Inspiring Examples of Digital Learning at Minority-Serving Institutions

Language learning, cultural preservation, culturally relevant pedagogy and community building are some of the unique uses of digital learning at minority-serving institutions, according to a new series of reports from Every Learner Everywhere.

The series provides comprehensive profiles of three types of U.S. institutions of higher education: tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), and historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Each report outlines the history of those institutions, their unique resources and assets, and their challenges, and each begins by defining the minority-serving institution (MSI). The reports are based on current literature, government and advocacy organization publications, and conversations with faculty, staff, and students. Student interns at Every Learner participated in researching and co-authoring the reports.

In keeping with Every Learner’s work to better understand equity-centered and evidence-based digital learning, a large part of each profile explores the unique opportunities presented by digital learning at MSIs. For example, they highlight innovative ways MSIs use digital platforms and tools to create language learning resources, document cultural traditions, connect students with elders, personalize learning, equitize course materials, provide students opportunities for personal expression, and let students experience and influence emerging technologies like AI.

Despite the challenges with digital learning at minority-serving institutions that are documented in all three reports — limited access to hardware and telecom services, limited training on integrating digital resources, lack of culturally responsive design in off-the-shelf products — many TCUs, HSIs, and HBCUs are finding innovative ways to use digital tools to achieve their missions.

Each report in the series details many of those innovations, including the partnership involved and the results. As the reader can see from the few examples excerpted below, mission-driving MSIs are finding creative ways to develop, customize, and implement digital learning in ways that center their students and that make sense for their unique contexts.

Digital learning at tribal colleges and universities

• Ogoki Learning has developed 300+ Native American language apps that promote language learning through flashcards, storytelling, dictionaries, games, and quizzes.
• America’s Languages Portal, which partners with TCUs and Native American-serving institutions to provide free courses on native language and culture.
• 7000 Languages creates free online language-learning courses in partnership with Indigenous, minority, and refugee communities.
• To support remote learning over large areas, some institutions use micro campuses—single buildings in remote sites that house a classroom, an administrative office, and a study space that are all connected to local internet networks so that students can connect to the main campus. Diné  College, a TCU in covering 27,000 square miles in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, is one example.
• Digital learning can help preserve and revitalize native arts. With grants provided by the American Indian College Fund’s Native Arts Distance Learning program, seven TCUs were invested in Zoom and video recording equipment and purchased essential materials to connect students with master artists, to create video tutorials to teach traditional arts, and to record theater, dance, and music performances.
• TCJ Student is an online journal of creative expression from Tribal students.

Digital learning at Hispanic-serving institutions

• In 2018, the University of California, where five of the nine campuses already met the HSI definition, launched the Hispanic-Serving Institutions Initiative, which seeks to transition the UC system into a learning community that reflects the population of California, which is over 40 percent Latino.
• University of Central Florida has invested heavily in personalized learning systems that “customize the presentation of the content or present new concepts to the student based on their individual activities and responses.”
• Between 2019 and 2020, four HSIs partnered with the Association of Public and Land-grant Institutions to participate in the Adaptive Courseware for Early Success (ACES) Initiative, which provided grants for institutions to adopt and scale personalized learning in gateway courses.
• In 2020, five HSI community colleges partnered with Achieving the Dream to use digital learning to increase pass rates in gateway courses, particularly for marginalized students.
• In 2021, the California Consortium for Equitable Change in Hispanic-Serving Institutions Open Educational Resources was awarded grant funding to develop OER in 20 high-impact courses.
• Achieving the Dream has conducted several large OER initiatives that include HSIs. Reported results from these grant programs mention not only cost savings to students taking classes with OER course materials but increased engagement in co-creating them with peers and instructors, adapting OER to make them culturally relevant, and even rendering some OER into Spanish.
• Individual faculty use culturally relevant practices to improve outcomes for minoritized students. For example, biology professor Kristin Polizzotto at Kingsborough Community College, where many students are not native English speakers, noticed a gap between indicators of strong comprehension on practice activities and poor results on exams. After investigating further, she realized she needed to rewrite the exam questions from the courseware to use more direct language.

Digital learning at historically Black colleges and universities

• Digital resources and collaborations are helping HBCUs overcome funding limitations and share best practices. In 2020, the United Negro College Fund launched the Institute for Capacity Building, an initiative to bring together HBCUs to expand capacity, support each other, and learn from each other.
• Learning from that collaboration, ICB launched HBCUv, a distance learning platform “true to the Black experience in higher ed and beyond.”
• In May 2022, the Southern Regional Education Board launched the HBCU-MSI Course-Sharing Consortium, a collaboration among HBCUs and MSIs to share online courses. The collaboration has enabled participating schools to move more students to graduation and to save costs in offering low-enrollment specialized courses at their own institutions.
• In 2023, eight HBCUs took part in a virtual college fair for high school students. This event was sponsored by HBCU Night, a nonprofit organization that “creates awareness for Historically Black Colleges & Universities and advocates for progression in the Black and Brown communities.”
• HBCUs are also employing VR to enhance learning experiences on campus. In 2023, Morehouse College launched its first VR course, History of the African Diaspora Since 1800. Another VR collaboration, between the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and Winston-Salem State University, is a nursing school training program that simulates common interactions for nurses.
• Morgan State University in Maryland established the Center for Equitable AI and Machine Learning Systems. The mission of the center is to “facilitate the development, deployment, and verification of socially responsible and equitable artificial intelligence systems and to ensure the public is well informed of how evolving technologies in this space affect their health, prosperity, and happiness.”

Download the HSI Profile Download the HBCU Profile Download the TCU Profile