Today is a LIVE class day! We will be meeting in our Virtual Classroom on Blackboard. See you there!

Creating a Brave and Respectful Learning Community

The purpose of this introductory session is to build rapport between the course instructor and the students and between the students. This will be accomplished by discussing and collaborating on the group norms for the virtual learning community.

Class Outline

• Introductions/Ice-breaker
• “Building the Container”: Establishing Community Norms
• Effective Discussion Skills (i.e., active listening)
• Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable
• Difficult Conversations: Accessing your Comfort Level
• Technical orientation and guidance to innovative e-Assessment tools
  • How to use this Pressbook
  • What are ePortfolios and why are we developing them?
  • What is Brightspace’s role in this course?

Preparing for Day 1

• Go through the ePortfolio section of this book and try setting up your site. We will go through this in class, too, so we can troubleshoot together.
• Explore the Racial Narrative Reflections from the Course Developers in the previous section of this Pressbook.
  • On this page you will read some example reflections from members of the EBAAR course development team. These example reflections provide insights into their perspectives and lived experiences, and also to illustrate the type of ePortfolio entries you will be creating this term.

Required Material

• Robyn Maynard, Policing Black Lives
  • Introduction (pages 1-16)
    • Begin thinking about how you will situate yourself within this class. Who are you? What experiences with race and racism have you had? What is your current understanding of race and racism, and how has that changed throughout your life? What are you bringing into this class, that is unique to you?