URI Educators (faculty, teaching staff, graduate teaching assistants, and postdocs with teaching responsibilities in Fall 24 and Spring 25):

Are you interested in becoming a more inclusive STEM educator?

Are you looking to gain knowledge, skills and have the opportunity to consult with colleagues and explore ways in which you can apply these skills to level up your teaching game this fall? 

Do you want to spend 2 days during J-term brainstorming and receiving feedback about adjustments you can make to your course that will support your students’ sense of belonging in the classroom?

If so, use THIS LINK to apply to this free NSF Funded Inclusive STEM Teaching Project  MOOC and facilitated discussions + this fall. A stipend will be provided for participants through the URI HHMI Inclusive Excellence Award initiative**.

DETAILS:

When? The Inclusive STEM Teaching Project is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) hosted on the edX platform. We will run a Fall 24 course and a J-term to Spring 24 implementation.

Fall 24 into Spring 25 plan:

Part I: Fall 2024. MOOC and facilitated discussions. We will have 2 times to choose from: Wednesdays (12-1:30pm) and Thursdays (1-2:30pm).Week 1 (10/7/2024): IntroductionWeek  2 (10/14/2024): DEI  in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (Module 1)Week 3 (10/21/2024): Instructor Identity and Authority in STEM Classrooms (Module 2)Week 4 (10/28/2024): Student Identities and Experiences in the STEM Classroom (Module 3)Week 5 (11/4/2024): Creating an Inclusive STEM Course (Module 4)Week 6 (11/11/2024): Fostering an Inclusive Climate in the STEM Classroom (Module 5)

Where? The course consists of asynchronous online activities within the edX platform centered on inclusive teaching (the MOOC). To augment the online course, a group of trained URI facilitators will run synchronous in person meetings (location TBD).

The URI facilitators are Dr. Alissa Cox (Natural Resources Science Dept.), Aura Fajardo Grandidge (CELS Assistant Dean of Diversity & Student Success Initiatives), Dr. Indrani Mandal (Computer Sciences & Statistics Department), Dr. Hanan Mogawer (Chemistry Department), and Dr. Shahla Yekta (Chemistry Department).

Part II: OPTIONAL*** J-TERM Implementation days. Make time to incorporate the best practices you’ve learned about through the Inclusive STEM Teaching Project in your course design(s)! 

• 1/TBD/2025: 10am-2pm. Goal setting and implementation mini-workshops
• 1/TBD/2025: 10am-12pm. Peer review and problem solving workshop

Part III: OPTIONAL *** reflection. Due in May 2025.

**Details to keep in mind: Stipends are funded by the HHMI Inclusive Excellence 3 (IE3) grant awarded to URI. Participants in this course will engage in deep reflection and discussions around topics of equity and inclusion in learning environments across a variety of institutional contexts. This Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is designed to improve the awareness, self-efficacy, and ability of instructors to create inclusive STEM learning environments for their students. The activities in each MOOC module are designed to take between 2-4h to complete. URI educators (teaching faculty, tenure track faculty, teaching staff, post doc, and graduate teaching assistants) who wish to join the weekly discussion with the trained URI facilitators will earn a $250 stipend if they attend 5 of the 6 scheduled synchronous facilitated discussion sessions, in addition to completing the MOOC.

***An additional $500 per participant will be available for folks who join the implementation days: $250 for completion of an action plan by the start of the spring semester, and $250 for the submission of a reflection in May 2025 after trying out the course modifications. ALL incentives will be awarded in the summer of 2025.

In an effort to support a broad range of URI educators, we ask that you write a short paragraph to explain why you wish to participate in this opportunity. The stipend recipients will be selected based upon their responses. For stipend consideration, please respond by 5/20/2024.