Climate Action Pedagogy (CAP) FAQs

Registration for CAP is open for August 2022. I’m partnering with OLT Faculty Development to bring this offering to higher education faculty (K-12 teachers you are welcome too) and staff. We’re so excited to learn with you in August.

Here are a few FAQs that might be helpful:

1. I feel like I should know more about climate action, and I’m embarrassed to say I don’t. Will I be in over my head in CAP?

No! This is an intentionally generalist model. We, as your facilitators, are not climate action experts. We are higher educators specializing in faculty and curriculum development. We have curated some amazing and accessible climate action resources that will meet you wherever you are in your climate action journey.

2. What will the timeline of the course be like? Is this fully online?

CAP will take place over three days. This is a design sprint with the goal of completing ONE revised teaching artifact that will utilize climate action resources. We will focus on the power of small. CAP is mostly asynchronous with optional Zoom office hours each day.

Facilitators will be learning with you over the course of the three-day sprint only, but you will retain access to CAP content in perpetuity after the sprint closes, in case you need continued access to CAP resources.

3. Where will CAP take place?

We use a platform called Mighty Networks which is a great space for online courses and communities. If you’re not already part of the OLT Mighty Networks Community, we’ll get you logged-in no problem. Mighty Networks is super intuitive, but we’ll also provide instruction in basic navigation for new users.

4. What is a “teaching artifact”?

Honestly, it’s whatever you want it to be. It might be a new assignment, assessment, discussion prompt, lesson plan, or course announcement. It could also be something like an email that you send to your campus leadership advocating for climate action. You might want to design your artifact with your students, so your CAP experience will be focused on creating a structure for that work. Finally, we recognize that educators are creative, and many of you will probably design artifacts that we haven’t even thought of.

5. What are some of the topics we’ll cover in CAP?

In addition to reviewing curated climate action resources and weaving them into a teaching/learning artifact, we’ll cover some of the following topics:

• introduction to emergent strategy, a theory of shaping change
• accessibility checklist
• learner experience design (LXD)
• pedagogical partnerships

Our hope is that we really give our learners a chance to create a strong foundation for facing the volatile and uncertain future.

6. I’m an introvert. Help!

Let’s get this out of the way first: there will be no breakout rooms in CAP. Our philosophy of teaching is to meet you where you are. You can show up in whatever way works best for you. Everything in CAP is an invitation, and you will not be forced to participate in any way. We are going to encourage everyone to share their questions, energy, and ideas, but there will always be options for how you can do that work, if you choose to do it at all.

7. I have ADHD and tend to get really excited about things like this, but then I don’t finish them.

Awesome! Welcome to the club. One of your CAP facilitators (me!) also has ADHD, and I relate. We have created a fun, engaging, and accessible learning experience planned for CAP that will meet you right where you are. One of the reasons we chose the model of a 3-day design sprint is that some of us who identify as ADHD or neurodivergent do better in short bursts like this. We are confident that you will feel welcome in this community and be supported to meet your learning goals.

8. August doesn’t work for me. Will you be offering more CAP sprints in the future?

Yes! We plan to offer CAP again in fall 2022 in a similar format. If you would like to chat with us about a private CAP session that is solely for educators at your institution, reach out and we’ll be happy to give you more details on that option as well.

What else? What other questions do you have about CAP? How is this idea of weaving climate action into your pedagogy landing with you? What are your hopes and fears? Let’s talk about the hard stuff, together.

Ready to register? Go for it: https://www.oltfaculty.com/cap