Small Changes, Big Impact

Small Changes, Big Impact Workshop

Small Changes, Big Impact Workshop Series

Small Changes, Big Impact (SCBI) is a set of workshops on inclusive and equitable teaching practices that have also become one of EPIC’s signature inclusive teaching initiatives. See below for our past workshops on a range of topics.

TILT Discovery: February 2019
Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) focused on how and why students learn course content. This workshop introduced instructors to the TILT method through small but impactful interventions on assignment design. Workshop participants revised low-and high stakes assignments that promote equity and student accountability for their own learning.

TILT Deep Dive: May 2019
Focusing on relatively small modifications to course design, this workshop helped instructors reconfigure an entire course using the TILT method. Workshop participants learned to revise a syllabus and develop a set of informal tools to check for student progress while empowering students to assess their own mastery of course materials.

UDL Discovery: February 2019
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) empowers students from diverse backgrounds to actively participate in their courses and more effectively interpret and apply their learning in a collaborative setting. This workshop is to learn the fundamentals of universal design for higher education and develop a set of five best practices.

UDL Deep Dive: May 2019
Workshop to discuss how to redesign a high and low stakes assignment so that they align with best practices for students, especially transfer and historically underrepresented undergrads, in public research universities.

Assessment Discovery: February 2020
SCBI Discovery workshops are designed to provide an overview of best teaching practices for each of the equitable teaching approaches we feature. The Assessment Discovery workshop provided participants with an interactive experience and an introduction to common assessment techniques in the Humanities, including: rubrics, peer review, essay feedback, rubric design, and student evaluation. Participants also explored novel assessment techniques for intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, including self-directed feedback, real-time feedback, and use of A/V tools for multimodal feedback, and gamification. Finally, participants were given the opportunity to refresh one assessment piece and left the workshop with a toolkit for modifying assessment practices in the future.

Transparent Teaching for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: March 2020
The Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) Workshop, in collaboration with Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion, Jenny Sharpe, allowed faculty to make small but impactful changes to their assignment design for achieving transparent teaching, a proven approach to instilling self-confidence in and ensuring the success of historically underserved and underrepresented students.

Language Instruction Ask Me Anything (AMA): May 2020
As a way to maintain a community around teaching during the challenging transition from in-person to remote teaching, EPIC hosted an informal gathering for language instructors. Led by Dr. Gyanam Mahajan, one of EPIC’s new faculty leaders and lecturer with the Asian Languages and Cultures Department, our goals were to provide a space for language instructors to gather and ask burning questions on remote language instruction. Participants were able to send questions on remote teaching in advance of the event. We then curated the questions and those that were most asks were then answered by Dr. Mahajan during a live Zoom session. Participants were also given the opportunity to ask additional questions and to discuss the challenges they’ve encountered during the quick transition to remote teaching.

Becoming an Anti-Racist Language Educator: January 2021
This workshop, led by Dr. Mahajan, engaged language educators in reflecting on their own experiences and perspectives on BLM and related social justice issues, and provided a guide to inclusive and sensitive pedagogy to use in a foreign language classroom. The workshop was divided into three main parts: Acknowledging BLM, Anti-Racism and Allyship, and Activism and Action.

Clipping a Clip: How to Embed Short Clips to Lecture Notes: March 2021
Andrew Jessup, the Lab Operations Coordinator of UCLA Humanities Technology, led this workshop to help instructors learn how to use Adobe Premiere Rush in order to edit video clips and embed them in lecture notes or PowerPoint presentations. Participants learned about video editing, how to add voiceover to clips, and even how to do picture-in-picture.

Improvising the Classroom: Multimodal Strategies for Active Learning: October 2021
This workshop was designed for instructors who wish to incorporate active learning activities to help students achieve their learning outcomes and create a more engaging learning environment. Drawing on theories of Universal Design Language (UDL) principles–a pedagogical framework founded on principles of accessibility and inclusion–workshop participants were introduced to different strategies for active participation that can be easily implemented in class with minimal preparation either synchronously or asynchronously. Access a recording of the workshop here.

Using Video to Enhance Classroom Learning: February 2022
This workshop was designed for instructors who wish to incorporate video and other forms of media in their teaching. Participants learned how to supplement existing course content by incorporating video, as well as give students more opportunities to create media for their assignments, help build upon their background knowledge on a topic, and promote critical thinking in content-related activities. The workshop also demonstrated language classroom video activities for language instructors specifically and showed how they can be used in the three modes of communication. These strategies drew on theories of active learning, universal design for learning (UDL), and Task-Based Language Teaching (TBL). Access a recording of the workshop here.

