Learning path
Community Building
Maha Bali
Mia Zamora
Autumm Caines
Equity Unbound present strategies for creating communities built on principles of equity and care that produce learning spaces in which all students can flourish.
About the Learning Path
Equity Unbound has been working with OneHE to create and curate a bank of free resources that can help educators to create equitable, caring, and inclusive communities that support learning. In this learning path, the team helps you to navigate those resources—for online, face-to-face (f2f), or hybrid interactions—by picking out successful strategies and techniques that can be used at various points throughout a course.
On completion of this learning path, you will:
- Understand the principles and strategies that underpin embedding equity and care in communities, in particular online.
- Be familiar with tools and techniques you can use to create engagement at the beginning and throughout your teaching period.
- Know how to identify gaps and areas for work to improve equity and care in your courses.
Welcome from Maha, Autumm, and Mia
Introduction to community building
Community building is critical to the success of any course, including online courses. Maha explains why we need to make the effort at the beginning and throughout our courses and why we should be intentional about building equity and care. This video was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, its principles remain highly relevant today.
Intentionally Equitable Hospitality
As course leaders, we are the host. Maha suggests ways in which we can include students in our learning spaces, paying particular attention to those at risk of exclusion, to create an environment that is conducive to learning.
Inclusive and engaging introductions
Autumm gives some tips on creating warm introductions in synchronous and asynchronous courses to get your teaching period off to a great start. Check out the resources referenced including What Kind of Animal Are You?, Surrealist Portraits and Some Safety Considerations for Online Community Building. Also take a look at Mia and Maha’s conversation on introductions.
Setting the tone
It’s really important that we model our teaching philosophy with our students. Maha offers some ideas such as sending a warm introductory video or open letter, inviting students to create community guidelines and annotate the syllabus, and establishing third-places where students can interact more freely.
Warm-ups and Check-ins
Maintaining a sense of sincere connection and trust between those on your course is something that requires conscious effort. Mia recommends a few activities that help us to tell stories that create a sense of belonging, including Image gallery, Wild/Mad Tea and Spiral Journal.
Facilitating ongoing student engagement
Introductions and check-ins are a great starting point, but we also need to structure our ongoing engagement with students. Autumm recommends the Wild/Mad Tea, Pass the Paper, and Structured Dialogue for synchronous courses and the Collaborative Lit Review Matrix for asynchronous teaching.
Liberating Structures
Liberating structures are activities that enable equitable, engaged, and constructive dialogue by dispersing the power that once resided with the expert. Mia suggests you take a look at Conversation Cafe, TRIZ, and Troika Consulting.
The Equity-care Matrix
The Equity-Care Matrix, developed by Maha and Mia, helps you to think about the learning space you create, identify any challenges and gaps, and focus your efforts to build the optimal environment for your students’ learning.
Equitable teaching
No one strategy works in all circumstances. Maha uses the ‘rumi cheese analogy’ to explain how we can layer strategies to maximise equity across a course.
Meet the Expert(s)