Better Together: Creating Inclusive Learning Environments

• Scrambled Eggs with Potato, Spinach and Tomato
• Fresh Baked Low-Fat Muffins
• Seasonal Fresh Fruit and Yogurt Bar with House-Made Granola
• Bacon
• Coffee and Assorted Hot Teas
• Orange Juice
• Water 

For decades, higher education literature has documented how classroom climate can be unwelcoming – chilly – for various groups of students. Evidence shows that a chilly climate adversely impacts students’ learning and performance outcomes. In this interactive keynote, Michele DiPietro will use the principles of learning from their book How Learning Works: 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching as a lens of analysis, focusing on how climate can impact the major determinants of learning. Participants are invited to explore the research behind these claims, use the theories to ground discussion of classroom case studies, and brainstorm ways of creating an inclusive and productive climate for all students.

Table 1: Community-based Service Learning is Inclusive, Vincentian, and Doable in Any Discipline Even When the Quarter is Short and Students are Busy
Helen Damon-Moore (Steans Center), Jessica Pamment (CSH), Miranda Standberry-Wallace (CDM)
Studies show that community-based service learning is a high impact pedagogical strategy for many students, but in particular for those who may feel marginalized in some way. Thoughtful CBSL challenges students to address social issues together with their colleagues from a variety of backgrounds and learning styles, learning inclusively with assistance from their classroom instructors and community mentors through experience, reflection, academic resources, and class discussion. This can happen even in STEM laboratory courses in disciplines like biology. Join a colleague and her student who will share their thoughts on creating and experiencing the non-major Bio 155 "Introduction to Biology with Laboratory" course. Learn about who takes the course, what makes it inclusive, and how the inclusivity of the Bio 155 curriculum and class cohort is shared with students in our Chicago community. Then engage in discussion on the challenge of realizing the goal of inclusive experiential education in light of the busyness of students and the brevity of the quarter. As Bio 155 demonstrates, inclusive experiential learning can--and should--happen!


Table 2: What Makes a 'Good' Communicator? Inclusivity and Oral Communication in the Classroom
Kendra Knight (Communication), Gregory Moorehead (Division of Student Affairs), Lisa Calvente (Communication)
Across disciplines at DePaul, students are asked to engage with classroom material through oral communication. In addition to demonstrating learning, oral communication is a key route by which students form relationships with faculty and peers, as well as develop professional capacities related to their vocational aspirations. However, the standards of “good communication” that many educators take for granted - or perhaps have learned through disciplinary study - may reflect gender, race, class, and ability biases, which are entrenched in our educational and social systems. This round table will serve as a space for educators to engage with difficult questions about how standards of “good communication” in the college classroom are constructed, ways that our taken-for-granted understanding of communication has the potential to exclude or silence, and how we might be more intentional and expansive in our approach to oral communication, in order to create a more inclusive climate in our classrooms and beyond.


Table 3: Unlearning Implicit Bias: How to Make Collegiate Writing More Accessible
Sahi Padmanabhan (UCWbL) and Lexi Skordilis (UCWbL)
As peer writing tutors, we engage with writing across various disciplines at DePaul through our tutoring appointments. In these appointments, we have noticed a large disparity in how students view collegiate writing and how they view their own writing. Our views of collegiate writing have been informed by a long history of academic elitism in American higher education. This assumption that some students have superior knowledge or a more creditable background has been informed by social constructions around gender, race, class, ability and other measures of social stratification. These assumptions often come through in implicit bias, especially in feedback on student writing. In this discussion, we will define elitism as it applies to academic writing, discuss the impact institutional elitism has on our view of student writing, and the influence it has on how students write. Based on our research and roundtable discussion, we will brainstorm potential solutions for making collegiate writing more accessible for individuals of all backgrounds.


