Participant Readiness: Self-Assessment for Online Learning

Chapter 11: Social Justice Education Online

1. Overall, what is your experience with online technologies (e.g. social media, texting, educational apps)? What are your strengths when it comes to technology? What are some strategies you can utilize to learn the technology needed for this course/workshop?
2. If you have previous experiences with taking classes or workshops online, take a moment to reflect on them. What worked well for you during these experiences? What didn’t work well?
3. As a learner in a face-to-face environment, what are some of your strengths? What are some ways that you can draw on these strengths in an online context?
4. Take a moment to reflect on what it means to be an active and engaged learner online. What does this look like for you?
5. Time management is an important part of success in an online ecourse. What helps you manage your time as a learner? What strategies can be applied to the online environment?
6. Finally, name three concrete actions that you will take this semester/for this workshop to be successful in online learning.

Tips for Successful Online Learning - For Learners

Chapter 11: Social Justice Education Online

1. Connect with other participants in the course/workshop. If the instructor provides time for participants to connect with each other, utilize it. If the instructor does not provide time for participants to connect with each other, advocate for time to get to know other participants, or utilize small group discussions to make connections. Consider using chat applications such as Discord or Slack to communicate with peers.
2. Log into the LMS regularly (note: facilitators can even be more specific about the number of times per week is expected), or if the workshop doesn’t have an LMS, review the materials and communications regularly. If your facilitator doesn’t give you specific expectations about how often to check on course communications, you should ask.
3. Communicate with the instructor, and utilize synchronous face-time with the instructor that is available.
4. Identify specific time-management strategies to utilize for this course/workshop. If time management isn’t your strength, take some time to research time-management strategies and choose several to implement.
5. Self-motivation is a factor for success in online learning. If you find yourself unmotivated, consider some options for self-motivation: write your reflections about why you chose this course/workshop, reflect on your own role in the learning community, or reach out to the facilitator/instructor.
6. Review the information provided by the instructor about how you will be assessed/evaluated in the course/workshop, and be sure you understand it.
7. Be an active participant. When there are opportunities for optional participation (such as brainstorming in the chat, participating in polls, or asking questions), use them.
8. Ask for help when you need it.

Facilitator Self-Inventory for Online Teaching

Chapter 11: Social Justice Education Online

1. Take stock of your organization’s resources. Is there an LMS available to you? Are there other educational apps? Does your organization offer any free trainings on how to utilize these technology resources well? Remember to be realistic about the time you have available to learn new technologies.
2. What free apps are you familiar with that would be useful for online teaching?
3. Take some time to reflect on your strengths in face-to-face settings. What are your strengths? Which of your pedagogical practices transfer well to the online environment? Which ones could be adapted using technologies?
4. What are your own general experience using technology and/or communicating via technology (such as texting, social media, etc.)? Consider the assumptions you have about how people should communicate via technology and how you interpret communications. What do you think this says about yourexperiences? How might your experiences be similar to or different from participants’?
5. When you teach or learn online, what modalities (for example, online lecture, text-based discussion, Zoom meetings, etc.) do you prefer? What does this say about your own learning styles? How might other facilitators or participants prefer to learn online?
6. Reflect on what you think attention and engagement look like online. What does this say about your own assumptions around communication and teaching/learning? What are other ways that participants might show engagement?

SJE Online: Pre-Workshop Survey for Participants

Chapter 11: Social Justice Education Online

1. What experience do you have with [LMS being used for the course]?
2. What experience, if any, do you have with [name any specific technologies being utilized for the course/workshop]?
3. Have you had previous experience learning online? What worked for you? What was challenging for you?
4. When you are online, what modalities work best for you? For example, video chat like Zoom, text-based discussions, or watching videos.
5. What is your experience with technology in general? What technologies (including social media) do you have experience using?
6. What accommodations would support your learning online?
7. What can the facilitator/instructor do to support your learning and participation in this learning community?

