When the Stars Align: How to Build a DEI-Forward Framework and Operationalize it for Online Teaching and Learning

Abstract

A task force at Appalachian State University recently developed a Teaching Quality Framework that articulates the values of its institutional mission and vision as focusing on providing a transformative educational experience. The leadership of the campus teaching and learning center is now operationalizing the framework. This talk covers the impetus, design and implementation of the framework, and you’ll leave with a number of inclusive, evidence-based strategies for your center’s approach to online teaching and learning. 

The new Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning for Student Success (CETLSS) at Appalachian State University is centering its professional development efforts on the DEI-forward Teaching Quality Framework (TQF) that developed over a two-year span with faculty input from each college on campus. The kicker was that, once the framework was finalized, it got the blessing of our faculty senate as well as the buy-in of high-level administrators, enough so that, as our new center was being “born” this summer, the framework became our foundational document, with all units being aligned to it.  Now that the framework has been adopted by Academic Affairs, and specifically CETLSS, work is being done to align and operationalize the framework within the online teaching and learning space.

This presentation is focused on describing the process of designing and developing the core values, the growth guide, and the reflective components of the new framework and the process of gathering broad engagement from around campus with a faculty team to craft the final version. We will then describe the process of operationalizing the framework as the center lifted off in Summer/Fall 2022. We’ll offer inclusive, humanized, trauma-informed strategies to build toward humanized online learning that is aligned with DEI principles, in addition to a description of how to create and build buy-in for a framework customized to your campus.