Table 4: Designing Writing Prompts for Inclusivity across Borders
Lisa Parzefall (UCWbL) and Lo Hunter (UCWbL)
For students who did not grow up in the U.S. or who are visiting for their degree, it can be difficult to adjust to American academic writing. Many international students have little to no experience in academic writing even in their native language. Therefore, students are not only confronted with a different language, culture, and learning environment, but also experience difficulties in approaching academic writing in the same way their native peers do. While prompt comprehension definitely plays an important role, we suggest taking a step further and looking past the mere linguistic frame of how to write an understandable prompt, but more so to consider what the prompt calls for. For instance, an assignment prompt may require a research paper on the political climate in the U.S. Certainly, a person born in the U.S. has some sort of previous knowledge on this topic because they grew up here and thus, were exposed to a discourse community a student born outside the U.S. most likely was not. The goal of this roundtable discussion is to brainstorm and draft ideas for prompts that motivate students to write because of their pre-existing knowledge despite where they grew up. We believe all faculty can benefit from this idea, and we hope to support faculty in motivating student writers across disciplines.

Table 5: The Importance of Teaching Inclusion in First-Year Classes
Doug Long (First-Year Programs), Georgianna Torres Reyes (Mission and Ministry), Adrian Taveras (Chicago Quarter Mentor)
Issues of inclusion are sometimes new and challenging for first-year students, so it is important to prepare to address them in classes designed with first-year students in mind. Participants in this round table will share anecdotes, concerns, and best practices for navigating discussions of inclusion.

Table 6: Examining Implicit Bias Related to Our Habitus and Habits
Scott Tharp (Student Affairs)
Developing an awareness about how implicit bias influences our lives is important, but alone insufficient without examining our habits and social environment. This roundtable will contextualize implicit bias related to structural social inequality and the ways we replicate these structures in our teaching practice. Specifically, we will discuss how bias manifests itself in our practice, how that is connected to broader structures of social inequality, and identify different habits that simultaneous challenge our biases and the structures that reinforce them.

Join three Quality of Instruction Council faculty award winners for a lively PechaKucha presentation and discussion of teaching values and practices. PechaKucha is a highly visual and engaging format where speakers present 20x20 (twenty slides for twenty second each). Presentations will be followed by a large-group discussion.

Designing Effective and Accessible Assignments for a Global Classroom, Mark Lazio (English Language Academy)
Our students are coming from all parts of the United States and the globe, a wide variety of educational experiences, and a variety of other cultural traditions and languages. In other words: our classes are global, and increasingly so. In this workshop, we will be exploring how we can design effective assignments for all students by considering our course learning goals and how we can present students with tasks that offer them a variety of opportunities and ways of expressing their knowledge and demonstrating learning. We will work with a Universal Design for Learning framework and the understanding that we now have global classrooms to design assignments that effectively engage students and allow them to effectively demonstrate their meeting of the learning outcomes. 

Negotiating Race, Privilege and Identity in the Classroom and Community, Jerica Arents (LAS), Hilda Franco
Are you interested in exploring how your identity influences your facilitation and/or how to establish norms and expectations for classroom and community engagement?  This workshop session will build upon your capacity to engage students in conversations about race, privilege and identity in the classroom and community.  You will engage in, and reflect upon, two experiential activities that support the conditions for dignified conversations, no matter the teaching context or discipline.  Join us to learn about practical skills for supporting a community of learners committed to critical and courageous conversations.

Yes, No, Maybe: Helping Exploratory Students Feel More Included in Classes to Explore Majors and Careers, Ed Childs (Career Center), Stephanie Halaska (Office for Academic Advising Support)
College offers students the unique opportunity to explore and design their future path based on their interests and values. Meanwhile, the idea of being “exploratory” often has a negative connotation with students being reluctant to be thought of as lost or without direction. This sentiment is magnified when faced with parental concerns fueled by media coverage of majors that earn the most or least money for job prospects. However, by encouraging self-assessment and academic and career exploration, faculty are well positioned to help students uncover a rewarding course of study and career path through which they can achieve satisfaction and best contribute their talents. Participants will reflect on how language and assumptions can support or hinder students’ exploration, as well as learn about resources they can share with students. The facilitators will also outline ways of approaching classroom discussions and assignment design that encourage intentional exploration and sound career and academic decision making.

