How Canadian Nonprofits can develop inclusive online learning programs for youth
Developing inclusive online learning programs for youth requires a thoughtful approach that takes into account the diverse needs and experiences of young people. Here are some steps that Canadian nonprofits can take to develop inclusive online learning programs for (hint: and with) youth:
Include Youth in the Program Development Process
Nikitasha Kapoor with Janvi Patel, a youth advisory member.
Engage young people in the program development process to ensure that the programs are relevant, engaging, and inclusive. Youth can provide valuable insights into their needs and preferences. Make sure to invite youth from your community and ensure that diverse perspectives and identities are included. Engaging with youth means getting parental permission when needed, working around their schedules, ensuring access, facilitating a safe space for communication, and making sure all voices can be heard.
Youth input and feedback can be gathered at the point of development but also while they are participating in the program, after they have completed the program and during your evaluating and learning impact reporting phases.
Interested in what youth across Canada have asked for when it comes to learning and education? Read our abridged version of Canada’s State of the Youth report that highlights exclusively what youth say they want when it comes to learning and education.
Overcome Access Barriers
Consider the potential barriers that may prevent certain groups of youth from participating in the online learning programs, such as limited access to technology or internet connectivity. Develop strategies to address these barriers, such as providing access to hardware, software, training and offering offline activities and resources. Don’t forget online activities can also be what create access for those that are unable to engage in person.
A good example of this is the case of Indigenous online education. In the book chapter, Indigenizing Design for Online Learning in Indigenous Teacher Education, Johanna Sam, Jan Hare, Cynthia Nicol, and Leanne Petherick write:
“NITEP is a well-established [online] Indigenous teacher education program that prepares Indigenous teacher candidates (ITCs) for education roles in classrooms, schools, and communities. It offers community-based programming in remote, First Nations, and rural areas of the province of British Columbia, Canada, allowing ITCs to remain at a local field center for the first 3 to 4 years of the program before transitioning to UBC’s Vancouver urban campus to complete their professional certification year of their 5-year concurrent Bachelor of Education degree. This move to campus results in student attrition and impacts on program completion due to family and community commitments, financial barriers, and cultural priorities experienced by ITCs. Review of research suggests that students prefer community-based approaches to teacher education, whereby they can become certified teachers without having to leave their home communities and territories (Whitinui, Rodriguez de France, & McIvor, 2018). In addition, flexible delivery modes, that include online learning, can increase access, participation, and successful completion of coursework for ITCs.”
In some cases, online learning can be a safer and more community-sustaining way to provide learning and capacity building options. The best way to find out if this is the case for your learners is to ask them!
While we’re on the topic of technology. Don’t forget to use technology that is accessible to students with disabilities such as screen readers, magnification software, or voice recognition software.
Use Interactive and Engaging Learning Approaches
Use interactive and engaging learning approaches to keep youth participants motivated and interested. While there is a time and a place for a talking-head, youth can benefit tremendously from active learning approaches that sandwich lectures and games, simulations, case studies, and peer-to-peer learning.
At Pure & Applied, we rely on active learning strategies to design programs for youth and for adults. If you are just getting started with active learning this is an excellent reference from Yale’s Centre of Teaching and Learning.
The best resource for creating inclusive programs, from a learning perspective, is use the Universal Design for Learning guidelines as you develop the program. We’ll go into UDL and pedagogical strategies for inclusion more deeply in another blog soon. Stay tuned!
Use Inclusive and Developmentally-appropriate Language
Use inclusive language that is welcoming and respectful of diverse identities, experiences, and backgrounds. Ask yourself, who are the learners? Consider answering this question in a multi-dimensional way using the following intersectional identify factors:
Race/Ethnicity
Age
Disability
Gender
Geography
Culture
Income
Sexual Orientation
Education
Sex
Language
Religion
With an understanding of your learner personas, determine the developmentally-appropriate vocabulary to use with your participants. This can help to create a safe environment for all youth participants.
Go beyond “appropriate” language and get to you know your learner population. What are their interests? What topics fascinate them? What are the issues that they are facing in their day-to-day? Incorporate these topics and this language to appeal and relate to your learners. A good strategy for doing this is to include an interest inventory in your learner personas.
If you are serving a multi-lingual and/or second language audience, consider integrating bilingual facilitation and content options in both an oral and visual forms.
Provide Accommodations
Provide accommodations for youth with disabilities or other accessibility needs. This can include closed captioning for videos, providing audio descriptions for images, using accessible formats for documents, transcripts, or sign language interpretation for students with disabilities.
Of course, some of this support may be needed on an individual basis. Make sure that your onboarding or orientation process invites participants and their parents to disclose their learning needs. These may go beyond accessibility needs to include resources, space, food, time and support to create the ideal conditions for learning.
Promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Promote and model diversity, equity, and inclusion in the program content, facilitation, and moderation explicitly, overtly, and repeatedly. This can help to create a sense of belonging and connection for all youth participants. One go-to approach to promoting DEI/EDI/JEDI with youth is for facilitators and program teachers to model the behaviour they would like to see from participants.
Your DEI principles should also be in operation behind the scenes of your program, within your organization. Your participants are smart. They will notice if you don’t practice what you preach.
Train Facilitators, Course Instructors and Mentors
Provide training for program facilitators, course instructors, and mentors to ensure that they have the knowledge and skills to create an inclusive environment for all youth participants. This can include training on the learner personas, inclusive language, cultural sensitivity, accessibility, and engaging learning approaches.
Invite program designers, facilitators, instructors and mentors to reflect on their own positionalities, privileges, mindsets and biases and to consider how these might impact how they engage with learners.
Canadian nonprofits can develop inclusive online learning programs for youth that are engaging, accessible, and welcoming to all young people, regardless of their identities, experiences, or backgrounds by putting care and consideration into these 7 areas. Please keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list or the only way to go about this. If you have other approaches or ideas, we’d love to hear from you.
