• Assess students’ equipment and connectivity to ensure access.
  • Assess your students' access but also open the discussion for questions about other potential supports that may be necessary and identify needs for adapting based on individual circumstances.
  • Be prepared to connect to student support resources locally and at the institutional level.
• Consider access to resources necessary for course activities and assignments.
  • Asynchronous learning opportunities generally support the broadest range of circumstances.
• Check on any needs for accommodation due to disability.
  • Proactively work with SDAC and review CTE information about digital accessibility.

• Be sensitive to variations in social context (where the learning is to occur, especially if synchronous (e.g., home activity, shared bandwidth, time zone).
  • Managing Student Anxiety infographic.
• Be sensitive to disparate life situations and the impact of covid on students (e.g., financial resources, family responsibilities).
• Have a communication plan for teaching through times of disruption.

Consider consultation with the UVA Center for Teaching Excellence.

• Provide more structure and communication rather than less while allowing more flexibility rather than less.
• Revisit learning outcomes and assessment criteria in the environment.
• Communicate frequently.
• Request feedback regularly.

Create an authentic learning environment.

• Review the UVA Acts First Days checklist and First Days toolkit.
• Building Inclusivity Awareness in Online Teaching infographic.

• Mutually set expectations for how we will interact with one another.
  • Through a first group discussion/chat activity, put up a basic set of class norms and seek input to have people clarify what that means for them and what they would add for norms for this class.
  • Use these Discussion Guidelines as a potential starting point.
  • Include expectations for confidentiality.
• Articulate and reinforce School of Nursing values (“We are a community of compassion and respect…”).

• Get to know one another on a human level.
• Build trust and rapport through authenticity.
  • Allow room for Brave Space, underscoring mutual respect and goodwill. Definitions and historical context of safe spaces and brave spaces.
  • Invite everyone into the process.
  • Model and affirm anyone who speaks.
  • Create a space where diversity is affirmed.
• Faculty - share self as a person, learn who is in your class.
• Allow people to be their true selves, acknowledging that we all have multiple, intersecting identities.
• Use names when possible, preferred pronouns.
  • Offer opportunity to include these in individual’s Zoom name. You can do this by clicking on “Rename”. Always an invitation and not a requirement.
• Recognize the moment-- do not pretend that the “outside world” does not come into the learning environment.
• Anticipate, acknowledge, and balance the emotional with the cognitive components of learning in this moment and environment.

8. Build community by building connections (between students and faculty; between students). Beyond access and the features of technology to be used in the class, a significant focus should be how to build relationships at a distance.

• 5 Strategies to Build a Sense of Community in an Online Learning Environment infographic:
  • 5 Strategies to Build a Sense of Community
• Make students active participants in the learning process. Draw upon the knowledge and experiences of participants and the intergroup dynamics.
• Foster belonging.
  • 9 Ways to Create Belonging in a Virtual Classroom infographic.

Review course content, activity, assignments.

• Consider diverse ways that learning objectives can be met.
• Invite co-creation of assignments, readings, discussions, etc.

• Too little structure may leave some students behind
• Structure small group discussions and activities with clear instructions, expectations, and oversight
• Proactively introduce a process to address breaches in inclusivity that occur in the online context
  • HEALS model
  • Interrupting Bias: Calling Out vs. Calling In
  • Microaggressions, Ouch & Oops
• Maintain a growth vs. a deficit mindset about students
  • Fixed vs. growth mindset