Course Orientation Video Guidelines for SJE Online

Chapter 11: Social Justice Education Online

General considerations:

1. Orientation videos do not need to be high tech! The goal is to have “face time” with participants. Using a smart phone or web cam will suffice.
2. Speak as clearly as possible.

Content considerations:

1. Introduce yourself.
2. Give an overview of the content of the course.
3. Explain how the course will be structured.
4. Detail where and how course materials can be accessed.
5. Note any time expectations or due dates.
6. Explain how activities will be submitted.
7. Tell participants how often they should check the LMS or the course materials.
8. List the technologies that will be utilized, and say a little bit about each of them.
9. Explain how facilitators and participants should communicate with each other.
10. You can begin laying the groundwork for explaining the social justice framework.
11. Explain any group guidelines or refer to how the group will collaboratively create guidelines.
12. Consider including some participant self-reflection on the video content, such as asking them to write brief reflections to questions. Reflection questions might include some of the following:
1. What do you notice about this course?
2. In what ways is it similar to your previous learning experiences?
3. In what ways, if any, is it different?
4. What are you looking forward to?
13. If there is a discussion board for general questions, ask participants to post any relevant questions about the course orientation video.

UDL (Universal Design for Learning) considerations:

1. Provide participants with all materials used in the video in advance.
2. Provide transcripts of the lecture and closed captions in the video: students use CC and transcripts differently, and the more information you can provide in the most formats available then the more accessible your course materials will be to all students.
3. Verbally describe any images that are shown on the screen.
4. Describe in text all digital images in slides, if they are used.
5. Be sure the design of the slides and text materials are readable:
1. Using contrasting colors is important.  For example, dark or black text on a white or light-colored background or, alternatively, light or white text on a dark colored background.
2. Avoid putting text over images, which can be difficult to read.
3. Avoid using color as a primary way to convey meaning, for example listing different kinds of assignments in different colors. Colorblind students or students who print a lot of materials (most things get printed in black and white) will not have access to these meanings.

Asynchronous Group Guidelines for SJE Online

Name of Activity: Asynchronous Group Guidelines for SJE Online

Instructional Purpose Category:  Tone setting / developing group guidelines

Instructional Purpose:In teaching social justice education online, it is important to create a learning community among the participants and the facilitators. This community should be a challenging, yet safe-enough space for participants to actively engage in learning about social justice. Creating a space for introductions helps set the tone that everyone in the group matters, and begins to build a cohesive learning community. This activity creates space for the development of community agreements about learning together online. It also should address expectations around technology uses.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Develop community agreements and shared norms
2. Help participants get to know each other and begin creating community

Time Needed:10-20 minutes, depending on the amount of collaborative processes dedicated to the activity.

Materials Needed: An app that allows for collaboration. Google Docs is an easy and free app to do this activity.

Degree of Risk: Low to medium

Procedure: It can be helpful to include some preliminary guidelines for participants. Depending on the amount of time available for this activity, providing a preliminary list can also save time in the overall design.

Ask students to identify guidelines that would help them participate in the learning community. If there is a substantive preliminary list, students can be asked to comment on or reflect on the provided list. Some baseline guidelines might include:

1. Use “I” statements.
2. Share airtime; or take space and make space.
3. Confidentiality (don’t share personal information, someone else’s story, or identifiable markers outside of the class).
4. Focus on learning.
5. Any tech-related guidelines needed.

Facilitation Notes & Considerations:
After a list is finished, include a reflection process for students in which they:

1. Reflect on the process of creating and/or commenting on the guidelines.
2. Consider in what ways they think the guidelines are important.
3. Name contributions that other participants made that they personally find relevant or important. (This circling-back process helps students feel more connected to the group.)

Asynchronous Icebreakers, Introductions, and Closings

List of asynchronous options for online icebreakers, brief introductory activities, and closing activities.

