Subject: Building Bridges, Not Barriers: Tailoring Instruction for Diverse Learners in Health Informatics Message body: Health informatics classrooms often embrace diverse learners, including traditional but also contemporary students: transfer students, active-duty military personnel, veterans, international students, returning parents, and career-changers. While this diversity fosters a vibrant learning environment, traditional instructional methods can inadvertently leave some students feeling discouraged and unsupported. The presentation will explore different strategies designed and tested in Health Informatics class to bridge learning gaps and empower all students to thrive. These strategies include: Tiered Explanations: Providing multiple pathways to understanding concepts, including quantitative and abstract examples, to cater to individual learning preferences. Real-World Applications: Integrating real-life scenarios into the curriculum to enhance relevance and engagement for students of various backgrounds and experiences. Differentiated Assessments: Utilizing a variety of assessment methods, such as sample tests with peer-led tutorials and interactive discussion boards, to cater to different learning styles and facilitate student-to-student support. Peer-Led Learning: Encouraging active participation through "teaching videos" where students explain concepts to their peers, fostering collaboration and deepening understanding. Self-Reflection and Improvement: Regularly assess the effectiveness and encourage feedback from the participants to identify areas for improving diversity and inclusiveness. Use of Generative AI to teach concepts: Use generative AI as a teaching tool to help students learn and understand different topics and concepts. Automatic grading and feedback: Employ AI-based grading tool to automate the grading process of homework to provide instant feedback to students. Through active discussion and demonstration of these diverse teaching methods, the session aims to equip participants with practical tools and strategies to effectively engage and empower students from a wide range of backgrounds and learning styles in their own health informatics classrooms. In this presentation, we will show examples of each strategy and include the analysis from students' survey that we will conduct during the Spring 2024 semester. Learning Outcomes: 1. Participants will be able to articulate the challenges faced by diverse learners in health informatics education. 2. Participants will be able to design and implement differentiated instructional strategies, such as tiered explanations and real-world applications, to cater to varying learning styles and backgrounds. 3. Participants will be able to develop and utilize diverse assessment methods, such as peer-led tutorials and interactive discussion boards, to effectively evaluate student learning and promote student-to-student support. 4. Participants will be able to incorporate peer-led learning activities, such as "teaching videos," into their curriculum to foster collaboration and deepen student understanding. 5. Participants will develop a plan for implementing one or more differentiated instruction strategies in their own teaching practice to create a more inclusive learning environment for all students. 6. Participants will provide feedback to the instructors to ensure the effectiveness of the instructional strategies and that the efforts of inclusion and diversity are ongoing and responsive to the changing needs. 7. Participants will appreciate the use of generative AI for personalized learning and instant feedback through auto-grading for an accelerated learning trajectory. Themes: Inclusive and equitable teaching, Authentic assessments, STEM Innovations, Faculty or student success or well-being Attachment: Avramovic_BuildingTheBridges.pdf (Attached)