Inclusive and Flexible by Design: Open While Disrupted
Monday March 28, 2022 - 3:15 PM to 4:00 PM
Concurrent Session 4

Brief Abstract

Disruption! Not if, but when. This session will build on Daniel Stanford’s "Bandwidth/Immediacy Matrix" to construct a logic model faculty could use to quickly develop inclusive, equitable alternatives when faced with disruption.

Extended Abstract

Context

Let’s face it, every semester has disruption. A student gets sick, you get sick, wildfires, floods, hurricanes, a pandemic - big or small, disruptions occur. While you can plan on disruption you rarely can plan on when or for how long.  After more than a year of disruption, most faculty have experience in delivering instruction in a virtual format. But we are also acutely aware of the potential inequity a pivot to virtual learning can create.  Accessibility, connectivity, and type of device represent some of the biggest barriers that impact all students’ ability to engage in a virtual learning environment. What can faculty do to ensure academic continuity that is also inclusive? 

Our Story to share:  Framing the Conversation

To support faculty’s return to both virtual and in-person teaching for the Fall 2021 term, we developed a template to help faculty devise a Disruption Plan. The template was not prescriptive, but rather provided topics to consider, which included the affordances and limitations of certain virtual platforms from an equity perspective. We included ​​Daniel Stanford’s, "Bandwidth Immediacy Matrix,” as a graphic to guide decision making.  The Matrix presents four Zones ranging from low immediacy and bandwidth to high immediacy and bandwidth with types of technology that fit the parameters of each zone. 

Conversation not Presentation Plan  

For this session, we will facilitate a conversation to generate specific actionable teaching and interaction strategies for each zone in the matrix. Participants will use Padlet to crowdsource strategies. Once strategies have been collected, participants will be invited to ask clarifying questions to further define each strategy, identify potential training and/or technological support faculty might need, and share resources to further support strategies in each zone. 

Then we will facilitate group discussion to consider how instructors might combine items from different zones to create high and low bandwidth and immediacy options to ensure students have inclusive options for learning and interacting with the same content. Ideas and combinations will be recorded on a Google Doc for easy sharing with participants. 

It is our goal, following this conversation, to construct a logic model based on participant contributions that would build on Stanford’s Matrix, providing specific examples and/or strategies for each zone. If successful, this logic model, shared with a Creative Commons License, could serve as a resource for faculty to reference when seeking to construct inclusive and flexible virtual alternatives when faced with disruption.