• Grilled Chicken Fajitas (Gluten Free)
• Vegetable Fajitas (Gluten Free)
• Cilantro Rice and Spicy Black Beans
• Corn Tortillas
• Pico de Gallo, Sour Cream, Shredded Cheese
• Cookies, Brownies, Cheesecake    
• Soda 
• Water 

Table 1: Designing Courses for Inclusion
Joe Olivier (Center for Teaching and Learning)
This round table will offer instructors the space to share and discuss how they design their courses for inclusion and access.

Table 2: Statistics Teaching at the University Level: Improving Inclusion and Student Success
David Jabon (CSH), Phil Yates (CSH), Desale Habtzghi (CSH)
Statistics and data analysis courses are part of programs across the university and are often a challenge for students. Lack of engagement and success in statistics courses leads to lower retention in general and to some students leaving their first choice of major program. How do we make our statistics courses more inclusive and more successful? In this round table, we share latest recommendations of the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) which was endorsed by The American Statistical Association. We share methods we have used in our classrooms to promote student engagement and growth. We hope you too will share some ideas you have been using in your classroom so that we can learn from each other.

Table 3: Creating Inclusive Learning Environments through Effective Writing Assignments
Rachel Larrowe (UCWbL) and Hannah Thornby (UCWbL)
Throughout DePaul, writing is a significant component of learning and assessment. Writing is a tool for thinking and processing, a mode of communication with instructors and peers, and a way of demonstrating knowledge. Writing as a means of learning and assessment is not, however, equally accessible to all students, especially when expectations for student work are rooted in implicit disciplinary or field-specific ways of knowing and communicating. As writing center tutors, we have witnessed firsthand that students struggle to fully understand what is being asked of them in assignments across a range of disciplines and levels of study. Our roundtable hopes to pose questions that will guide instructors to reflect on their own writing assignments, particularly ways in which assignments are written that might create unnecessary difficulty, confusion, and barriers to success. Through discussions informed by composition and learning scholarship, we hope to demonstrate the effects of common components of writing assignments, and prompt new thinking about how to create more effective, inclusive writing assignments.


Table 4: The Adjunct Faculty Workplace Environment Committee
Jack Magaw (The Theatre School) and Nancy Lafever (LAS)
The Workplace Environment Committee (WEC) is an elected advisory body that hears, reports and suggests resolutions for workplace issues affecting the lives of adjunct faculty members across the university. The long-term goal of the WEC is to increase trust and inclusion for adjunct faculty at DePaul. Come discuss the issues impacting part-time faculty nationally and at DePaul and learn new ways to deepen relationships with adjunct faculty members.

Table 5: Inclusive Language and Practices in the Classroom from an Identity Centered Lens
Monica Ramos and Johnny LaSalle (Office of Multicultural Student Success) 
When we say that we are trying to provide an inclusive classroom environment what do we really mean? How does that manifest in the classroom? How do we form best practices or better yet daily practices for inclusive rhetoric with an identity conscious framework? This roundtable discussion will provide tools and language that will aid you in establishing and creating an inclusive, welcoming, and affirming environment. In today’s social and political landscape it is imperative that we not only provide a safe place for knowledge exchange and expression but also a space that fosters intellectual social intersections and language that can propel the student experience in and outside the classroom. These best practices can be implemented across disciplines and will honor the individuals in the classroom while also highlighting cultural & social understandings from a critical and intersectional lens.

