Building Community and Inclusion Using Online Legal Education
July 24, 2024
The focus of this workshop was to explore ways to promote a robust culture of community and inclusion in an online course. The participants all had vast experience in teaching in a variety of online modalities. The discussion was divided into three periods: before class starts, during class and after class. Before the class starts, steps taken included introducing the topic through an email or a video to the class, inviting students to share something about themselves via a post, capping the class size to a small class and/or dividing the class into smaller cohorts or teams. During class, many instructors established rules on how to address each other respectfully, encourage students to adopt positions not in alignment with their own values, require students to seek out other students and interact with each other, and establish netiquette guidelines for online discussion posts and other virtual interactions. Most professors required webcams to be turned on absent a health or other issue, though a few professors adamantly were webcam optional as a way to foster inclusivity. After and outside the classroom space, many professors would send encouraging comments or otherwise communicate to students who made insightful comments in class. Staying logged on after class to continue to answer questions was a common technique. Meeting regularly with class representatives to identify issues was also utilized as was assigning TAs to the class to be another contact that is less intimidating than approaching the professor. Many instructors said they tried to attend the virtual events that were available to online students to allow the students to engage in a non-classroom environment. Finally, many instructors stressed the importance of having flexible office hours and being willing to meet at hours that are after the typical work-day as many online students work during the day themselves.