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Inclusive Reads & Conversations with UWGB Libraries

Find information about this month's speaker and reading.

This Month's Speakers

Alison Gates

February
22
12:00 PM- 1:00 PM
Wednesday

Alison A. Gates holds an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Washington and has been teaching full-time at UWGB since 2001. Her studio specialty is Textiles. In her time here, she has chaired both the Art Program and the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) minor, co-lead the Equity Scorecard Project, and chaired both the General Education Council and Personnel Council. She is currently a member of the WGSS Steering Committee, the General Education Realignment Working Group and the CATL EDI Mentor for Universal Access Design in Higher Ed.

 

 

Lynn Niemi

Lynn Niemi is the Director of Student Accessibility Services a the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay for the past 24 years.  Her passion for access for all started when her brother who had a physical disability was asked to go to a different school district and her parents fought for him to stay in our community.  Designing curriculum so all students have access has become more pertinent and appreciated as Lynn has developed two Canvas Courses:  Designing Accessible Resources for Faculty and Staff and Designing Accessible Resources for Students.  Learning how to use Canvas and providing small ways to make a big difference in teaching and learning has become one of her major focuses.  Her lifelong mission continues to be removing barriers, providing access and being an advocate to individuals with disabilities.   In her spare time, Lynn enjoys spending time with her family and friends especially her new granddaughter. 

Rethinking what students really need on the journey to academic success

Are your students joining you in embarking on an amazing academic adventure, or do they see your class as a traffic jam they need to navigate through, on their way to a degree?

Join Director of Student Accessibility Services Lynn Niemi and Professor Alison Gates as we discuss how different kinds of rigor affect student success in the classroom. Starting with two articles from our list of Further Resources for Universal Access Design in Higher Ed, we will explore the differences between intellectual rigor and logistical rigor, and the ways in which academic high standards can (and should) peacefully coexist with compassionate classroom management strategies.

This is a great opportunity to learn how to balance your course structure with your course content, creating a more inclusive and equitable atmosphere for our increasingly diverse student body. Our goal is to both increase student success and recalibrate faculty workload so that you can spend less time answering anxious questions about assignments, and more time engaging in juicy, meaningful dialogues about content.  

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Accommodations

If you need an accommodation to attend this event, please contact Sarah Bakken at bakkens@uwgb.edu or 920-465-2666. All accommodation requests should be made no less than two weeks before the event. We will attempt to fulfill requests made after this date, but cannot guarantee they will be met

Discussion Questions to Consider

  •  Looking at your own syllabus, and setting aside any mandatory university or System policies, ask yourself what percentage of the information is about course content (intellectual rigor)? What percentage of the information is about your specific course policies like due dates, late policies, attendance, word counts for written assignments, citation formatting (logistics)? Do these percentages reflect your priorities? 
  • How do my logistical policies support students’ intellectual growth? Do they? 
  • How do my logistical policies support my personal work/life balance?  Do they?
  •  If I simplify my logistical rigor, can I increase my intellectual rigor, without ruining my work-life balance?
  • What ways could I incorporate access into my logistical rigor, so that all my students can grow intellectually? (For example, if you edit the amount of text on your slides, could you make up for any lost content in discussion, lecture, or activities?) 
  •  Why am I doing things the way I do them? What would be lost or gained if I focused on flexing my logistics for greater student access? Would more students truly be successful in my courses? In life? 
  • Accessible learning.  How can I build that into my course?  Am I putting more barriers for students with disabilities who are requesting accommodations?
  • What is my purpose for attendance policies?  How is that engaging student and learning? 
  • How do I show reasonable flexibility and still keep to my syllabus? Should I take the time to teach students when and how to request for flexibilities?