Measuring Equity-Promoting Behaviors in Digital Teaching Simulations: A Topic Modeling Approach

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues are urgent in education. We developed evaluated a massive open online course ( N = 963) with embedded equity simulations that attempted to equip educators teaching practices. Applying structural topic model (STM)—a type of natural language processing (NLP)—we examined how participants different attitudes responded simulations. Over sequence four simulations, the simulation behavior less equitable beliefs converged be more similar simulated ES [effect size] 1.08 SD). This finding was corroborated by overall changes mindsets 0.88 SD) changed self-reported equity-promoting practices 0.32 Digital when combined NLP offer compelling approach both about DEI topics formatively assessing learner large-scale learning environments.