Developing an anti-racism toolkit for technology-enhanced learning: Seeking your feedback

Samantha Ahern, Faculty Learning Technology Lead (Bartlett), UCL

Alistair Cooper, Educational Technologist, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge

Coco Nijhoff, Senior Teaching Fellow (Library Services), Imperial College London

Following on from our presentation on the 15th of December at the ALT winter conference, we would like to invite ALT members and other colleagues to provide feedback on the Anti-racism in Learning Technology toolkit.

The toolkit provides a series of questions as prompts so that individuals, teams and institutions can explore ways to consider anti-racism in their practice. It is intended to be bespoke and adaptable for your context, providing considerations for anti-racism content. The toolkit is not meant to be prescriptive but serves as a guide to use in the best way for your context.

The toolkit is linked here – It contains an introduction and context, a blog area, two tools and supporting materials.

‘The tool’ section of the site links to a form containing a series of prompts one could use while working on a learning technology project or piece of work, by using the prompts to use and consider what actions could then be taken.

The idea behind the toolkit is to emphasise that there are no prescribed answers or approaches in developing anti-racist content – there is no ‘script’ to follow. We are instead providing a tool to prompt and guide reflection and action alongside engagement with existing resources and conversations. For each area of prompts, the ‘further resources’ section of the site offers suggestions to that end. The broad categories of prompts the toolkit provides are as follows:

• Communities
• The project team
• Learning content
• Tools and platforms
• Post-project reflection

Please note that the form, as with the site, is a prototype, so you will not be able to save your answers at this stage.

‘The Tool’ section also contains some brief ‘anticipated scenarios’ for use; building up ‘case studies’ of its application is one area that we would like to explore in the future.

This section of the site also includes the link to a feedback form (‘Feedback: Content creator anti-racism prompt tool’), the area for you to feed back on your thoughts on the toolkit during the consultation period.

Finally, the ‘AR in LD and ID’ section is aimed at scenarios where one is facilitating learning or instructional design workshops that draw on frameworks that aren’t specifically anti-racist. This part of the toolkit offers guidance on where in those frameworks you might incorporate anti-racism, for a wide range of frameworks.

The consultation period will continue through Wednesday, the 16^th of February.

Our proposed timeline for development:

The below was a rough outline of the activities we’d spoken about over the tool

• Date for the end of feedback via the site form: 16 February
• Incorporate the feedback post conference: March 2022
• Run a pilot group and develop a permanent space for the tool – Summer 2022
• Intend to launch the toolkit at the ALT winter conference 2022

You may also wish to see the original blog post for the ALT anti-racism in Learning Technology Community of Practice, which is now a Special Interest Group.