How can faculty create more inclusive, engaging, and empowering environments for traditionally underrepresented students in our STEM classrooms? This was the question that motivated the inaugural year of EMPOwER (Engaging More Powerfully, Openly with Educational Resources), funded in 2022-23 by the Women’s Impact Network (WIN).
In its first year EMPOwER received more applications than could be fully funded, and awarded funds to seven faculty participants from departments of Biology, Mathematics, SSPS, Integrative and Global Studies, and fine arts and languages. An estimated 200 students were directly impacted through their experience using newly adopted, adapted, or created course materials that center inclusion and diversity. Several faculty published their new OER materials in WPI’s Digital WPI OER collection, where views and downloads often come from other educators who may incorporate these materials in their courses in the future, further expanding their reach and impacts.
In its second year, 2023-24, WIN has funded the EMPOwER program even more generously, making it possible to support twice as many faculty as in the first year. This year’s EMPOwER application deadline is November 20, with decisions announced in mid-December. A simple application process asks faculty to describe achievable projects they will carry out in C and D Terms. Funded faculty will have access to student support as well as peer mentoring from other participants and from EMPOwER faculty and staff team members.
A one-page guide created by this year’s EMPOwER team leader Prof. Marja Bakermans, Centering Diversity and Inclusion in Courses When Adapting Existing OERs, may spark ideas for proposals.
To learn more, visit WPI’s OER blog where the announcement of 2023-24 award cycle is published, watch this short video, and join us for a Morgan Center-sponsored Food for Thought on October 31, to meet and talk with the EMPOwER team and several of last year’s recipients.
