Effective, Inclusive, and Anti-Racist Teaching
- Class lists with pictures and student biographical information are available on LawNet. LawNet also contains the names preferred by your students (if different than the name in the class list), audio of the name pronunciation, and students’ preferred pronouns (if one is indicated).
- Pronunciation Aid. You can access the audio pronunciations by viewing your class list in Album View, or by using the Pronunciation Slideshow feature, in LawNet. In our conversations, students express appreciation for professors’ efforts to learn and pronounce their names.
- Seating Charts. Seating charts can be created on LawNet. You can block off extra seats before opening the seating chart for sign-ups. Faculty coordinators can assist full-time and visiting faculty with creating and printing seating charts.
- Class Recording Policy. AV automatically records and stores all class sessions. Whether recordings are made available to your students is generally up to you. You may choose to post none, some, or all your classes to CourseWorks. Faculty may opt out of automatic recordings altogether, unless required as a disability accommodation. Disability Services will share required recordings with accommodated students. Please convey your recording and sharing preferences to [email protected] and to students at the start of the term.
- Religious Holidays. Religious holidays for the school year are linked here. By default, recordings of classes held on these holidays are posted to CourseWorks for your students. Contact [email protected] if you have different preferences.
- Hot Mic Warning. By default, AV records three minutes past the scheduled end of class time because many professors run over. This has led to “hot mic” problems where faculty or students talking after class forget they are being recorded. Remember: class mics are sensitive, and may be recording even after class has formally ended.
- Microphone Use. Please reinforce microphone use in class—even if participants’ unamplified voices are audible to everyone present. This is necessary so listeners can hear class discussion, including for accommodations.
- Note: Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) may be enabled within Echo360 to transcribe video recordings. Other forms of transcription may be utilized if such an accommodation is authorized by the Office of Disability Services. Please contact Student Services at [email protected] with questions regarding transcription accommodations.
Discussions among faculty, and in faculty-student working groups, have yielded a number of strategies and techniques for creating and enhancing an inclusive learning experience. These techniques are described in some detail in the Inclusive Classroom Strategies document.
The Committee on Teaching has also created a new CourseWorks site with tips and videos specific to the law school classroom, linked here.
Additional resources on inclusive pedagogy can be found here.
Resources for No-Laptop Classrooms. Many faculty restrict laptop use in the classroom while seeking to ensure that students are well-supported in their note-taking. Other faculty allow laptops but are concerned about distractions. The Committee on Teaching has developed a concise best-practices guide relating to both sets of concerns, linked here. (Note: If a student’s ODS accommodation includes laptop use, you must allow it as an option for that student.)
Students pay close attention to the explicit and implicit messages we send when discussing their potential careers, particularly the choice between public and private pathways. The Public Interest/Public Service Lawyering Committee (PIPSL) has a memo linked here with useful insights on conveying the message that all career trajectories are equally valued at Columbia, along with tips for encouraging students to keep an open mind about alternative pathways.