WGSS 496/591: Sex and HIV/AIDS

MY ROLE

As the Course Developer, Instructional Designer, Subject Matter Expert, and Course Deliverer, I developed, designed, and delivered this eLearning course. Eventually, this course was handed over to another Course Deliverer.

ABOUT THE COURSE

WGSS 496/591: Sex and HIV/AIDS is designed to introduce students to the study of AIDS as a medical, social, political and cultural phenomena. Drawing upon scholarship from across the disciplines, this course will examine the interplay between HIV/AIDS and sexuality. In addition, this course will explore the historical epidemiology of AIDS, the politics of state response to AIDS as well as how activists have addressed state (in)action, and the evolving representations of AIDS in the media. 

ABOUT THE INSTITUTION

Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (SIUC) is a Research Intensive University located in Carbondale, Illinois. SIUC’s Program in Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGSS) is “an interdisciplinary and transnational field of inquiry, explores the intersections of gender, sex, sexuality, race, class, nation and ability, and how these intersecting identities influence individual's experiences, achievements and positions in society.  Our WGSS program offers a critical cultural approach in its examination of all genders and sexualities through lenses of contemporary feminist and queer theories.  Scholarship in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies is found in virtually every branch of academics, including humanities, social sciences, sciences, education and the arts.  WGSS is a strong interdisciplinary program where students from every academic college on the SIUC campus can pursue their interests in issues regarding women, gender, sexuality and/or feminisms, and also discover the relevance of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies to their own lives and their own fields of study.”

ABOUT THE CHALLENGE & Opportunity

SUIC’s Central Administration tasked WGSS with creating a battery of eLearning courses for its Graduate Certificate Program. Upon receiving feedback from external review, WGSS was also charged with providing coursework in its Sexual Diversity Studies Minor. WGSS 496/591: Sex and HIV/AIDS was developed to answer these twin calls. I developed and designed the course to be interdisciplinary in scope, critically engaged in its outlook, and visually consistent it is content materials.

APPROACH, I

Performance Definition

As the Course Developer, Instructional Designer, Subject Matter Expert, and Deliverer, my first step was to ascertain the eLearning goals. As the Assistant Director for the Program in WGSS, I focused the following questions:

• What types of content and multimedia sources were best for encouraging learning transfers in the digital classroom? 

• How were eLearners building community in the online environment?

• How were learning technologies enhancing learning transfer for eLearners?

• How were eLearners developing critical analytic and communication skills?

Approach, II

Learning Goals and Objectives, I

After assessing these central concerns, I identified the disciplinary fields of study commensurate with engaging with WGSS and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. I articulated the course’s learning objectives. I developed course content and learning assessments in accordance with these goals. After completing WGSS 496/591, eLearners should be able to:

• Explain the early discovery of HIV/AIDS by the medical community

• Understand the governmental and state responses to the emergence of HIV/AIDS

• Investigate how racial, sexual, and gender biases hindered medical/policy responses to HIV/AIDS

• Analyze how sexual minorities responded to HIV/AIDS

Approach, III

Learning Goals and Objectives, II

With these learning objectives in mind, I also focused on the following areas:

• How can I assist eLearners in mastering communicative techniques necessary for respectful debate of complex and politically-charged public health subjects? 

• How can I use digital technologies to highlight the most salient content to facilitate learning transfer?

• How can I simultaneously foster professional best-practices and a sense of community using feminist pedagogies as embraced by HASTAC?

DESIGN

I used Bloom’s Taxonomy, Feminist Pedagogy, and Multiple Intelligence Theory to highlight the content necessary for eLearners within the fields of WGSS and Public Health. 

Due to WGSS 496/591 being an asynchronous online course, I grouped content into weekly modules. This format was consistent with programmatic standards. Too, it provided specific, formative learning objectives to be addressed weekly. 

I structured modules to encourage critical thinking, communicative strategies, and source analysis that could be readily transferable to the professional arena. This was achieved through a combination of discussion boards and formative assessments. My vision was for eLearners to cultivate a series of analytic and communicative practices that would continue beyond the digital learning space. Summative Assignments, meanwhile, occurred at three intervals in the course and looked to synthesize analytic, research, and communicative skills.  

THE OUTCOME

WGSS 496/591 was submitted to the WGSS Curriculum Committee. Reviews were positive. The course was released to WGSS eLearners in Fall 2015, and has become a component of the WGSS Sexual Diversity Studies curriculum. The course has proved popular, and will next be offered in Summer 2020.