Asynchronous Icebreakers:

Meme Generator:
Having students create and then share a meme in response to a prompt can be a fun and humorous way to check in. Because of the tendency for memes to use sarcasm and humor, we recommend that this be used for low-stakes topics and prompts. A currently available meme generator available is: https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/79793910/All-to-easy

Polls and the Results:
Polling students on a simple question or prompt and then sharing the results from the whole group can both give the facilitator an informal assessment and let participants see the different reactions of the members of the learning community.

Asynchronous Introductory activities:

Introductory selfie videos:
A selfie video is a short (30-60 second) video where participants introduce themselves. They could be asked to share some of the following:

1. Their name (as they want to be called in this class)
2. One thing they’re interested in learning in this class
3. One random thing about themselves--silly or serious. Weird or banal.

Subsequently, they are asked to watch all of the videos and add affirming comments to others’ videos.

Online biographies:
Students can create online biographies for themselves. These biographies can also be done creatively, such as students choosing music or art to share something about themselves. If the group is beginning to get into higher stakes topics, the biographies can include social identity information or information about their social justice experiences. Subsequently, students should read the biographies and post affirming comments on others’ biographies.

Asynchronous Closing Activities:

Though asynchronous learning does not always have an end point or traditional guidelines in the same way scheduled synchronous session and F2F learning does, it is still important to bring closure to parts of the design.

Closing Word Cloud:
Participants can be asked to share a word or phrase that represents their reaction to a part of the design or a take-away from a part of the design. These words/phrases can be added to a word cloud (such as: https://www.jasondavies.com/wordcloud/), and the word cloud shared with the group. To circle back on the process and bring even more closure, participants can submit their personal reflections on the word cloud.

Closing Affirmations:
Similar to F2F social justice education, offering the space for participants to give each other affirmations can be a hopeful and positive way to wrap up a design. Participants can be tasked with giving a certain number of affirmations, and these can be posted in an LMS or in a collaborative document.

Creating Interactive Lectures

Chapter 11: Social Justice Education Online

Overview:

This web resource provides guidance for creating recorded lectures that include active learning components.

Process Considerations:

1. Break lectures into smaller, mini-lectures (5-8 minutes each); or, in longer lectures, integrate stretch breaks or meditation breaks.
2. Overall, acknowledge and engage participants’ bodies in various ways, such as
1. Asking participants to speak aloud in response to the lecture
2. Inviting participants to write brief reflections during the lecture, either shared with the group or privately
3. Asking participants to reflect on their physical locations and/or move their location during the lecture
4. Including contemplative practices such as guided meditations, breathing exercises, or moments of intentional noticing of sensory details of participants’current locations
5. Asking participants to engage in drawing or other types of art during the lecture
3. Utilize collaborative technology for a collaborative activity, such as a Google Doc where students share their thoughts and reactions to the lecture so they can see how others are interpreting and experiencing the lecture.
4. Include self-reflection questions for participants to consider during the lecture, including reflections on readings and on any group collaborative activities.

Universal Design for Learning Considerations:

1. Provide participants with all materials used in the lecture, in advance.
2. Provide transcripts of the lecture and closed captions in the video: students use CC and transcripts differently, and the more information you can provide in the most formats available, the more accessible your course materials will be to all students.
3. Verbally describe all images that are shown on the screen.
4. Describe in text all digital images in the slides.
5. Be sure the design of the slides is readable:
1. Using contrasting colors is important, for example dark or black text on a white or light-colored background or, alternatively, light or white text on a dark colored background.
2. Avoid putting text over images, which can be difficult to read.
3. Avoid using color as a primary way to convey meaning, for example listing different kinds of assignments in different colors. Colorblind students or students who print a lot of materials (most things get printed in black and white) will not have access to these meanings.
6. Ask for a volunteer notetaker to upload their notes to share with the group.

