Dimensions Of Diversity, Equity And Inclusion: Leading With Care In The Online, Blended And Digital Learning Environment

Streamed Session Blended Equity and Inclusion OLC Session

Watch This Session

Brief Abstract

In this session, we bring together a panel of leaders from across the field to guide participants in an exploration of the various dimensions of care. In the style of a fireside chat, the invited speakers will share prevalent challenges, cases of leading with care across the field, and meaningful calls to action. Participants will leave with new insights and opportunities for collaboration around reimagining our teaching and learning contexts as centered in care that can be sustained well beyond the pandemic.

 

Sponsored By

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Angela Gunder, Online Learning Consortium

Angela Gunder is the Chief Academic Officer and VP of Learning for the Online Learning Consortium. In this role, she is responsible for gathering, curating, and leveraging the intellectual capital created by and disseminated through OLC. Prior to her position at the OLC, Angela served as the Director of Instructional Design & Curriculum Development for the Office of Digital Learning, managing and mentoring the team that builds the fully-online programs for The University of Arizona. Her over fifteen-year career as a designer for higher education informs her instructional design practice, where she leverages her expertise in web design, usability, visual communication, programming, and standards-based online learning. She is an Associate Editor for the Teacher Education Board of MERLOT, and the recipient of the 2018 MERLOT Distinguished Service Award, the organization’s highest honor. She is also the recipient of two Online Learning Consortium Effective Practice Awards for the creation of a framework for personal learning networks, and for the creation of exploratory installations of education technology, respectively. In 2019, Dr. Gunder was named an OLC Fellow for her dedication to service, innovation, and scholarship in support of student success in online learning. Her research interests include open educational practices, digital literacies, narrative in online course design, and emerging technology for second language acquisition. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Fine Art from Fordham University, a M.Ed. in Education Technology from Arizona State University. Angela completed her Ph.D. in Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies at The University of Arizona, where in 2020 she was named an Erasmus Scholar by the College of Education for her commitment to the college, the university and to the community. Pronouns: she/her/hers

Co-presenter: Amanda Kraus, University of Arizona

Co-presenter: Tina Rettler-Pagel, Madison College

Tina Rettler-Pagel is a Faculty member and Chief Online Learning Officer at Madison College, in Madison, Wisconsin. Tina holds a B.S in Education with an emphasis on Emotional Disabilities from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.S. in Administrative Leadership from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has an Ed.D. in Student Affairs Administration from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Tina has completed an Online Learning Consortium (OLC) Online Teaching Certificate, as well as participated in OLC's Institute for Engaged Leadership in Online Learning (IELOL) in 2017. Her research interests include retention and persistence in the online classroom, the success of women of color in online learning spaces, women in higher education leadership and governance, digital equity, and community college approaches to teaching and learning. Tina's hashtags? #Mom #Partner #CommunityCollegeProud #OnWisconsin #A11yAdvocate #OnlineTeaching #Includer #Kindness #Connector #OnlineLearning #TechNerd #Resilience #StrongGirlsStrongWomen #Hockey #Fishing #AnythingSummer #JamMaker #Perseverance #SayYesToNewAdventures #ComeAsYouAre #StartWhereYouAre #ImpostorPhenomemon #Access

Co-presenter: Kate Miffitt, California State University Office of the Chancellor

Kate Miffitt is the Assistant Director of Innovation at California State University's Office of the Chancellor. Previously, she served in different roles in instructional design and digital learning at The Pennsylvania State University. She holds a B.A. in English from Stonehill College and an M.A. in education in instructional technologies from San Francisco State University.

Extended Abstract

One of the foundational tenets of diversity, equity, and inclusion work is care. The pandemic has brought this essential security to bear, providing countless examples of challenges within our current educational practices, systems and environments for providing care to students, faculty, staff, and leaders alike. This current state of affairs reinforces that establishing cultures of care across our field remains a significant need. It also represents an exigent charge not just of those of us committed to change work, but the sum of our community. Care asks us to question whether our values align with the task of supporting the basic needs of others. How do we sustainably build learning and working environments that genuinely work to rectify systems which have resulted in struggle, exhaustion, stress, and oppression? How do we center structural changes with care in mind and not simply efficiency or productivity?

As we’ve discovered, there is no single answer to what care looks like in practice. It requires responsiveness and flexibility and must attend to the unique needs of the individuals in any given community. As such, in this session we bring together a panel of leaders from across the field to share about and explore the various dimensions of care. In the style of a fireside chat, the invited speakers will share prevalent challenges, cases of leading with care across the field, and meaningful calls to action. Participants will leave with new insights and opportunities for collaboration around reimagining our teaching and learning contexts as centered in care that can be sustained well beyond the pandemic.