Faculty Development Week - Day 2

Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity and Accessibility Considerations in Online Learning Environments

Brief Description: 

The quick shift to online learning, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, introduced a number of new considerations relating to equity, diversity, inclusivity and accessibility (EDIA) in the online learning environment. Many of these considerations go unnoticed, and unaddressed, and in doing so can be detrimental to the learning process. This workshop provides an introduction to some important EDIA considerations in the online learning environment, and facilitates a dialogue about how to address them in design and delivery of instruction with the goal of fostering a sense of community among students and creating more inclusive online learning environments.

Learning Objectives:

• Define and distinguish the concepts of diversity, inclusion, equity and accessibility
• Identify specific EDIA issues that may hinder the development of an equitable, inclusive, and accessible online learning environment
• Become aware of and better understand the frameworks of inclusive teaching and universal design for learning to address EDIA issues in online learning environments.
• Harness inclusive teaching principles and practice responding to EDIA issues in the online learning environment using hypothetical case scenarios.

April 13, 2021 (9am – 10:30am)

Anita Balakrishna is currently serving as the Director, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. Anita is a lawyer and educator with a human rights background. She recently completed her Masters of Education in Adult Education and Community Development at OISE, U of T. Anita has consistently strived to maintain a social justice based practice in all that she does. In the past she has provided legal advocacy, education, and law reform activities alongside low-income and other underserved communities through her work at the Human Rights Legal Support Centre, the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario and the Rexdale Community Legal Clinic. Anita is also a trained yoga teacher and yoga therapist interested in exploring ways to incorporate diverse yoga practices into healing and wellness with individuals, workplaces and organizations.

Krystle Phirangee is an Educational Developer, Assessment and Online Learning for the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus (UTSC). She has a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Sociology, a Bachelor of Education, and a Master of Education in Educational Technology from York University. Krystle also has a Ph.D. in Educational Technology from the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, which focused on the role of community in online learning. She has been a reviewer for several scholarly journals, which include: the Online Learning Journal, the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, the Journal of Research on Technology in Education, Distance Education and Rural and Remote Health. Her research and publications focus on various areas of online teaching and learning, such as fostering a sense of community, social-emotional behaviour, and student-student interactions