Free courses are being offered this spring for Penn State faculty, staff and graduate students looking to focus on creating a more inclusive and supportive learning environment, supporting students with accommodations, and authoring accessible courses.
“These are courses that are good for everyone at the University to look at,’’ not just those who teach for World Campus online, said Drew Tatusko, interim director for online faculty development at Penn State World Campus.
Registration is open now for 15 different free courses running between February and June. Some courses are offered multiple times during the semester.
The courses include a revamped OL 1200, now titled "Student Support and Advocacy in Online Learning." The self-directed course, designed to help faculty and staff determine the most appropriate and efficient ways to help students who may be experiencing different forms of stress, now includes a module on inclusive practices in the classroom. The goal is to help create a learning environment that’s more supportive and adaptable to the needs of underrepresented groups before issues arise, Tatusko said.
The inclusive practices module, for example, includes a scenario in which one student is offended by a discussion post from another student who she has been friendly with.
The course also addresses strategies for faculty to address students with perceived mental health issues and students with conduct issues that can’t be mitigated through normal classroom practices. It also looks at ways to support students with extenuating stressors — such as the pandemic or the Texas power outage last year that left some students in that state unable to do their coursework.
Tatusko said the course has been very popular with faculty, who overwhelmingly say that conduct issues are one of their biggest challenges. The courses can help them decide how to respond to students who are under high stress and might have behavior issues or academic integrity issues as a result, he said.
“The pandemic has heightened awareness one thousand-fold,” Tatusko said. “We all have a language around trauma-informed pedagogy now.”
Also undergoing a major revision was OL 3000, now titled "Supporting Accommodations for Online Learners." The self-directed course is now organized around six scenarios that instructors could face when they have students who need accommodations, said learning designer Matt Dingo.
A third self-directed course, OL 2600, titled "Accessible Online Course Authoring," offers participants the ability to take a section of provided HTML code and test whether material they are writing is accessible for students with low vision or other accessibility challenges.
“All three of these classes are really valuable across Penn State and applicable to anyone working with students who wants to be compliant,” Dingo said.
Online learning courses are open to all current Penn State faculty, staff, and graduate students and are offered in a self-directed or instructor-led format. Course registration closes two weeks before the start date for instructor-led courses.
Visit the Penn State World Campus Online Faculty Development website for more information about the courses that are being offered during the spring 2022 semester.