Make your students feel respected, cared about, and important to your class, campus, or discipline. A sense of belonging is positively associated with academic achievement and increased persistence at the course-, major-, and campus level. A student’s sense of belonging can be threatened when entering new social and academic situations and can be impacted by the language, content, and examples we use in our courses.

Student Survey Template

Pre-course Student Survey TEMPLATE (external site)

The pre-course survey is designed to help instructors get to know their students to help build community and help develop positive relationships with students. It also allows students to share their concerns, interests, and rationale for taking the course with instructors. The pre-course survey is set to collect student names.

Establish and clearly communicate your course standards and expectations. Being clear about why you are asking students to do something, how they should complete it, and how it relates to their future careers or everyday lives, can help students see the value in your course and create a more equitable starting point for all students.

Create course schedules and processes that support student learning and development. We can increase the structure of our courses through scaffolding, requiring out-of-class work, and providing more time for students to engage with content during class. Increased course structure can help students distribute their study time and create an environment where all students can participate and succeed.

Provide reasonable accommodations for equitable learning. Being too rigid with due dates can lower student grades for reasons that have nothing to do with how much they have learned. Providing reasonable ways to account for things that happen in our student’s lives helps to ensure that we are grading students on what they have learned, not on how complicated their lives are.

Create course content, materials, and assignments that are accessible to all learners. Providing multiple ways for students to engage with course materials and demonstrate their learning, coupled with creating course materials that are accessible to students who may use adaptive technologies like screen readers, ensures that all students have an equal chance of success.

Consider your beliefs about teaching and learning and how they shape your course. Consider how and why you teach as you do. Ensuring your teaching practice is grounded in evidence-based strategies, rather than your preferences or traditions in your discipline, supports student learning and equity in your course.