Dr. Miranda Melcher is an educational technologist at City, University of London (FHEA, CMALT). She supports academics in making their teaching more inclusive, especially for neurodiverse students and students with disabilities and/or mental health challenges. She supports academics to embed low-effort, high-impact behavioural techniques into their teaching practices.
She offers bespoke workshops (feedback below) and shares ideas through publications and talks.
Dr. Melcher has taught hundreds of students, including: military officers at the Joint Services Command and Staff College (UK) and Ecole de Guerre (France), undergraduate students at King’s College London (UK) and Northern Illinois University (USA), and disadvantaged young people at secondary schools throughout Greater London and Essex as a tutor with The Brilliant Club (UK). She has also provided 1:1 academic support for since 2017, primarily working with neurodiverse students and/or those with mental health needs.
Workshops
Based on her years of teaching online and in person, Miranda wrote Teaching to Include Everyone: A Practical Guide for Online Teaching of Neurodiverse and Disabled Students (September 2020). She provides three overarching principles and practical how-to tips that include examples and explanations for teachers of all kinds.
In workshops developed from this guide, participants will learn how to apply Miranda’s three principles to make their teaching and/or research practices more inclusive, especially students with disabilities, neurodiversities, and mental health challenges.
Workshops range from 60-120 minutes long, and can accommodate 8-100 participants.
These workshops have been delivered successfully for various higher education institutions including at King’s College London, City, University of London, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, University of Leicester, Leeds Archdiocese, and the JISC Accessibility Council with notably high attendance, engagement, and positive feedback. The workshop was also selected via competitive peer-reviewed processes to be presented at conferences including the Association for Learning Technology Conference 2021.
Please contact Miranda if you'd like to learn more about inclusive teaching workshops.
Talks
Miranda presented at the Assessment in Higher Education (AHE) conference on her innovative curriculum and assessment design choices taught for a US undergraduate course in 2019. (June 2023)
Miranda presented as part of the Digitally Enhanced Education webinar series, on ‘Teaching inclusively to improve student engagement and accessibility.” (September 2021)
Miranda spoke on Jisc’s Beyond the Technology podcast about the power of the chat in live-teaching to improve student engagement and accessibility, especially without cameras. The episode is one of the series most popular and received over 3,700 listens in the first few months! (June 2021)
Miranda gave a presentation on “What students actually want from online learning: results from a university-wide study of student digital accessibility needs.” This was delivered to the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) in April 2021 and to MoodleMoot UK/Ireland in May 2021.
Miranda speaks on the Enabled in Academia podcast about learning differences and neurodiversities, her career working with students, and how she is working to make education more inclusive. (March 2021)
In this instalment of King's College London's New Voices in Global Security seminar series , Miranda shares some best practices for inclusive practice both online and face-to-face, and answers questions about pedagogical practices, key tips, and the importance of accessible learning for all students. (March 2021)
In this JISC Accessibility panel, Miranda discusses general principles and some examples of inclusive teaching practice for an audience of specialists across UK higher education. (November 2020)
Inclusive Teaching Workshop Feedback
“This inclusive teaching workshop was such a great experience, and it has made such a difference to how I am approaching my seminars this year. Miranda clarified the issues, and gave out some really useful, practical advice on how to easily incorporate more inclusive practices into my teaching. I think my teaching over the last year has become better for every one of my students thanks to this course. I can't recommend highly enough.”
— Emily Brown, PhD student/teaching assistant, King’s College London
“I plan to use the ideas and lessons used in this workshop immediately. I learnt a lot from ideas raised from both Miranda and the experience of other GTAs. Miranda was a great presenter, and I strongly recommend this teaching be included as paid GTA training in the future, preferably before teaching starts for the highest and most positive impact on teaching.”
— UK PhD student/teaching assistant
“It has been one of the best workshops I have attended in a long time - thank you!”
— Association for Learning Technology Conference, 2021
“[From this workshop] I would like to review I module I convene and review how the 3 principles are currently met and where the gaps are. I would also like to mention the offer of help more frequently throughout the course.”
— Association for Learning Technology Conference, 2021
“I will make a specific effort to be explicit about expectations and the availability of accommodations and flexibility [in applications and hiring processes].”
— US professional services staff
“The big boom for me during this 90 min was that more than being able to identify students that are struggling (this was one of my aims) is to adapt my teaching to be accessible to everyone without singling out anyone.”
— UK PhD student/teaching assistant
“I'm going to apply the specific-transparent-mindful approach to my interviews and panel discussion. Great tips. Thank you.”
— US post-doctoral fellow
”I'm not a teacher but I support teaching colleagues to set up their online modules. I will definitely use the three principles, particularly making sure on-screen instructions/info for activities etc are really clear. I loved the idea of using Google Docs instead of sharing screen too.”
— UK educational technologist
“I wish I'd had all this information when I first started GTA'ing [graduate teaching assistant]. I believe this workshop should be compulsory for all GTAs.”
— UK PhD student/teaching assistant
“I'm going to share some of the key learnings with my team and think about how we teach at the moment. There are some things we are doing already but some things we should be doing differently.”
— UK lecturer
”Excellent workshop! Really practical and sensible tips, lovely to meet like-minded colleagues and share best practice. Would strongly recommend this type of training is made available for all faculty and that Dr Melcher is highly commended :)”
— UK higher education lecturer
”This was an extremely useful and practical workshop. Miranda Melcher shared numerous tips to make easy changes to our lessons, making them much more accessible to all. I felt inspired and can't wait to put her tips and ideas into action.”
— UK lecturer
“I found this training to be very useful and relevant in terms of the topic, as well as in the manner of the presentation and the pedagogic approach. With the changes in our learning environment this year, I would strongly recommend this particular training and hope for similar ones.”
— UK PhD student/teaching assistant
“As with any presentation like this, I started to think about whether or not it could be shortened. However, on reflection, I think this was a very efficient use of the group's time. Kudos on designing this so well!”
— US senior academic
“This is the second time I've attended a workshop of yours, Miranda, and I find them super clear and extremely helpful. Thank you so much!”
— Association for Learning Technology Conference, 2021
“I look forward to making practical adjustments that will help to make the session more accessible and inclusive for neurodiverse students and those with disabilities. The session has made me more reflective on how different learners can access the material and reaffirmed the importance of listening to the students themselves (not presuming we know what everybody needs).”
— UK lecturer
“This has been really really helpful. I feel more confident if I face any of these issues in class and I know where to go.”
— UK PhD student/teaching assistant
“This was wonderfully helpful. Both on a practical level and lots to think about.”
— UK higher education professor
“I will try to incorporate them in my classes as much as I can, all the points that have been raised were important and made me think about how to increase the quality of my teaching method.”
— UK PhD student/teaching assistant
“I thought the hour went by quickly which is a hard thing to accomplish during a workshop!”
— US academic practitioner