Ready, Set, Teach! Undergraduate Panel: September 2022
EPIC’s signature Ready, Set, Teach! event invited the community of Humanities instructors at UCLA to come together in person for practical discussions on topics in teaching and learning. This event included an undergraduate panel on learning experiences from the 2021-22 academic year.

Interrupting Bias in Classroom Conversations: October 2022
This workshop explored how various forms of bias impact class dynamics and discussions, and helped instructors develop knowledge and skills for interrupting microaggressions and bias and managing hot moments in the classroom. Participants practiced recognizing intent versus impact, as well as a variety of concrete tools for troubleshooting friction in the classroom—and walked away with a deeper understanding of how bias affects both students and instructors. This workshop was developed by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and was jointly facilitated by CAT and EPIC staff.

Course Design with Accessibility in Mind: Creating Inclusive Bruin Learn Sites: November 2022
This workshop explored how to build accessibility into instructors’ Bruin Learn course sites in preparation for the Winter 2023 Quarter. It introduced Bruin Learn’s accessibility tools and strategies for incorporating media into course sites. Participants had a chance to practice some of these features and created a concrete plan for foregrounding accessibility in their course design process. Access a recording of the workshop here.

EPIC and OTL Workshop: Designing Your Bruin Learn Course Site: November 2022
In collaboration with UCLA Online Teaching and Learning (OTL), EPIC presented this workshop on Design Tools, also known as CiDi Labs DesignPlus., a collection of tools designed to assist in rapid course creation and change how a course site looks in Bruin Learn (Canvas). In this hands-on session, participants learned the basics of the tool, which included 1) using multi-tool as a faster way to build modules in Bruin Learn, 2) applying design themes for a course site to establish consistency, 3) creating sections/blocks on a page to organize content, and 4) checking accessibility using Design Tools. Access a recording of the workshop here.

Accessible Research Strategies and Considerations Workshop: February 2023
This 90-minute synchronous Zoom workshop examined accessibility considerations for the physical and digital sites of academic research. Participants and facilitators crowdsourced ideas for how to set students up for success in researching here at UCLA and beyond. Access a recording of the workshop here. 

Towards a Pedagogy of Belonging: Ensuring Inclusion in Design and Practice: February 2023
Making students feel a sense of belonging is a common goal for instructors, but what does it actually mean? How can instructors design their courses to ensure that all students feel belonging? This workshop offered an opportunity for instructors to engage with these questions, to reflect on their own pedagogical practices, and to learn new strategies for embedding belonging in their course design. Participants were introduced to some of the research on belonging and its importance for creating safe and welcoming learning environments. Different strategies were discussed to create opportunities for student belonging throughout the course: the first point of contact with the instructor, in the classroom, and beyond the end of the quarter. 

Conversations on Course Design STE Panel: February 2023
Through EPIC’s Course Development Seminars in Teaching Excellence (STEs), small cohorts of faculty and graduate students worked collaboratively across disciplines and levels of experience to workshop and create the major elements of fully designed, ready-to-teach courses in the experimental humanities. During this panel discussion, four past participants shared their experiences and their STE’s approach to embedding equity and accessibility in all aspects of the design process. Panelists also discussed how they worked individually and with those in their cohort to develop their courses.

Designing Accessible Research Assignments Workshop: April 2023
What makes a research assignment accessible or inaccessible? This workshop consulted with an undergraduate student, a Powell librarian, and the WI+RE (Writing Instruction + Research Education) program on a prompt for a research project from an actual course. Then, participants considered how to revise the assignment (or one of their own) with accessibility in mind.

Designing Transparent AI Assignments Workshop: May 2023
In this interactive workshop, participants learned about the importance of transparency in designing assignments that use generative AI. They explored practical strategies for incorporating ethical considerations and ensuring fairness in AI-based assignments while promoting student engagement and learning outcomes. This workshop was part of a week-long series of AI in Action events.

Designing Courses within a Culturally Responsive Teaching Framework: May 2023
Research on Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) has shown to be effective in increasing students’ engagement in class by valuing their backgrounds, experiences, and sense of belonging in higher education. This workshop briefly introduced some of the core principles of CRT from scholars like Geneva Gay and Gloria Ladson-Billings. Participants  observed different examples of how CRT is implemented in various higher education courses and had the opportunity to update their own course materials using this framework.