Support Neurodiverse Students with Collaborative Learning

Join the Faculty Development Center to view the live webinar entitled "Collaborative Learning Approaches that Support Neurodiverse Students."

Many of today’s students will come to campus with numerous forms of mental, emotional, and social challenges. In any given class, you may have students with PTSD, mental disorders, learning disabilities, or previous emotional trauma. Students with these characteristics, also referred to as neurodiverse students, are often quiet and introverted in collaborative settings, thus impacting their classroom performance.

What strategies can you leverage to establish a classroom environment where ALL students feel comfortable contributing to collaborative learning activities?

The Magna Online Seminar, Collaborative Learning Approaches that Support Neurodiverse Students, will be presented by Flower Darby. You’ll explore ways of applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to collaborative learning tasks to support students who find difficulty thriving in group learning situations.

This seminar goes beyond the simple “how-to” of implementing group work and delves into the different challenges you face when implementing collaborative learning experiences and how you can create success for all kinds of students with all kinds of conditions and backgrounds.

BENEFITS

By participating in this seminar, you’ll be able to increase effectiveness of group activities and decrease the headaches and problems experienced when you’re not able to adequately anticipate and plan for students’ mental, emotional, and social challenges.

LEARNING GOALS

Upon completion of this seminar, you’ll be able to:

• Identify infrequently acknowledged challenges that lead to perceived “freeloader” behavior in group work
• Develop support mechanisms that empower socially challenged students to succeed in collaborative learning tasks
• Apply UDL principles to design collaborative learning tasks that promote optimal success for all students

TOPICS COVERED

• Conditions and challenges, and possible causes, that make it hard for students to contribute to tasks that require social interaction
• Design solutions that address emotional and mental challenges
• Scaffolding group communication and group process
• Allowing time for team stages to occur
• Building in self-reflection opportunities

AUDIENCE

This seminar will benefit faculty, instructional designers, and faculty developers.

For more information, please see the webpage for the webinar.

A light snack will be provided to all registered participants, please click “I Can Attend” below to reserve your seat for this session. The deadline to register for this event is the earlier of Friday, April 13 or when the event reaches capacity. Please email fdc@umbc.edu to be added to a wait list if the event is full.  If you have registered and find that you can no longer attend, please kindly release your spot so that others may attend.