Self-Reflective Learning through Digital Storytelling

Name of Activity: Self-Reflective Learning through Digital Storytelling

Instructional Purpose Category:
Exploring internalized oppression, internalized messages, or implicit bias
Processing / debriefing the process
Exploring privilege

Instructional Purpose:Digital storytelling is the creation of a short video that conveys aspects of the creator’s story using video clips, images, audio, text, or voiceover. These digital stories can reflect their unique perspectives and interests, and offer an opportunity for self-reflection in the SJE design.

Learning Outcomes:
Learning outcomes can be tailored to specific topics, such as a specific social identity, processing the process in the design, or reflecting on internalized oppression.

1. Engage in self-reflection to create a short video that conveys an aspect of their own story

Time Needed:Time needed varies based on the experience participants have had with the technology. Generally, most creators need multiple hours to collect their digital materials and create a video with them.

Materials Needed:
Participants will need to gather their digital materials, which will vary for each individual.

A free, open source app, such as shotcut (www. shotcut.com) can be used to create the videos. Also, many devices come with basic video editing apps that can be utilized, as well.

Degree of Risk:
Medium to high

Procedure:

1. Begin the activity by explaining what digital stories are (either via text or a recorded video) and share several examples. Some examples can be found on YouTube. Be sure to curate them and explain ways that they may differ from how the participants will be asked to do. Digital storytelling does not necessarily engage in social justice, so delineating this for participants will be helpful. As you gain experience with this activity, consider asking participants for permission to use their digital stories in future workshops as an example.
2. Create several prompts to which students can do freewriting. For example, if the digital stories will be about reflecting on participant’s process, you might ask them to write down key takeaways, moments that someone else’s contribution resonated with them, or ways that their own feelings/thoughts/reactions have shifted during the course of the workshop.
3. Have participants create a list of visual images, videos, and/or music that could potentially represent the key parts of their story. Participants should write a script or text for a voiceover, if appropriate for their story.
4. Participants might want to storyboard their stories before beginning video editing. Storyboarding creates a visual representation of the video. There are free apps available, but Google Slides or Powerpoint can also be used, especially if participants have experience with these apps and it will reduce the learning curve for them
5. Give students ample time to create the video after these steps are done. Video-making is detail-oriented and time-consuming.
6. Ask participants to share their videos, and give all participants enough time to either view them all or, if it’s a large group, split them into small groups and have them view the digital stories of their group members.
7. Include an affirmations process where participants make connections to other digital stories and affirm the work that they’ve all completed
8. Finally, include debriefing questions, such as short, self reflection questions for individuals to engage in low stakes writing. For example, participants might be asked about the process of presenting their stories digitally versus in person; their thoughts/feelings/reactions to watching others’ digital stories; what their takeaways are from this activity.

Facilitation Notes & Considerations:
This is a time-consuming project, and might be better conceptualized as a long-term project over several weeks, rather than a one-off activity.

Recommended Materials/Readings for Students:

Recommended Supplementary Materials/Readings for the Facilitator:
Bell, L. A. (2010). Storytelling for social justice : connecting narrative and the arts in antiracist teaching. Routledge.

Name(s) to credit for this activity:

Historical Timeline for Online SJE

Name of Activity: Timeline of an ism

Instructional Purpose Category:

Exploring institutional-level oppression
Exploring cultural- or societal-level oppression
Exploring history
Exploring liberation and social action

Instructional Purpose:This activity allows students to collectively explore the history of an ism.

Learning Outcomes:After this activity participants will

1. Be familiar with the major events and themes in the history of the ism
2. be able to understand the historical context of the contemporary manifestations of the ism.

Time Needed:90 minutes

Materials Needed: Online application for creating timelines, for example www. Sutori.com. If these websites are too steep of a learning curve, Google Slides can be used, and participants can put the slides in the correct order, like a gallery walk timeline.

