Early Bird

Improve online teaching while learning about anti-racist pedagogy

Center for Teaching, Learning and Design and Office of Diversity and Inclusion to offer ACUE Effective Online Teaching Practices course.

By Meredith Flynn, Ph.D.

August 3, 2020

Metropolitan State University of Denver faculty members are being critically impacted by racial and public-health crises. The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing faculty to shift the way most of our courses are delivered, while the systemic-racism crisis is forcing us to question what we can do to uproot racism from our classes.

The Center for Teaching, Learning and Design is partnering with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to offer faculty members a yearlong opportunity to meet this moment by improving their online teaching while at the same time learning about anti-racist and inclusive pedagogy through enrolling in the ACUE Effective Online Teaching Practices course.

The course empowers faculty members to be impactful online instructors, teaching them to implement online teaching practices that promote student engagement, persistence and academic success. In addition, faculty members will make connections among topics in the ACUE course and research in inclusive and anti-racist pedagogy as well as discuss ways to incorporate these pedagogies – which are applicable to all courses and disciplines – in their classes. Meetings held throughout the year will include discussions with practitioners of anti-racist and inclusive pedagogy who will be invited to share with the faculty their knowledge and experiences.

Courses that incorporate inclusive and anti-racist pedagogies have been shown to improve the performance and retention of students from diverse backgrounds. In the article “Antiracist Pedagogy: Definition, Theory and Professional Development,” Alda Blakeny states, “If indeed the purpose of public education is the production of democratic citizenry, then the implementation of Anti-Racist Pedagogy serves to counteract the catalysts that persist in perpetuating racism and its negative impact in education.”

MSU Denver faculty members are invited to apply for the ACUE Effective Online Teaching Practices course by Sept. 1. The course begins with a virtual two-hour Course Launch, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 11 from noon-2 p.m., and runs through the 2020-21 academic year. All full-time faculty members, including tenured, tenure-track and Category II, may apply. The application is also open to affiliate faculty members who have taught at MSU Denver for more than one year and will teach at least six credits during the fall semester. Participants commit two to three hours per week to the course.

Please contact Meredith Flynn, Ph.D., associate director of teaching and learning, ACUE facilitator, with questions. To learn more about the ACUE program, preview any of the 25 modules.