cloth woven from strands labeled as empathy, awareness, presence, and trust

This page provides an overview of humanizing and does not contain any practice activities.

Dr. Michelle Pacansky-Brock, humanizing pioneer and current Professional Development Coordinator at Foothill College, has has developed a wealth of resources to help online instructors around the world to create supportive, learning-rich experiences for their students. Most of the resources curated for you below were developed by her. Thank you Dr. Pacansky-Brock for helping us to humanize!

What is humanizing?

To learn what humanizing is, Michelle Pacansky-Brock's Humanizing Visual Guide is the best place to start. It provides an overview with links to examples and further resources.

Michelle Pacansky-Brock also developed the Humanizing Online STEM Project. This site contains great information for instructors in any discipline, including the opportunity to sign up to receive the Humanizing Toolkit!

Humanizing as an equity practice

Learn about the theoretical underpinnings of humanizing as a practice that can help close equity gaps in online classes in this 2022 article by Michelle Pacansky-Brock, Michael Smedshammer and Kimberly Vincent-Layton for the Journal of Educational Research & Practice: In Search of Belonging Online: Achieving Equity Through Transformative Professional Development.

Brain science and "the why"

This video below was created by Valerie Pennington and posted on the Online Network of Educators web site. It will help you quickly understand the value of humanizing.

Want to learn more?

This 2-minute video reviews some of the foundational concepts and techniques of humanizing. If you like this video, you can find more great content on Michelle Pacanasky-Brock's YouTube channel.

How and Why to Humanize Your Online Class infographic 2.0 by Michelle Pacansky-Brock. This infographic is shared with a CC-BY-NC license.
Online Network of Educators. (2017, September 20). Introduction to Humanizing Online Learning: @ONE Webinar [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Xt0gDI9NgLA
Pacansky-Brock, M. (n.d.). Home [YouTube channel]. YouTube. Retrieved November 12, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbJW4Qto2tnafiDwBaA5fyA
Pacansky-Brock, M. (2019, January 23). Introduction to Humanizing Online learning. Online Network of Educators. https://onlinenetworkofeducators.org/2017/10/02/intro-to-humanizing
Pacansky-Brock, M., Smedshammer, M., & Vincent-Layton, K. (2022). In Search of Belonging Online: Achieving Equity Through Transformative Professional Development. Journal of Educational Research & Practice, 12(0), 39–64. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1801&context=jerap
ThePenguinProf. (2020, December 7). Hacking the limbic system: comfort, fear, excitement and learning [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmCYywtna2I
Pennington, V. (2021, April 14). The Brain Science Behind Humanized Online Teaching. Online Network of Educators. https://onlinenetworkofeducators.org/2021/04/14/the-brain-science-behind-humanized-online-teaching
What is Humanizing? (n.d.). Michelle Pacansky-Brock. Retrieved September 22, 2023, from https://brocansky.com/humanizing