In addition to creating consumable online formats for adult learners, educators in distance learning programs must navigate the complexities of classroom management. Using SAMHSA’s six guiding principles of trauma-informed care, educators can address students’ emotional needs while delivering asynchronous content that supports trauma-informed approaches in a virtual setting.
The groundbreaking study on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) by Felliti et al (1998) underscores the prevalence of trauma-related experiences in the general population. This large-scale epidemiologic study of 17,000 participants looks at how stressful and traumatic childhood experiences (10 different kinds of abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction) influence the origins of behaviors that underlie the leading causes of disability, social problems, health-related behaviors, and causes of death. Trauma Informed Care (TIC) was a response to the universality of traumatic experiences.
Trauma Informed Care (TIC) is a framework causing paradigm shifts within academia and can also be applied to campus and virtual based learning environments as well. TIC seeks to do no additional harm to participants who have experienced trauma. SAMHSA (2014) cites the guiding principles of TIC to include: safety; trustworthiness and transparency; peer support and mutual self-help; collaboration and mutuality; empowerment, voice and choice; and culture, historical and gender issues.
Regardless of the field, distance learning educators have the responsibility to create asynchronous content and a virtual classroom environment that support different modes of student learning be it visual, auditory, print, tactile, interactive, or kinesthetic. Further, understanding how past traumatic experiences affect students in the present can help educators maximize students learning in the classroom. We often see students struggling to develop critical thinking skills, students who display emotional reactivity, or miss classes on a regular basis. This could very well be connected to a history of trauma where focusing, attending, and retaining may all be more difficult in a state of arousal. Simply put, a traumatized brain cannot learn (Perry, 2016). A trauma-informed approach in the virtual classroom can help mitigate stress that may trigger trauma responses.
The authors will share strategies for attendees to learn how to implement trauma-informed strategies when creating, converting, and delivering classroom content.