Is the technology we use in our classroom dehumanizing us and our students? Digital technologies can be distracting, have embedded racially biased decision making, lead to problems with cheating, and guide us into less complex teaching approaches. Those same technologies can also allow us to access people or resources from around the world. Most importantly, they are a fact of our living and learning lives that aren’t going away. The humanizing digital learning micro-program takes these conflicting realities as a starting point and uses the best available research and practices to reduce the dehumanizing impact of the digital while also focusing on the ways the digital can support a more human-centered classroom.

This micro-program consists of six courses that address the issues of humanizing learning from a variety of perspectives. The introductory course establishes some common language and identifies many of the challenges that will be addressed in the program. The next four courses address humanizing from the perspectives of student engagement; assessment; the technology itself; and EDI, accessibility, decolonization, and Indigenization. Following completion of the Introductory course, participants will be assigned a facilitator for the capstone course. This involves the participant choosing a specific project (a syllabus, an ebook, a complex assignment) and developing it for use in their own classes and working on that project throughout the program.

You can take each course as a stand-alone microcredential (eg. Humanizing Technology.) All courses are required for attaining the full micro certification. Participants will be expected to complete the Introductory course at the beginning of the credential and finish the certification by completing the capstone project. All other courses can be taken in any order as they are offered.

A series of technical workshops will be offered at the same time as this certificate to support development of a variety of skills.

Each course will run over four weeks, with one 2-hour synchronous online session each week, as well as opportunities for formative assessment. Participants will be expected to attend each session and engage with the material and assessments in order to achieve certification.

Audience: Faculty, staff, sessional instructors, and students with teaching responsibilities.

For more information on the program, visit the Humanising Digital Learning site, contact the Office of Open Learning by email: openlearning@uwindsor.ca or visit the team on the second floor of the Centre for Engineering Innovation (CEI) building at the 700 California entrance.