Skip to main content

Creating Inclusive Pathways Across Modes of Delivery

Originally published in April 2025

In the upcoming year, students will have the opportunity to take classes in additional modes of delivery, shaping whether they will engage with learning and their instructors in person on campus, virtually via Zoom, or through lessons built on MyLS (or all of the above!) in any given term. The addition of alternative modes of course delivery at Laurier builds on long-standing faculty practices that create inclusive and flexible learning pathways, meeting students where they are and supporting their academic journeys to success. 

Watch In Conversation with Marybeth White: Teaching as a Continual Process of Learning

Marybeth White from Laurier’s Religion and Culture Department, recipient of the 2024 Sustained Excellence Teaching Award, shares insights on fostering a student-centred learning environment grounded in compassion, flexibility and inclusive design. 

She reflects on how teaching is a continual process of learning and adaptation, responding to the evolving needs of students through flexibility and innovation. Marybeth shares ways she’s creatively reimagined her course design to focus on essential takeaways and diverse assessment methods, such as quizzes, reflective journals, presentations, and an optional final exam based on a student’s individual learning journey. Grounded in Universal Design for Learning, these approaches provide multiple ways for students to demonstrate their learning. 

Marybeth also explores the importance of creating brave spaces for discussion and shares how she encourages students to engage critically and compassionately with diverse perspectives as keys to growth. Watch the conversation on YouTube >>

Modes Faculty Learning Community: A few takeaways from a year of sharing, listening and conversing

This past year, Teaching Excellence and Innovation facilitated dynamic conversations in our Faculty Learning Community (FLC) on alternative modes of course delivery. We had 59 unique participants from across Laurier join us at one or more sessions to discuss teaching strategies across modes, specifically for delivering courses in Hyflex, In-Person Hybrid and Virtual Synchronous formats. 

A continuum of modes that spans on campus teaching on the leftmost side and virtual teaching on the right. On the leftmost end of the spectrum moving right, there is in person teaching followed by Hyflex, In Person Hybrid, Virtual Hybrid, Virtual Synchronous, and finally Virtual Asynchronous on the rightmost side of the continuum. , Picture

We extend our deepest gratitude to our faculty co-facilitators – Mary Wilson (Faculty of Education), Kevin Spooner (North American Studies), Michelle Skop (Social Work) and Ken Jackson (Lazaridis School of Business and Economics) – for their expertise, experience, and invaluable contributions to shaping our ongoing discussions around best practices in teaching at Laurier!

Here are key strategies and lessons that emerged from the discussions: 

  1. Support accessibility and student choice through Universal Design for Learning (UDL). 
    • Incorporating UDL principles was instrumental for many instructors in supporting student choice, flexible engagement, and inclusive teaching practices regardless of mode. 
    • Support student attendance. Instructors shared how virtual course components in Hyflex and Virtual Synchronous courses have helped to increase overall attendance, allowing students who are otherwise unable to attend in person at that time to do so. For hybrid courses, instructors can leverage opportunities by including virtual synchronous or asynchronous components that best vary learning environments through the week, module or term (for example, meeting on Zoom every Thursday for an in-person Hybrid course offering).
  2. Intentionally integrate technologies best suited for your course delivery mode and teaching practice.
    • Integrate technology or digital tools, such as MyLS, with consideration to the “purposes, values and contexts” of both students and teachers to create a dynamic learning environment (Fawns, 2022).
    • For formative feedback techniques, incorporate polling software, such as iClicker, Poll Everywhere, Mentimetre, or Zoom Polls, to engage students.
    • Set up Virtual Office Hours to increase opportunities for student access to instructors.
  3. Build community and foster relationships between students and instructors and amongst students, especially in virtual spaces.
  4. Consider adopting a human-centred teaching approach to support communication and engagement across delivery formats.
    • A relationship-rich learning environment strengthens belonging, engagement and student success by helping students feel genuinely welcomed, supported through meaningful connections, and challenged through those relationships regardless of the course mode (Felten & Lambert, 2020).
    • For hybrid (in-person and virtual) courses, consider how best to balance the synchronous and asynchronous parts of your course and clearly communicate your expectations so students know when to show up in person and when to connect with you and the course materials through virtual synchronous and asynchronous engagement.
    • Promote Positive Communication and Collaboration with and between students, including setting clear expectations for respectful and engaging communication, so students can build meaningful relationships that help support their learning and enrich their academic journey.
  5. Create more participatory lectures to engage students, especially in courses with virtual synchronous course components.

For further ideas or starting points, check out the Flexible Approaches to Teaching page in this Guide.

 

 

Back to Top | Read more Teaching Together Bulletins

Unknown Spif - $key