Workplace Writing and International Writers, Alan Ackmann (LAS), Margaret Poncin (LAS)
The session will begin by describing the creation of WRD 202x, a course on business writing taught by Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse faculty. Like traditional sections of WRD 202, WRD 202x fulfills the writing credit for Driehaus College of Business students, but these X sections are specifically designed for students who are non-native speakers of English. We will cover how WRD 202x came to be, how it fits within the International population of the Driehaus college, how the course was developed and administered, and the specific demographics that it serves. From here, we’ll discuss how WRD 202x incorporates practices that make the course inclusive for students from a variety of international backgrounds, including addressing the cultural and linguistic challenges these students face when writing in U.S. professional contexts. Margaret Poncin, a WRD 202x instructor, will share her experiences with the class, and the work she has done with International students. The presentation will conclude by emphasizing the key transferable insights that faculty teaching other courses can take away from WRD 202x, including an understanding of how to help International students understand business customs and some strategies for assessing writing from International students.


Developing Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences, James Montgomery (CSH)
This session will focus on the design and implementation of Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs), with particular focus on a CURE I have developed in my 300-level environmental science course (ENV 310-Environmental Soil Science). A CURE is a learning experience in which whole classes of students address a research question or problem with unknown outcomes or solutions that are of interest to external stakeholders. CUREs afford students opportunities to make discoveries that are of interest to the broader scientific community or other stakeholders outside the classroom. In this session I will discuss the history of CUREs, including their features and how they are different from other types of lab experiences, the benefits of a CURE to students and faculty, and how my ENV 310 CURE, called the What’s in Your Soil?, has transformed my pedagogy.


Incorporating Open Access into Information Literacy Sessions, Ana Lucic (University Library), Susan Shultz (University Library)
This session will highlight the complex publishing landscape and the implications of it on students and their learning. More particularly, the session will focus on the open access issues and the barriers that various types of paywall and restricted access to information present for all. Finally, I will demonstrate how I started incorporating the complexities of publishing landscape into information literacy sessions.


Curriculum Design and Mapping using Coursetune, Zoaib Mirza (SNL)
Demonstrate use of Coursetune and how it can benefit in curriculum planning and course design.

Creating Space for Diversity in the Classroom or Student Community, D. Scott Tharp (Student Affairs)
Incorporating student diversity in the classroom or student community is challenging for faculty or staff who feel uncertain about the process. However, students bring issues of diversity to these spaces regardless of faculty’s capacity to engage diversity. This workshop synthesizes scholarship on facilitating conversations about diversity to provide specific strategies to proactively make and maintain space for diversity that works with your course or community content. Specifically, attendees will 1) identify proactive strategies for creating space for diversity, 2) identify reactive strategies to help maintain space for diversity, and 3) reflect upon their personal social identities to help them strategically use themselves when needed. This workshop utilizes both mini-lecture and interactive activities to help attendees reflect upon approaches for them to use in their classes. This session should particularly benefit faculty who are looking for concrete strategies to engage diversity in their classroom (including when diversity is not the main topic of the course), staff seeking ideas to bring diversity into their student groups (e.g., student employee teams), as well as faculty and staff who value personal reflection about their own social identities.

If Chicago is our Classroom, then What are We Doing Here?, Gabriele Strohschen (SNL), Sandra Arrington, Rosanna Cordero, Deborah McPhee, Jeff Phillips, Craig Newman
For adult and diverse learners in higher education, being included is of particular significance. They come with individual learning preferences, life experiences, prior learning and skills, and limited time to engage in anything but relevant and meaningful study. They wish to apply what they learn in their professional development by gaining advanced knowledge and skills through higher education and in their personal development by contributing through cultural, social, or civic engagement in service to others. This significance of inclusion aligns to the principles of our Vincentian mission. This session describes and interprets the why and how-to of instructional and community-building approaches within higher education. It shows how to incorporate diverse stakeholders in the design and delivery of teaching and learning within a spirit of inclusion. Students, their mentors, and community representatives delineate approaches they implemented during community-based learning projects (CbLPs) within cross-sector, collaborative contexts. They will share specific methods and techniques facilitated by, with, and for participants in these CbLPs. Materials and templates will be provided for practice at the workshop. 

