To continue campus commitment to enhance and enrich online teaching and learning, XCITE is announcing 20 RIDLE course grants that will fund courses taught 100% online in the 2022 Fall or 2023 Winter quarter. The overarching goal of the RIDLE grants is to continue to support UCR faculty in developing high-quality online courses.

Mission

The mission of the RIDLE program is to create an inclusive and collaborative environment in support of innovative teaching for engaged and equitable approaches to learning.

Goals of the RIDLE program

• Promote greater online course access for students 
• Establish an inclusive and diverse environment that encourages collaborative exploration of innovative pedagogical practices
• Support student success through pedagogical innovation and the design of equitable and inclusive teaching
• Guide deeper thinking about issues related to online teaching and learning 
• Assist faculty in designing learning that shifts students from a passive to an active role in the classroom

 Opportunity

During the early pandemic period, UCR faculty were driven to create many online courses very quickly. Transitioning back to campus, bringing forward lessons learned, and preparing to engage students in online learning can be a riddle. The RIDLE program offers UCR faculty a community think tank for transitioning their face-to-face course to online or improving their existing online course, focusing on student engagement.

Research tells us that higher levels of teaching presence is achieved when teachers engage students in shaping their learning. However, according to the Association of Chief Academic Officers report (2021), engaging students was the most frequently cited challenge and a key priority for the future. About 70 percent of faculty said that engaging students was the most challenging aspect of the transition to remote teaching and learning. Nearly three-fourths (74%) of faculty identified increasing student engagement in class as a priority for the fall 2021 term.
 

XCITE launched four Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) in Spring 2023. In collaboration with the Office of the Provost and the Council of Deans, XCITE invited select faculty who teach undergraduate courses from each of UCR's colleges to participate in this new faculty professional development and course design opportunity.

The purpose of RIDLE 4X was to provide UC Riverside faculty members with time, space, and support to participate in an interdisciplinary professional development and course design collaboration to enhance their teaching, increase student success, and foster collegial discussions around teaching and learning practices at an R1 university.

RIDLE FLCs were based on a design thinking model which used human-centered collaborative research methods to foster meaningful shared understanding around teaching and learning, including opportunities to engage with faculty peers and students in a supportive and dynamic community. The underlying framework was proven to aid in the design and delivery of deep and meaningful learning experiences through the development of Social, Cognitive, and Teaching presence.

FLCs were collaborative learning experiences which united people through a common interest or set of problems. The strength of an FLC was in the interaction between participants' diverse ideas and how such dialogue created opportunities for innovative teaching and learning.

The four FLCs, and their facilitators, are the following:

RIDLE DX | Advance Digital Inclusion: Develop Equitable and Inclusive Pedagogy

• Explore digitally inclusive pedagogical competencies for teaching success
• Design course activities that support student belonging and equitable learning
• Apply learning science research to engage learners in a digital environment 
• Discover tools & methods that support inclusive teaching and learning
• Identify how we can best assess if our classroom creates belongingness and is equitable 
• Explore data on opportunity gaps for evidence-informed pedagogies
• Consider how we might integrate high-impact practices into your curriculum

XCITE facilitator: Dr. Deborah Nelson dnels009@ucr.edu

RIDLE FX | Foster Flexible Teaching: Design for multiple modes of learning

• Identify learning affordances of an online, hybrid, blended, or flipped classroom
• Design for multiple teaching and learning modalities 
• Explore authentic assessments for addressing academic dishonesty
• Apply evidence-based practices for student engagement in multiple teaching modalities 

XCITE facilitator: Dr. Swati Ramani swati.ramani@ucr.edu

RIDLE LX | Empower Active Learning: Engage Your Students   

• Explore ways to improve academic achievement and to reach student outcomes more equitably using active learning strategies designed to increase student engagement and motivation. 
• Share creative pedagogical or technological solutions to potential challenges that come with implementing active learning strategies.
• Develop new techniques for grading and assessing active learning.
• Familiarize yourself with ways to address some of the unique challenges that arise with active learning strategies in high-enrollment contexts.

XCITE facilitator: Samantha Eastman samantha.eastman@ucr.edu

RIDLE RX | Promote Equitable Learning: Deliver Just-in-time Academic Solutions 

• Identify challenging content in past courses
• Design activities necessary to assess student understanding of content
• Identify areas of understanding and those needing intervention
• Explore solutions to content challenges with or without technology integration
• Design interventions in the form of adaptive learning, supplemental instruction, and supplemental content
• Identify resources and opportunities to supplement student understanding of the material
• Recognize the benefits that just-in-time interventions have on student engagement and motivation

XCITE facilitator: Israel Fletes israel.fletes@ucr.edu