The Access working group is pleased to present the following summary of work-to-date related to the Provost’s charge letter of 10 November 2022.
The group has been busy translating barriers to access into potential policy changes and pilot projects. We have identified more than a dozen high-impact projects across a wide range of areas including accessibility, use of in-person spaces, curricular changes, and online / hybrid modality adjustments. We have been discussing these ideas with a wide variety of stakeholders across the university to further refine them, assess their viability, and recruit willing partners to assist. Some of the projects lend themselves to continued action by this working group, while others will require Provost approval and funding in order to move forward. The full list of potential projects is attached to this report in spreadsheet format. A short list of project groups are presented below.
Our April meeting will be devoted to further discussion and refinement of proposed policy changes and pilot projects. We will also use this time to re-form into smaller groups around specific projects on which we can make progress this academic year. Also in April, we will be presenting some of these initial recommendations to the leadership teams at UW Bothell and UW Tacoma, the UW Seattle Registrar, and the Chair of the Faculty Senate.
Potential projects
Accessibility
- Accessible course design barriers study
- Accessible course design grants
- Additional faculty training for accessibility and accommodations
Curriculum
- Offer more sections of “bottleneck” courses
- Departmental audit of course prerequisites
- Better information resources for students on major options
- Expand information about and opportunities for experiential learning
- Create policy for course activities outside of scheduled meetings
- Study alternative course scheduling arrangements
Online / hybrid / HyFlex
- Revise UW online / hybrid policies
- Offer course and program modality consulting for departments
- Increase faculty support for online / hybrid teaching
- Develop clear definition of HyFlex
Space
- Increase classroom resources to support HyFlex modality
- Create outdoor classrooms and promote outdoor instruction
- Develop alternative procedures for time scheduling
- Pilot for a central room reservation system for small spaces and conference rooms
| Project Name | Focus | Problem / User Statement | Brief Summary of Strategy | Measurable Outcomes (Immediate) | Broader Implications (Medium- Long Term) | Required Resources | Anticipated Cost ($, $$, $$$) |
| Accessible course design barriers study | Accessibility | Lack of information about barriers to designing courses for accessibility at UW | Survey faculty about experiences, needs, and challenges around designing for accessibility | Identification of barriers to implementing accessibility to support data-driven interventions and resource prioritization | Increased focus on faculty- identified levers of change to promote accessibility | ADA Coordinator time; TA or RA support for survey design and data analysis; materials for distribution and incentivizing responses | $ |
| Accessible course design grants | Accessibility | Most courses are not designed in intentionally accessible ways; designing or redesigning accessible courses requires substantial time, energy, and resources | Offer mini-grants and/or course release support on a competitive basis with priority for teaching faculty; build cohorts of colleagues working to design accessible courses | More courses that center accessibility throughout curriculum; opportunities for faculty to learn from and with one another | Developing a culture of intentional course design for accessibility across tri-campus | Funding for mini-grants and/or course releases; administrative selection of grantees and organization of grantee gatherings | $$ |
| Faculty training for accessibility and accommodations | Accessibility | Many faculty lack knowledge about responding to accommodation requests, interacting with DRS, requesting their own accommodations, or designing for accessibility | Partner with entities such as Faculty Fellows, CTL, or other teaching units to offer training and resources | Increased awareness of accessibility and accommodations among faculty | Increased faculty engagement with DRS; more courses designed for accessibility; increased student success | Training development resources; CTL; Tri-Campus DLA; Faculty Fellows | $$ |
| Offer more sections of “bottleneck” courses | Curriculum | Inability to access bottleneck courses hinders student progress | Identify bottleneck courses; provide incentives for faculty to offer additional in-person and online sections of bottleneck courses | Increased enrollment in bottleneck courses | Increased access to major and prerequisite courses; decreased time to degree; increased focus on alternative delivery methods | Dawgpath data on bottlnecks; data from advising; faculty training; departmental buy-in | $$$ |
| Departmental audit of course prerequisites | Curriculum | Lingering prerequisites prevent access to high-demand courses | Work with departments to evaluate goal of prerequisites; reevaluate what students need to know to be successful in course | Increased ability for students to register for high-demand courses | Shorter average time-to-degree for students | Data on current courses offered; consulting time with curriculum experts | $$ |
| Better information resources on major options | Curriculum | Undergraduate students lack information about the value of different majors (beyond what is “popular”) | Resources more widely available in a variety of formats | Better-informed choices by students about majors | Reduced pressure on capacity- constrained majors; increase in first-choice majors | Current data on majors: admissions, enrollment, student:instructor ratio, pathways, credit hours, etc. Institutional resources for messaging to students. | $ |
| Expand information about and opportunities for experiential learning | Curriculum | Undergraduate students place outsized emphasis on their major | interdisciplinary high-impact practices could be expanded | participation in undergrad research, service learning, hackathons, competitions | expanding “out of classroom” research and internships for students | campus-community and public- private partnerships; cross- listing courses for interdisciplinarity; research grants | $$$ |
