Well-Rounded Course Access: Accessibility and Inclusion in Online Learning

Drawing on the Universal Design for Learning (Meyer et al., 2013; Rose & Meyer, 2002), Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995), and Technology Use for Equity (Pollock, 2016), we will contribute a sustainable framework for inclusion and equity for online learning. We will be building upon an approach developed during the COVID-19 pandemic to support teachers in developing inclusive and equitable practices while engaging their students in rigorous learning experiences grounded in the standards (Price et al., 2021).

There will be three phases for these contributions: 1) Model Materials Design, 2) Pilot Teacher Capacity Building, and 3) Scale and Sustainability Advancement. The first phase, Model Materials Design, will result in the development of two sets of materials and resources. The first is model lessons and activities based on the catalog of online courses being built across grade levels and subject areas that can be integrated into the overall project structure. The second phase involves working directly with the teachers involved in the project to build their capacity with respect to equity and inclusion in online learning. Teachers will be led through ongoing experiences to deepen their understandings and practices of inclusive and equitable learning and teaching in terms of their dispositions, decisions, relationships, policies, and technologies through a communities of practice approach (Au, 2002; Kirschner & Lai, 2007; Wenger, 1999). The third phase will involve preparing for this approach to equity and inclusion in online courses to be integrated into the course materials as stand-alone modules for teachers or as annotations and activities in the courses themselves.