13 Part I: Humanizing Lecture Slides and Course Content
13 Part I: Humanizing Lecture Slides and Course Content
“Online learning has shown me how beneficial recorded lectures really are. Oftentimes, with in-person learning, I have a big fear of missing lecture content or any comments that the professor will make. Any information presented to me in this way feels like a fleeting fact that I have to try my hardest at every moment to catch. Going to the washroom, taking a sip of water, zoning out, or even a longer blink feels like a trade-off between my learning and my natural human functions. Having recorded lectures that I can go back to if I miss something or not understand something the first time diminishes this anxiety.” – Anonymous
In practice, this can look like:
- Reduce the number of ‘new’ scenarios or examples. One research paper describes a statistics course that was entirely about baseball (cool!, and students loved it), except for the final exam, which was about football. Students hated it. They focused on the topic of the example, rather than on the application of statistics. It disrupted their thinking. So, be intentional and carefully curate your examples and connections to the real world. Make sure that they are deep connections, not superficial, so that they ‘hold up’ to multiple references throughout.
- When using pictures or icons, make sure you have diversity represented. Try and find inclusive pictures that resonate with the EDI message you are trying to convey.
- Provide an image description.
- Provide the slides beforehand and add in ‘break’ slides throughout the presentation.
- TAs need to be given paid time to review the slides and teaching notes to ensure they understand the material they are presenting.
- Don’t make creating/sharing/recording lecture slides the foundational time-intensive components of your course – use relevant, quality open educational resources if they are available. It is better to concentrate on the activities and facilitation than creating new content when you don’t have to. There is a great example from a course at Mac: Language, Sex & Gender: built entirely on openly-licensed readings and podcast episodes. Here is the syllabus and podcast playlist.
- When using examples, instead of using just “John Smith”, try using non-white cis names that represents your students. There are examples of this across the disicplines. For example, in anatomy and physiology classes and medical school, the importance of using non-white bodies photos of imagery has been increasingly highlighted lately.
- Make sure sources are up-to-date. It is not fair (nor does it make sense) to include outdated resources while expecting students to use recent sources for assignments.
- Model academic integrity by using information fairly and citing your sources.
- Draw secondary literature / assigned readings from scholars who are part of the same communities that your students are.
- Aim to make readings equitable. For example, if teaching about feminism make sure to include BIPOC femin