The Foundations in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) for Researchers course enables researchers to cultivate their EDI skills and competencies and stay on the path of research excellence.
Your institution deserves a convenient, comprehensive, internet-accessible professional development course for your highly-skilled researchers to build confidence and proficiency in applying equity, diversity, and inclusion to their research designs and practices and contributing to their research success
Universities, colleges, and research teams benefit from this course because:
About The Course
This course supports researchers at various career stages and across research disciplines by:
- Showing ways to apply the language of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) to their own research disciplines and research contexts.
- Bringing clarity of purpose to embed EDI at every stage of a typical research design cycle, and in concrete ways.
- Offering approaches to build and sustain diverse and inclusive research teams in competitive research ecosystems.
- Enhancing researchers’ track records of engagement with EDI, and supporting the leadership of EDI champions across research disciplines.
- Building researchers’ confidence to successfully apply EDI to research design and practices throughout the life of a research project, professional career, and beyond.
- Providing a Certificate of Completion after researchers have completed the lessons in this course, to show their commitment to being and becoming an inclusive researcher.
This course is designed for researchers, no matter their stage of career or experience with embedding EDI in their research designs and research practices. Graduate students (i.e., Master’s and PhD) and postdoctoral researchers, including Highly Qualified Professionals (HQP); Principal Investigators (PIs); Co-PIs; and research collaborators engaged with research design and plan implementation are the primary audiences for this course. However, research administrators; equity advisors in research; project managers; knowledge mobilization specialists; and other specialists involved in creating and sustaining environments for research and for crucial stages of the research design cycle and project implementation process would also benefit from this course.
As noted in the course description, this course consists of three modules, each with lessons that elaborate on the module’s topic. Module Two, builds on Module One. Module 3 builds on all previous modules. Each module ends with a quiz with eight questions. The questions come in different formats (i.e., multiple choice, single choice, true/false, etc.). You can take your time to complete the quiz. You must respond correctly to six out of the eight questions in order to proceed to the next module. So, you can take the quiz as many times as you need to, in order to pass. Each module has worksheets and resource lists referring to sources used in the course and some additional ones for interest.
This course is delivered asynchronously and online. Once learners are registered and approved by the Group Leader, learners can access the course on demand. The course is delivered by the Learning Management System (LMS) hosted by Viswali Consulting.
All course modules are delivered through instructional videos with audio (i.e., screencasts). Learners can slow down, speed up, pause, and resume progress throughout the course modules at their own pace. All videos are in English with subtitles (i.e., close captioning) and transcripts are available while the video is playing. Learners can download worksheets and resource lists in accessible PDF and use them as companion materials to support their learning during the course and long after its over. The screencasts and materials are designed using three principles of Universal Design for Learning (i.e., Engagement; Representation; Action and Expression).
It takes just over 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete watching the video lessons for the three modules of the course, without any interruptions; however, this does not adequately reflect the length of the course, because it does not include the time it would take to review all the worksheets and complete the quizzes. Ultimately, course completion time will vary from person to person, and learners are advised to pace themselves. Plan to devote additional time for the short quizzes, to review all the course materials, and to synthesize learning.
There are worksheets for each module. The worksheets consist of questions for reflection, discussion, and action. The reflection questions are for learners to review, contemplate, and note down their responses. The discussion questions allow learners to take some of what they reflected upon and open up a conversation with their peers, other colleagues, and research teams to begin to apply what they learned, and explore what might work best for their teams. The action questions are prompts for learners to take action in their own research contexts, to gather more information, and to consider options or to plan next steps. Researchers may choose to complete the worksheets while they are learning for the duration of the course, or to work on only some aspects during the course, and then continue to draw from the worksheets later on, as a guide for further self-study.
Yes! When learners complete all the lessons in the modules and successfully pass all the quizzes, they will have earned a Certificate of Completion that they can download or have emailed to them by the course Group Leader.
Researchers working within the Canadian research ecosystem will benefit the most, because the course was designed with these researchers, their experiences, and their contexts in mind. Researchers who are not accountable within the Canadian ecosystem, may benefit from some of the components in the course that refer to research processes and EDI terms and concepts, but not necessarily to all the applications included in this course, due to its emphasis on Canadian, and North American contexts.
This course is currently available for bulk purchase and licensing to colleges, universities, and their research affiliate organizations (i.e., research institutes); research organizations and associations; and research teams. Bulk discounts may apply. Please fill out the Client Interest to Purchase Form on this page and you will be contacted.
Licensing is effective for a minimum of 12 months after bulk purchase.
This course is not available for individual purchase at this time. It is only currently available for bulk purchasing and licensing by institutions and research teams. But things may change, so please reach out through the Viswali Consulting Contact Form if you have any questions or if you want to be updated when individual purchase options and pricing become available.
“Leela has been working with us to enhance an understanding and appreciation of equity, diversity, and inclusion principles across the Ontario college sector by developing a robust framework for ongoing conversations around diversity and inclusion. We are immensely grateful for Leela’s contributions and highly recommend her services to any organization seeking to make meaningful progress in equity, diversity, and inclusion.”
- Krista Holmes, Associate Vice-President, Research & Innovation, George Brown College
- Robyn Saaltink, Executive Director, Research & External Innovation, St. Lawrence College
“What stands out for me working with Leela is that she obviously values the work of practitioners and community members. She finds ways to help that honour the position and circumstance of her partners and doesn’t try to apply a particular structure or theory that suits her best. Rather, she listens to what partners need and want and offers what she can that meets those needs. “
- Ellyn Clost Lambert, Community Research Professional