Practice Inclusive, Equitable, and Consistent Engagement with Online Learners

<aside> 💡 With inclusive, equitable, and consistent engagement, online learners will feel supported as they work toward achieving course outcomes.

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Specific Techniques

• Involve learners in shaping online course interactions and assignments.
• Be intentional and explicit in both developing and communicating your expectations for online learner attentiveness, presence, participation, and performance across all online course activities, interactions, and assessments.
• Give learners choices for how they make their thinking and learning visible to you and others in the online course.
• Build trust and a sense of online class community.
• Don’t make assumptions. Communicate with learners, and ask about their life circumstances.
• Offer opportunities for learner input on specific elements of the course and activities.
• Inquire about and provide options to accommodate diverse learners and their needs.
• Experiment with new online course design elements, and collect feedback from learners on their use.
• Intentionally select technologies that align with course outcomes and that allow learners to engage equitably, inclusively, and consistently with you and with peers.
• Consider using the equitable engagement lens to assist you in selecting tools and technologies that support more equitable and consistent engagement with and between learners. For example, consider whether the tool will assist you to achieve your course objectives in a manner that is more effective, efficient, faster, safer, or cost-effective than if you didn’t use that technology.

Overview

Inclusive, equitable, and consistent engagement with learners in online teaching environments requires awareness, intentionality, and an ongoing commitment to equity. It begins with instructors engaging in critical self-reflection—examining internalized biases and assumptions that may shape interactions and expectations. Importantly, equitable engagement does not mean interacting with every learner in exactly the same way or in equal quantities. While the terms equality and equity are often used interchangeably, they represent fundamentally different approaches to supporting learners. Understanding this distinction is essential when designing inclusive online learning environments. As one source explains, “Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome“ (Equity Vs. Equality: What’s the Difference?, 2021). To be equitable means recognizing and responding to the diverse needs, circumstances, and lived experiences of individual online learners. Consistent and reflective engagement helps surface and address barriers that might otherwise go unnoticed, and fosters a online environment where all learners feel seen, valued, and supported in reaching course outcomes.

How to Implement the Practice

Asynchronous

Synchronous

Hybrid

References and Resources

Citations

Resources

Contributors

Alexandra M. Pickett, Paul Montone, Steven Edwards