Reflection to Uncover Knowledge: Opening Students to Open our Curriculum, Erin Workman (LAS), Hannah Lee (Center for Teaching and Learning)
We often think of student learning in terms of outcomes without attending much to incomes—that is, the prior learning that students bring to the classroom, including experiences, practices, and knowledge, all of which are shaped by their “social roles such as those connected with race, class, gender, and their culture and ethnic affiliations” (National Research Council, 2000, p. 72). Students’ prior learning has a significant effect on their learning in our classrooms, as indicated by extensive empirical research on learning transfer from educational psychology (e.g., Perkins & Salomon 1992; Perkins & Salomon, 1992; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine, 2018) and on writing transfer from writing studies (e.g., Reiff & Bawarshi, 2011; Anson & Moore, 2016; Yancey, 2017). Using reflective activities in the classroom provides opportunities for individual students to identify and articulate their prior and ongoing learning for both themselves and instructors. Read collectively, students’ reflective work can inform the ways in which instructors engage all students, helping us to see what students bring to the classroom and whether, and how, they’re integrating new knowledge into their existing knowledge. In the same way learning incomes affect learning outcomes, attention to incomes-oriented activities—such as reflection—makes assessment more profound in its reach during an assessment cycle, rather than just at the end of a term. Our presentation will outline the variety of reflective activities we use in our teaching, starting with a beginning-of-quarter survey to elicit student incomes, as well as ongoing activities, such as various types of written reflection, multimodal reflection, and visual mapping. We’ll then engage participants in considering how they might adapt these reflective activities for their own contexts. By the end of the session, participants will have a variety of resources for understanding, adapting and designing reflective activities to facilitate student learning. 

Aligning Your Teaching Philosophy and Pedagogy: Developing an Inclusive Syllabus for a Global Classroom, Hannah Harris (LAS)
This workshop will introduce the “Dear Student” letter that I write for students at the beginning of each class I teach. The letter serves as a personal way for me to explain my teaching philosophy and my rationale for how I structure each course. Rather than assuming that students will innately understand my teaching style or are knowledgeable about learning expectations in the US, I outline my approach to grading, giving feedback, how I facilitate discussion, and explain how all students can be successful in my course. This letter helps create an inclusive environment because I make explicit connections between my pedagogy and teaching philosophy. In my experience, writing a personal letter promotes an inclusive learning environment that addresses the “hidden curriculum” prevalent in higher education. In the second portion of the workshop, participants will outline the key aspects of their teaching philosophy and pedagogy, draft their own “Dear Student” letters, and receive feedback from other participants about their letters.

Link to Materials: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DodRCyA5qk0UabnwbeStifgVxu6iQIgF9698jnSqF6M/edit?usp=sharing

Calling Up Memories: Supporting Students with Cultural Cues that Resonate, Ruth Gannon-Cook (SNL), Kathryn Ley
We know that interactivity and teacher involvement are critical factors in student success, but this workshop presents how successful instructors can use previously designed online courses to teach and develop unique diverse and culturally appropriate tools in each class they teach. The workshop is conducted by researchers who extensively research student retention, particularly with respect to often overlooked factors, such as semiotic and space factors. The workshop leaders will share how participants can develop a repertoire of culturally appropriate signs, pictures, and stories, to enlist and involve students through each course and monitor their progress to the course’s completion. The workshop leaders present examples of how this can be done and provide participants with tools to involve them in exercises that will help them develop a toolkit of their own for their own online courses.

Helping Students Find Their Voices: Learning Starts Here, Robert Koehler (LAS)
This is a workshop on the teaching of writing by valuing what students know. Its premise is that “beginner’s mind” is the heart and soul of learning. I will employ a process called Free Writing, which I have used with powerful results in many venues over the years, with adults, teenagers and children as young as age 8. Free Writing helps people find, and value, their voices as writers. I will begin by reading a short, provocative essay, then open up discussion to all participants, on such topics as how they found their way into their field, what they have learned from their students, and any other thoughts that come up. After the discussion has gotten lively, we’ll begin writing, with these instructions: Begin with what you’re thinking this very moment and see where your thoughts go. Keep writing even, or especially, if you don’t know what to say. The point is to bypass your internal censor and start surprising yourself. We’ll write for about ten minutes. When time is up, participants will be invited to share what they have written. This is a collective learning process.