Degree of Risk: low to medium risk

Procedure: 

1. Have the beginning of a timeline created with several major events related to your ism. This models for the students the types of events that should be added to the timeline. Provide an introduction (text or recorded video) that explains the importance of a historical overview to understand the current practices, institutions, and activism happening currently.
2. Participants are tasked with researching, identifying, and adding to the timeline one major event related to the ism. Give participants specific parameters. For example, consider breaking the participants into groups and assigning each group a particular time period. Give them tips for where to find major events given that historical texts often ignore major events related to oppression. Consider identifying several credible websites they can utilize. Alternatively, you can provide them with a list of general events and task each individual with providing more information about their assigned historical event.
3. After all participants have added to the timeline, everyone should read the timeline.
4. On a Google Jamboard, participants should share their feelings, thoughts, general reactions, and questions.
5. In a collaborative Google Doc table, students should share similarities and differences they noticed between historical events and current or recent events that you’re familiar with.
6. Finally, in a written self reflection, participants should reflect on: Which, if any, of the timeline items have affected you or your family?
7. To conclude, offer students a written or video recorded reflection in which you note how this timeline connects to upcoming activities and topics.

Facilitation Notes & Considerations:

1. Be sure to give participants ample time for each task, and make reasonable timelines for asynchronous workshops and courses.

Recommended Materials/Readings for Students:
Consider assigning short texts about the history of the ism to scaffold this activity.

Name(s) to credit for this activity:
This activity was adapted from : Davey Shlasko and Hillary Montague-Asp Chapter 9: Ableism and Disability Justice

Spheres of Influence for SJE Online

Name of Activity: Spheres of influence for SJE online

Instructional Purpose Category:
Exploring liberation and social action
Developing action plans

Instructional Purpose:
This activity gives participants a framework for understanding their own circumstance and how they might affect social change within their own social circles, interpersonal lives, workplaces, and communities.

Learning Outcomes:After this activity participants will

1. Identify places in their own lives where they can have influence for social change.
2. Identify specific opportunities where they can effect change in their lives.

Time Needed:15-25 minutes

Materials Needed:
Digital copy of the Spheres of Influence handout
A collaborative technology, such as a table in a Google Doc, where participants can share

Degree of Risk: Low-medium

Procedure:

1. Begin the activity by presenting the Spheres of Influence by text or a short recorded informational video
2. For each of the spheres, ask participants to brainstorm strategies for combating the ism you’re focusing on and to share them in the Google Doc
3. To debrief, in a second table (or a discussion board), have participants choose a strategy from the collaborative list and share the level of risk it might have in their own lives
4. As a reflection activity, participants can read how others perceive risks and reflect on similarities and differences compared to their own experiences. Participants can also reflect on the varied actions that are available to them.

Facilitation Notes & Considerations:
Be sure to allow enough time for each part of this asynchronous activity.

Recommended Materials/Readings for Students:
Johnson, A. (2018). What can we do? Privilege, power and difference (3rd ed., pp. 107-134). McGraw Hill.

Cycle of Socialization for Online SJE

Name of Activity: Cycle of socialization for online SJE

Instructional Purpose Category:
Early learning / socializations
Exploring internalized oppression, internalized messages, or implicit bias

Instructional Purpose:Introduces participants to the concept of socialization to understand privilege and systemic oppression.

Learning Outcomes:After this activity participants will

1. Understand Harro’s Cycle of Socialization
2. Be able to apply the Cycle of Socialization to their own experiences

Time Needed:20-30 minutes (split between adding examples to the cycle and reflecting on the cycles)

Materials Needed: Digital handout of Harro’s cycle of socialization figure; technology in which participants can add text to the cycle, such as Google Slides

Degree of Risk: Medium

Procedure:

1. Begin by having participants read Harro’s Cycle of Socialization; alternatively facilitators can create an introductory video that explains the cycle.
2. Next, participants should be assigned into one of four groups, with each group addressing a portion of the cycle: 1) first socialization; 2) institutional and cultural socialization; 3) enforcements; 4) results
3. Each group member should asynchronously add at least one example to their section of the cycle by adding a text box to the slide.
4. After examples have been added, all participants should read all of the examples on the slide.
5. To debrief, participants can join a large group “discussion” on a discussion forum, or participants can do individual reflective writing. Reflections can focus on:
1. similarities and differences among the examples.
2. how change is created, based on using the cycle as a framework
6. Consider doing a reflective wrap-up for students in which you (via text or a short video recording) highlight intersectional examples or issues; ways that we can resist or collude in oppression; and other issues important to your SJE topic.