| Create policy for course activities outside of scheduled meetings | Curriculum | Students are often forced to decide between mandatory field trips, volunteer work, seminar attendance, and their scheduled coursework | Create policy about scheduling field trips and other course activities outside of course meeting times | Reduced instructor/student conflict; fewer instances where students have to miss one course for another | Faculty have a better way to communicate course modality; students have clearer expectations of course expectations | FCTL or other faculty councils, Registrar | $ |
| Study alternative course scheduling arrangements | Curriculum | Quarter system and conventional scheduling not conducive to some disciplines and topics | Talk to faculty currently following other schedules (pre- fall, spring break, post-spring trips), satellite facilities; encourage alignment between scheduling and course topics | Better alignment between course content and instructional methods (e.g., studying organisms during their growing season; visiting field sites) | Experiential learning enhances diversity | Data gathering (e.g. time to degree, student uptake); Survey (of student satisfaction) | $$ |
| Revise online / hybrid policies | Online / Hybrid | Schools, departments, and faculty members are unclear about UW policies for online and hybrid courses; relevant poicies are outdated | Collect and revise online / hybrid policies | Increased clarity in decision making; less friction in distance learning approval process | Increase in student access to hybrid / online course sections | New working group; Registrar; Multiple faculty councils | $ |
| Modality consulting for departments | Online / Hybrid | Determining the mix of online / hybrid / on-ground courses offered in a school or department would benefit from consultation with program design experts | Provide on-demand consulting by experts in program design and course modality to departments and curriculum committees, using UW and national data as guidelines | Informed strategic decisions on modality mix to best serve students | Data collection on student preferences and needs in modality mix; Intentional use of modality to drive intended program outcomes | Access to UW and national data on student preferences and benchmarks; Experts in program design available for consultation | $$ |
| Faculty support for online / hybrid teaching | Online / Hybrid | Faculty members struggle to find effective support for building high-quality online / hybrid courses | Inventory training opportunities; offer centralized instructional design support | Increased faculty awareness of online / hybrid best practices and support structures | Additional high quality online / hybrid courses developed across the university | Tri-Campus Digital Learning Alliance; instructional designers | $$$ |
| Define HyFlex | Online / Hybrid | Confusion between HyFlex and hybrid | Establish working definition of HyFlex that distinguishes it functionally from hybrid | Number of courses using either “hybrid” or “HyFlex” in Time Schedule | Faculty have a better way to communicate modality; students have clearer expectations of what to expect | FCTL, Registrar, FCAS meetings and discussion | $ |
| Classroom resources to support HyFlex modality | Space | Existing classroom spaces lack technologies for effective Hyflex instruction | Implement technology resources in classroom spaces to support HyFlex instruction; pilot a set of HyFlex offerings | Increased number of classrooms support a HyFlex course modality; increased positive sentiment about HyFlex instruction from instructors and students | Pilot program evaluates what works and what needs to be improved in HyFlex instruction | Disability Studies Program, Student Disability Commission, Office of Inclusive Design; UW IT; Tri-Campus DLA; funding for classroom tech | $$$ |
| Create outdoor classrooms and promote outdoor instruction | Space | Outdoor spaces underutilized for educational purposes; some content is more appropriately covered outdoors | Add infrastructure to support outdoor learning, including weather-resistant furniture (whiteboards, seating); create policy to encourage outdoor instruction; time schedule code for outdoor courses | Stronger connections between coursework (science, art, etc) and local environment; increased use of UW grounds, both on/near campus; better alignment between course content and instructional context | Increased number of students getting outdoors during courses; celebration of unique learning environments; increased creativity around on- campus field courses; increased student and faculty well being | Mobile infrastructure; Registrar; faculty councils | $$ |
| Develop alternative procedures for time scheduling | Space |
Current time schedule and room owenrship policies and procedures may not be able to capture flexibility provided by increased remote offerings. Current MOU and room ownership policies may impede adoption of new modalities |
Create a task force with participation from key offices to study how other universites accomplish room scheduling demand and establish cost, timeline, and ownership options to upgrade current system | Better alignments of course room requirements and physical infrastructure available | UW funds for classrooms spent in data-informed ways; chronic underfunding for teaching infrastructure partially addressed | Participation and buy-in from key offices: Time Scheduling, Academic Technologies, UW-IT | $ |
| Pilot for a central room reservation system for small spaces and conference rooms | Space | Students participating in remote and on ground courses will need equitable access to spaces to complete online coursework while on campus | Coordinate the existing space inventory with UW-IT to find already existing spaces that could serve this purpose but are absent from current directories/lists, then create open door policies or tie into existing room reservation tools | Increased adoption of synchronous remote teaching and learning and students able to move between in-person classroom settings and remote learning quickly and easily | Increase remote / hybrid culture and encourage mixed course scheduling by students; potentially increase enrollment or success of non-traditional students | Buy-in from department chairs and Deans, updated space use guidelines from facilities; analysis of least used rooms on campus and why; potential renovations of space | $$ |