The College of Sciences Inclusive Design badge recognizes courses and the COS faculty who teach them who have made a commitment to implementing inclusive best practices that accommodate diverse student needs, foster a less stressful learning environment, and help students better understand and meet faculty expectations.
College of Sciences faculty members who have a course approved for an Inclusive Design badge are identified in the UCF Schedule of classes with the course attribute: INCLSVDSGN and will display a digital badge on the course syllabus and Webcourse.
Congratulations to the following NSCM faculty for being recognized for best practices through an Inclusive Design Badge:
Fall 2024:
Michelle Dusseau:
- Communication and the Family (COM4013), Mode: M
- Gender Issues in Communication (COM4014), Mode:M
- Organizational Communication (COM4120), Mode: M
- Intercultural Communication (COM4461), Mode: M
- Social Innovation and Activism (COM4563), Mode: M
- Nonverbal Communication (SPC4331), Mode: M
Spring 2025:
Tim Brown: Broadcast Announcing and P (RTV3601C), Mode: M, ML
Lindsay Hudock:
- Introduction to Public Relations (PUR4000), Mode: M, ML
- Introduction to Public Relations (PUR4000), Mode: W
Renata Kolodziej-Smith: Organizational Communication (COM4120), Mode: W
Suzy Prentiss: Leadership Through Oral Communication (SPC3445), Mode: W
Erik Sand: GameLab: Experimentation, Application, and Innovation in Games (DIG5856), Mode: P
Faculty from the Nicholson School of Communication were recognized for their inclusive design best practices along with the courses they implemented these criteria.
Inclusive Design Best Practices
Practices designed to create a welcoming environment for students with a variety of communication and learning style preferences:
- Students will have the ability to demonstrate their learning in multiple ways. For example, written work, projects, videos, audio files, Prezi, etc. Students may also be able to make choices among several possible equivalent assignments.
- Students will have access to all assignments with due dates the first week of the semester so students can work ahead or plan ahead.
- Students will have at least 5 opportunities for in-class active/interactive learning activities during the semester.
- Students will have options of how they can communicate with the instructor and other students including in-person, virtually, or via email/Inbox or other written communication.
Practices designed to create a welcoming environment for students with a variety of personal and academic needs:
- The instructor will offer flexibility for students’ personal and academic need following careful consideration of its impact on the learning environment for the entire class. The method for requesting such flexibility will be clearly stated in the syllabus. Note: This is different from the course accessibility options that Student Accessibility Services provides.
- There will be no in-class assessments that only occur during a portion of the class period or are unannounced, such as pop quizzes. Such assessments are extremely difficult to accommodate for students who receive additional time for timed assessments. Consider replacing with online quizzes or self-graded quizzes that do not count towards the grade.
Creating a less-stressful environment for students:
- The instructor will spend 5 minutes on the first day of class discussing different learning strategies and encourages students to communicate their needs to the instructor.
No single item in the class (assignment or test) will be worth more than 20% of the final grade. - Students will be provided with an agenda and/or class outline for each class period. For online modules, students will be provided with an agenda for the module.
Helping students understand and meet faculty expectations:
- Students will be provided with granular learning objectives and a list of important concepts covered on each test. For example, module or unit study guides are provided.
- A rubric will be provided for each graded assignment.
- Students will be provided with a one-page executive summary of the syllabus with all due dates and assignments.
- Students will have at least weekly self-assessment opportunities such as non-graded practice assessments, non-graded concept checks etc.
Written by Majdulina Hamed.
Published to Nicholson News on December 6th, 2024.
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