2024 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)

Keywords: disability, gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQIA+

Faculty across science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines are interested in making their instructional materials more representative of their students’ identities. However, they often lack guidance and time for finding these materials. Utilizing our specialized skills in finding resources as librarians, we developed the Representation in STEM (RIS) course to provide resources and guidance on finding and using more representative materials across STEM disciplines. The course is comprised of pages that can be adopted as micro-lessons in disciplinary courses, lowering the barrier for faculty to participate in more inclusive instruction. To ensure RIS is as useful as possible for faculty and students, pages from the disciplines and special topics sections of the course were sent to faculty at Colorado School of Mines and STEM librarians across the United States and Canada for review. We sought feedback on organization, breadth of coverage, and content depth that can be incorporated in the ongoing development of the course. This paper describes the development of RIS, initial feedback received, and lessons learned in the design process that could inform similar projects at other institutions.