Facilitation Notes & Considerations:

1. Be mindful that participants in asynchronous settings need sufficient time to complete their examples, and then will need additional time to read other groups’ examples and reflect on them.

Recommended Materials/Readings for Students:
Harro, B. (2018). The cycle of socialization. In M. Adams, W. Blumenfeld, D. C. J. Catalano, K. “S”. DeJong, H.W. Hackman, L.E. Hopkins, B.J. Love, M. L. Peters, D. Shlasko, & X. Zúñiga (Eds.), Readings for diversity and social justice (4th ed., pp. 27–34). Routledge.

Recommended Supplementary Materials/Readings for the Facilitator:
Harro, B. (2018). The cycle of socialization. In M. Adams, W. Blumenfeld, D. C. J. Catalano, K. “S”. DeJong, H.W. Hackman, L.E. Hopkins, B.J. Love, M. L. Peters, D. Shlasko, & X. Zúñiga (Eds.), Readings for diversity and social justice (4th ed., pp. 27–34). Routledge.

Synchronous Icebreakers, Introductions, and Closings

Most icebreakers, introductory activities, and closing activities used in the F2F can easily be used during a synchronous video session, such as on Zoom. This list has activities that focus on engaging participants’ bodies and physical spaces.

Synchronous Icebreakers:

Contemplative practice: Noticing your senses:
Invite participants to notice or write down:

1. Five things they can see
2. Four things they can feel
3. Three things they can hear
4. Two things they can smell
5. One thing they can taste

Debrief questions:

1. What did you notice while doing this exercise?
2. Were some prompts more challenging than the others? Why do you think that is?

What is on your feet?
This light-hearted check-in asks participants to share what is currently on their feet. It brings attention to our physical bodies and grounds us in our bodies by simply asking them to share:

1. “What is currently on your feet?”

Answers can be shared one-by-one verbally, or shared in the chat function.

Synchronous Introductory Activities:

Sharing about your space
As an introductory activity, students can be asked to share details about their space, as a way to ground them physically and also to bring awareness to the differing circumstances and experiences of other participants. Participants can be asked to share some of the following:

1. The geographic area where they will be taking a course remotely
2. Their time zone
3. The workspace they will most often use to join synchronous sessions
4. Things that they can see or hear from their workspace

Synchronous Closing Activities:

What are you doing next to take care of yourself?
The majority of F2F closing activities are appropriate for synchronous sessions, as well. As Zoom (and other video conferencing) forms norms around how we show up on the screen, this activity brings awareness to our bodies and what our bodies need after a synchronous session. This can be accomplished by asking students what they plan to do next to take care of themselves. Because this could potentially be high-stakes for some participants, you can either frame it as asking them to choose something that they want to share with the group, or asking them to write it down and then taking volunteers who want to share.

Common Ground: Synchronous for SJE

Name of Activity: Common Ground  (synchronous) for SJE Online

Instructional Purpose Category:
1. Icebreakers
3. Tone setting / developing group guidelines

Instructional Purpose:The purpose of this activity is to provide participants with the opportunity to explore commonalities and differences around a particular topic and to begin to establish a more personal framework for participants to understand the topic being discussed. This synchronous, online adaptation demonstrates a creative use of currently available video conference technologies.

Time Needed: 15–20 minutes

Materials Needed: List of statements and link to a digital copy for participants

Degree of Risk: Low-risk; varies depending on statements

If conducting this activity via a digital platform such as Google Meet or Zoom, instead of forming a circle and having participants step in/out, have participants turn on/off their cameras or have students use an emoji reaction such as a “raised hand” to “step in” to the circle.

