Chapter 21: A Model for Trauma-Informed Online Teaching in Higher Education

Today’s college students are likely to have experienced a traumatic event, including the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, students may struggle to engage in traditional college activities, participate in classroom discussions, maintain healthy self-esteem, or persist to graduation. To ensure that trauma-affected students are equitably participating in their college courses, educators are encouraged to adopt trauma-informed teaching practices. Trauma-informed teaching practices focus on supporting students in emotional regulation and executive functioning, practicing self-care, avoiding retraumatization, and building relationships. While scholarship has been conducted on trauma-informed teaching in PK-12 classrooms, the research in higher education contexts is limited, and the work that does exist heavily focuses on in-person instruction instead of online learning. This paper remedies this gap by synthesizing the published literature on trauma-informed teaching in online higher education settings and posing a model of trauma-informed online teaching (TIOT) with specific suggestions for online instructors.