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Demonstration of Intellectual Diversity Requirements

Instructions

Any course approved after June 30, 2025 must be compliant with a condition in the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act (AOHEA) that states course approvals must demonstrate intellectual diversity. Before your course can be approved, we need you to provide additional information regarding intellectual diversity and ICC needs to review that information. 

What do you need to do?

  1. At the time of submission, you can add a statement (with the INTELLECTUAL DIVERSITY STATEMENT label included) in the OCEAN submission as a comment and select post.

  2. If your has already been routed, you can find your course in OCEAN, and add a statement (with the INTELLECTUAL DIVERSITY STATEMENT label included) in the OCEAN submission as a comment and select post.

    1. The course does not need to be in your worklist for you to add comment. Use the document search to the find the course (document search is next to the worklist button on the blue bar along the top). Courses will NOT be returned to you to add the intellectual diversity statement.
     
Please edit the Intellectual Diversity Statement below as appropriate for your course:

INTELLECTUAL DIVERSITY STATEMENT: In compliance with the AOHEA, this course demonstrates the inclusion of diverse intellectual perspectives through its CHOOSE AT LEAST ONE and delete others: topics; assignments and assessments, required readings and other course materials, pedagogical practices. Add 1-2  sentences here to BRIEFLY explain how what you choose is actually carried out in your course.

Sample language that it is strongly recommended you use for the 1-2 sentence explanation: 
 
  • The selection of topics includes multiple intellectual approaches to key questions in the field highlighting different viewpoints and perspectives in the discipline.
  • This course includes readings and materials (e.g., video, case studies, classroom artifacts, labs) representing scholars and practitioners with varied theoretical, cultural, and methodological perspectives. Written reflections on readings and other course materials require students to identify and interrogate evidence in support of various perspectives. Class discussions of readings and materials provide opportunities for students to explore and question a broad range of theories and approaches within the discipline, foster critical thinking, and develop a nuanced understanding of the fieldā€™s core issues and debates.
  • Students in the class will complete assignments that ask them to argue for an interpretation of one or more of the texts in the class. Although arguments based on misreadings of the literal meaning receive lower grades, all well-supported arguments are equally valued for purposes of assigning a grade.
  • Assignments in this class routinely ask students to relate the course material to their own interests and values. All authentic and well-explained connections are treated as equally valid.
  • In class discussions on various topics, students are able to share diverse perspectives related to the topic.  While various perspectives or ideas may be critiqued in class discussion, all participants are expected to treat the opinions and perspectives of others with respect.