Toward Equitable Online Learning: Seeing the Missed Opportunities

Access to online learning does not guarantee equitable learning experiences, particularly for students from diverse backgrounds, such as international students and members of indigenous communities. As an online, asynchronous instructor, I recorded my observations of students' online interactions and used reflexivity to analyze my journal entries. Participants' conversations followed the contemporary debates in a North American academic context. Members, particularly those from diverse backgrounds, actively negotiated their online presence or social absence based on those conversations. Their experiences remained on the margins only to stimulate robust discussions. Online course instructors must be proactive in creating inclusive virtual learning environments and be able to see the missed opportunities of knowledge construction through reflexivity, particularly in their awareness of what equity would entail in online learning environments with diverse learners.