Consider the current process goals for your group and the impact different choices might have. Having students turn cameras on for statements might provide a nice visual. However, not all participants are “camera-ready” (see Chapter 11: SJE Online for more details about accessibility issues around turning cameras on for video chats).  Doing hands raised emoji might feel lower risk or allow more people to participate. In Zoom, it helps to ask everyone to do gallery view.

Before beginning the activity, first ask students to practice responding to a statement that allows everyone to turn on their cameras or raise their emoji hand. For example, the statement “turn on your camera if you are currently on this Zoom call.” This statement would apply to everyone and is low stakes for a practice round.

Explain that as statements are called out, the participants for whom the statement is true will turn on their camera/raise their emoji hand, wait a moment to notice who else also did, before moving on to the next statement.

Depending on the topic, risk level, and group, the facilitator may invite the participants to make up other categories as you go or invite the participants to call other categories that apply to them.

For a list of introductory statements, see the Common Ground activity from Chapter 4.

Specific to SJE online, facilitators can include several statements about learning online or technology usage. For example: 

1. Uses a cell phone regularly
2. Has at least one social media account
3. Has taken a course/workshop online before
4. Enjoys learning online

Thank the participants for participating.

To debrief, students can collaboratively share their reactions to the activity in pairs or small break out groups: 

1. How did this activity feel?
2. What stood out for you?
3. Did you notice any patterns personally or in the group?
4. What did you learn about yourself or about the group from this activity?

In additional to these questions, for online learning, facilitators might want to ask questions about being online during the activity, such as:

1. What did you notice about doing this activity online in a video call?
2. What ways, if any, does it change our learning community’s interactions to do this via Zoom?
3. What did it feel like to do this online? Does it make you feel connected?

Facilitation Notes & Considerations: This activity can be used as a low-risk icebreaker, a medium-risk bonding activity, or a high-risk conversation starter. Gauge your use of this activity depending on how well the group knows each other and the goals of the session. Depending on the issues addressed in the activity, the participants may be asked if they have a statement to add. In some cases, the facilitator may direct the participants to offer only statements that apply to themselves (i.e., ones that they will “step in” for). With high-risk topics of discussion such as gender-based violence, it is not recommended to ask the participants for additional statements.

For medium- or high-risk activities, more debriefing will be necessary. The facilitator may instruct the participants to do a pair-share or small-group debrief following the activity. Additional questions might include: What did you notice as you and others were going in and out of the circle? What surprised you? What was uncomfortable for you? What was comfortable? If the activity is used as a discussion starter, it may be helpful to provide copies of the statements after the activity is completed in order for participants to reference back to them. When doing this online, higher stakes topics may feel different for participants to be online rather than in person, as well.

Online considerations:
Note and draw out participants' commonalities as well as differences. Probe to ask what patterns they noticed about their community. Take the emotional temperature of the room to see if participants are experiencing feelings of guilt, shame, embarrassment or perhaps anger, frustration, and despair.

Recommended Materials/Readings for Participants: None

Recommended Supplementary Materials/Readings for the Facilitator: None

Name(s) to credit for this activity:
Adapted from Chapter 4, Rani Varghese and Ximena Zuniga

Synchronous Annotation Activity for SJE Online

Name of Activity: Synchronous Activity: Annotating Readings

Instructional Purpose Category: This activity can cover a range of topics, depending on the readings used for it.

1. Exploring institutional-level oppression
2. Exploring individual/interpersonal-level oppression
3. Exploring cultural- or societal-level oppression

Instructional Purpose:This synchronous activity uses a social platform (such as the currently available perusall.com) to collaboratively engage the readings. Some annotation apps can be integrated directly into an LMS. Annotation apps offer a way for students to develop their knowledge and reflection skills together on a technology that is not just a discussion board. Large groups can be broken into smaller groups for this activity. Perusall, for example, allows the instructor to choose the size of the groups, and then groups only see their group’s annotations.