Online Delivery of Scientific Inquiry-Laboratory Classes, Mark Potosnak (CSH), Margaret Workman (CSH)
Learn about the potential for delivering online SI-laboratory classes. The SI-lab learning outcomes partially state, “Plan, design and conduct scientific investigations in a collaborative environment.” This workshop explores how this “collaborative environment” can be achieved online. First, results from a pilot online lab class will be presented. Second, participants will work through an online lab using provided materials and a laptop. Finally, participants can learn about what online lab modules are available in their field.

• Popcorn 
• Chicken Teriyaki Skewers 
• Mini Quiche 
• Apple Walnut Crostini with Brie 
• Beef Tenderloin Wellington 
• Ratatouille Stuffed Mini Potato Cup 
• Cookies
• Brownies 
• Wine, Beer, Sangria, Soda, and Water 

Campus Partners

Assessment Certificate Program
The Assessment Certificate Program (ACP) is a workshop-based program designed to provide training and support for faculty and staff engaged in the assessment of student learning. This program is a collaboration between both academic and student affairs and between DePaulUniversity and Loyola University Chicago. All DePaul faculty, staff, and graduate students are eligible to participate in either the entire Assessment CertificateProgram or in individual workshops.

University Center for Writing-based Learning (UCWbL)
The UCWbL is for everyone! Stop by to learn how we can support you as a writer and a teacher of writing. Our five central programs include The Writing Center, The Writing Fellows Program, Workshops, The Collaborative for Multilingual Writing & Research, and Outreach.

DePaul Art Museum
DePaul Art Museum is a dynamic and inclusive space for art and ideas to connect people across diverse communities. Our rotating modern and contemporary art exhibitions and growing permanent collection provide a platform for innovative teaching and experiential learning opportunities. Stop by to discover how the museum can enhance your courses! DPAM is located in the heart of the Lincoln Park campus and is always free and open to everyone.

Scientific Inquiry Domain
Learn about opportunities to teach science in a new and exciting way to DePaul students that are completing their Scientific Inquiry Domain requirements within the Liberal Studies Program.

Study Abroad
Learn how to get involved in study abroad at DePaul by connecting your students to international opportunities or even leading a program yourself.

Adjunct Faculty Workplace Environment Committee 
The Workplace Environment Committee (WEC) is an elected advisory body that hears, reports and suggests resolutions for workplace issues affecting the lives of adjunct faculty members across the university. Come learn about the issues impacting part-time faculty and way to deepen relationships with adjunct faculty members and increase their feelings of inclusion in the university and its mission.

IRMA
The Office of Institutional Research and Market Analytics wears many hats and some of our activities include institutional benchmarking, market research, studies of academic progress and outcomes, survey research, university admission and enrollment reporting, and data management. Come stop by to learn all about IRMA‚ resources, including our website, and how we can help you!

Supplemental Instruction/Student Success
Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a free program that aims to help students successfully complete historically difficult classes (those with high D, F, or Withdraw rates) through weekly peer-assisted study sessions. Learn about SI and a number of other resources available to help students succeed.

Student Affairs
In Student Affairs, we believe in the dignity and promise of every student and their ability to positively impact our world. Through these programs, we strive to develop students into well-rounded individuals who will have a positive impact on their communities and our world.

Office for Academic Advising Support
The Office for Academic Advising Support (OAAS) works with undeclared and exploratory students who are looking to declare or change their major or minor. We help students identify and understand their interests, skills, and academic options. Because we are familiar with all undergraduate programs and advising practices, we can be a resource to faculty and staff who have related questions.

Mission and Ministry
The Division of Mission and Ministry offers a variety of programs and opportunities for DePaul faculty and staff to be inspired by and to integrate DePaul's Catholic-Vincentian-Urban mission into their day to day life, work, and engagement with students.