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Students are motivated and empowered to learn when we help them see value and purpose in what they’re learning and have high expectations for them.

Whether you’re seeking to refine an existing course or embarking on the design of an entirely new one, attending to relevance is one of the most important steps you can take to advance student learning and cultivate more equitable student outcomes. By relevance, we mean the degree to which learners can identify themselves in a course. Relevance advances equitable outcomes primarily because it is key to motivating students and to ensuring that they feel seen and that they matter. We have also seen that a lack of perceived relevance can influence students’ decision-making about their educational journeys. As coauthor Mays Imad describes, “I have watched talented, creative, high-potential students walk away from the sciences because STEM curriculum [often] lacks ethical, political, and creative significance.”²

We hope that after reading this unit you’ll see that increasing the personal relevance of your course to students doesn’t mean you try to make everything interesting to them or limit your teaching to what’s practical in the “real world.” It also does not require that you become deeply familiar with the experiences and backgrounds of each of your students every semester. Rather, enhancing relevance is a mindset, a set of practices, and an opportunity to get to know your students.

Equity-minded course design also requires a commitment to rigor, by which we mean academic challenge that supports student learning and growth.³ We recognize that the term rigor is sometimes coded language signaling that “some students deserve to be here, and some don’t,” as University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, professors Jordynn Jack and Viji Sathy have noted.⁴ So why have we chosen to center this concept? First, because rigor is a pervasive academic construct that is essential to learning. Second, because we want to challenge the common presumption that equity-mindedness requires a reduction of rigor or standards. This notion is not only inaccurate; it is also deficit minded, reflecting the belief that some students are intellectually deficient or limited, and that the only way to improve their success and remedy performance gaps is to lower our standards or expectations. Third and relatedly, because maintaining rigor empowers students to live up to their potential, defy stereotypes about their abilities, and thrive in their future lives and careers.

This unit begins with a synthesis of research on both educational relevance and rigor. It then introduces two models of course design that will be referenced throughout this section, pointing out opportunities to enhance both relevance and rigor in your course learning goals, which are the anchors of course design. (Ideas on how to enhance relevance and rigor in other parts of your course are provided in later sections.)