Learning Outcomes:After this activity participants will:

• Understand the readings.
• Apply the readings to their own experiences [objectives can be higher or lower risk, depending on where the group process is at the time of this activity].

Time Needed:15-25 minutes (if participants have already read the texts)

Materials Needed: An annotation application, such as perusall.com. There are currently a number of free alternatives available online

Degree of Risk: Low-high risk, depending on the readings and the prompt questions utilized.

Procedure:

1. Be sure to give plenty of time for participants to understand and practice the app used. Consider giving participants a low-risk activity for the first time using the app so that they can focus on learning the technology.
2. Ask students to respond to the given prompts by adding annotations in the readings that respond to the prompts.
3. Make prompts as specific and directive as possible to avoid rote answers.

Provided are some examples of directive and specific prompts to illustrate. There is a range of risk levels in these prompt, as well:

1. Identify and define one keyword in this article in your annotation. Keywords are terms that name important concepts that the author writes about. For your comment, identify a keyword in the text and offer a definition (1-2 sentences) based on some of the following: readings from our class, lectures or readings from another college course you've taken, internet research that goes beyond the dictionary or wikipedia (work to find academic sources or webpages from colleges/universities). Tip: Keywords are not simply words that are interesting, are repeated, or are subtitles. They must be specific to the topic at hand and important to the argument that the author is making. For example, think about the types of terminology we have previously identified. Keywords are similar in that they are related to the topic at hand and they are necessary to understand the conversation (or text).
2. In this annotation, identify something in the text that speaks to you personally and explain how you connect to it.
3. In this annotation, identify something in the text that relates to one of your social identities. Explain how it relates and what you think this says about how systems of oppression work to shape our experiences.

Facilitation Notes & Considerations: When debriefing this exercise, facilitators should find a way for group members to share what they learned from this activity. For example, in a collaborative table in a Google Doc, each participant can share one “take away” about the activity; or, participants can be asked to share low-stakes reflective writing about their reactions to reading their small group members’ annotations.

Web of Oppression: Synchronous for Online SJE

Name of Activity: Web of Oppression (synchronous) for SJE online

Instructional Purpose Category: Choose one or more of the following categories that represent the main purpose of the activity; this is how activities will be cross-referenced on website.
Exploring institutional-level oppression
Exploring individual/interpersonal-level oppression
Exploring cultural- or societal-level oppression
Exploring internalized oppression, internalized messages, or implicit bias
Terminology /exploring language

Instructional Purpose:The purpose of this activity is to digitally create a visual representation of the otherwise overly abstract concept of a social system or culture and the interlocking forms of oppression within social institutions.

Learning Outcomes:Participants will be able to conceptualize and understand some of the ways in which systemic oppressions interlock within social institutions at the individual, interpersonal, cultural, and societal level.

Time Needed:30-45 minutes

Materials Needed: Examples of individual/interpersonal, institutional, and cultural or societal manifestations of singular and/or intersecting oppression(s) that can be accessed remotely by all participants; an application that allows for multiple people to add lines to a digital whiteboard (such as the whiteboard Zoom or a Google JamBoard);

Degree of Risk: low to medium risk

Procedure: Prior to this activity, participants should have completed a reading, informational video, or activity where the levels of oppression have been clarified.

In lieu of throwing a ball of yarn, like in the F2F activity, participants can connect lines within a circle on the digital platform. Participants can then call on the next person, who says their example, connects their line across the circle, as well, to make a web-shape. This continues as each persona share their institutional example of disadvantage, exclusion, marginalization or discrimination.

To debrief, note that the web represents the complexity of systemic oppression and is a visual representation of the abstract concept of oppression in social institutions.

Facilitation Notes & Considerations:
Recommended Materials/Readings for Students:

Recommended Supplementary Materials/Readings for the Facilitator:

Name(s) to credit for this activity:
Adapted from Chapter 4: Core Concepts, Ximena Zuniga and Rani Varghese