What is FIT?

Inclusive teaching means recognising and minimising barriers to students’ learning and participation, whilst flexible learning focusses on students’ needs, accommodating when, where and how they may need to study.

You can:

1. provide students with an improved learning experience
2. give students more flexibility and reach more students with a wider range of needs 
3. get inspired by one of five FIT pathways
4. enrol on the FIT Canvas resource, and take advantage of Canvas templates pre-designed with FIT in mind
5. get support from the helpdesk service.

A FIT pathway suggests a way in which flexible and inclusive teaching can be achieved for a common teaching type at Oxford.

It helps course teams conceptualise how they might adapt their existing practice to new modes of delivery, and provides the flexibility to move quickly to more remote or more in-person teaching depending on circumstances.

What can you do with FIT pathways?

1. Use them as models for moving in-person teaching to remote teaching suited to your needs
2. Explore ways of breaking down teaching sessions into smaller segments
3. Start discussions with course development teams
4. Save time with Canvas templates which have been designed with the pathways in mind.

The Centre for Teaching and Learning has developed the following five FIT pathways for common teaching scenarios.

1. FIT pathway – Lab work
2. FIT pathway – Lecture
3. FIT pathway – Small group (option 1)
4. FIT pathway – Small group (option 2)
5. FIT pathway – Tutorial

Each pathway highlights how in-person teaching can be moved to a mix of asynchronous and synchronous study. This allows more flexibility around how students and staff engage, and ensures ‘real time’ contact is concentrated at the point where it adds most value to the teaching experience.

These pathways help you to explore ways of breaking down a longer teaching session into smaller segments using the variety of tools available at Oxford. Not all components will be appropriate for your teaching scenario, but they may stimulate thinking around combinations that help solve your particular challenges.

FIT pathways and Canvas templates

In each case, the pathways are supported by templates available in Canvas, helping you more easily set up courses and conveniently link to the tools and resources your students need.

Alternatively, the pathways can be used for discussion among course teams and departments, or in conjunction with the support available for FIT through the Service Desk. Service Desk consultants can provide access to the relevant Canvas courses and templates for your department and ensure that all developments you choose maximise a clear and consistent learning experience for students.