Share Paper: Learner Engagement Through Culturally Responsive Teaching in a Blended Delivery Format

1. William Dunn, University of Alberta, Canada
2. Mike Carbonaro, University of Alberta, Canada
3. Denyse Hayward, University of Alberta, Canada
4. Amin Mousavi, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Abstract: Learner engagement and culturally responsive teaching (CRT) are two important—and closely related—concepts in the design of courses. Two key aspects of student engagement are the relevance of what is learned and the quality of relationships formed in the classroom (Washor & Mojkowski, 2006), and these aspects of learning also underlie CRT. This paper describes the redesign of a course from an entirely F2F format to a blended learning model. The redesign process sought to address learner engagement and CRT, with particular emphasis given to the dimensions of relevance and relationships. Relevance was addressed by incorporating aspects of personalization into the ...