online Classroom Experience - Please download and complete this learning activity to evaluate your own expectations for the online classroom.
Campus Space Protocol (USC Center for Urban Education) – Designed for on-ground classes, but can be modified for online spaces as shown previously.
Getting to Know Your Students: An example of an activity that can be used as a unique way of building partnerships early on in the semester.
Diverse Images: Several stock photo websites offer free images featuring People of Color that can be used in your courses.
Equity-Minded Online Teaching: Using Canvas as a Model – Thursday, 4.30.2020
- Professor Jennifer Ortiz will illustrate how to use Canvas with an equity mindset. She will provide examples of techniques and strategies which can be easily applied in any course. For example, she will show participants the video message she uses to welcome students into her class. This session will also have a focus on the implementation of AB705. Professor Ortiz is the Chair of English at LA Trade Tech and a Fellow at the Center for Urban Education. She has collaborated with CUE’s staff on the development of equity-minded teaching materials.

Using tabs demonstration