Research Minute is a faculty spotlight series featuring educators and researchers participating in the D2L Educators-in-Residence program. Each conversation explores a teaching and learning challenge, the research it inspired and a practical insight educators can apply in their own work.
Meet the Researchers
Heather Horowitz, Ed.D. (she/her/hers), is a program coordinator and assistant professor in the Educational Leadership and Change Ed.D. program at SUNY Empire State. Her research focuses on inclusive teaching and learning environments in higher education, with an emphasis on trauma-informed pedagogy, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and equity-driven approaches to online course design. Drawing on over 15 years of experience in student affairs and leadership roles, Heather brings a practitioner-scholar perspective to her work. She is currently leading a SUNY Educators-in-Residence project on trauma-informed and inclusive design in D2L and contributes to national conversations on inclusive pedagogy through publications and conference presentations. Her teaching and advising philosophy centers care, equity, and liberation, fostering conditions where students feel valued and supported as whole people.
Alyssa Garnich, M.Ed., M.S.S., L.S.W (she/her) has over 15 years of experience working in higher education student services at a variety of institutions. Alyssa is passionate about educating students, faculty, and staff about trauma and advocating for the application of trauma informed principles to higher education settings. She is currently a Senior Academic Advisor at Temple’s School of Social Work, part of the College of Public Health, working with a caseload of both undergraduate and graduate students. In 2022, Alyssa earned a graduate certificate in Trauma and Resilience from Wilmington University.
Research Focus
In this Research Minute, we speak with Heather Horowitz about the research she conducted in partnership with Alyssa Garnich. Together, they examined how trauma-informed pedagogy, Universal Design for Learning and inclusive course design can foster belonging, engagement, student well-being and psychological safety in online higher education.
Using D2L Brightspace as the foundation for their study, they explored how intentional course design and LMS features can reduce barriers and support meaningful, learner-centered experiences for doctoral students.
1. What teaching and learning question or problem inspired this research?
As an educator in a fully online doctoral program, I wanted to better understand how faculty and instructional designers could intentionally design online courses to support belonging, engagement, and student well-being. While trauma-informed and inclusive pedagogies have gained increasing attention in higher education, there is still limited research examining how educators can leverage specific LMS features to create supportive, equitable, and learner-centered online environments. This study was inspired by a desire to explore how intentional LMS design can reduce barriers and foster meaningful learning experiences for doctoral students.
2. What did you hope to better understand?
I hoped to better understand how doctoral students experience trauma-informed and inclusive course design within Brightspace. As an instructor in a primarily asynchronous online doctoral program, I wanted to create a learning environment where students felt connected, supported, and comfortable challenging both themselves and one another. Online learners can easily experience isolation and disconnection, so I was interested in how intentional course design could foster a stronger sense of community, belonging, and engagement. I was also interested in identifying the opportunities and challenges associated with implementing trauma-informed practices in online learning environments and understanding how technology and pedagogy work together to create a meaningful learning community.
3. What is one important thing you learned—or that surprised you?
One of the most important findings was that students viewed the instructor’s intentional design choices as more influential than the technology itself. While Brightspace tools supported accessibility, engagement, and organization, participants consistently emphasized that their sense of belonging and support came from how those tools were used to create human connection, flexibility, trust, and psychological safety.
4. How did Brightspace support the teaching practice or research you explored?
Brightspace served as the foundation for implementing trauma-informed and UDL-aligned practices throughout the course. Features such as Ally accessibility support, Creator+ interactive content, embedded multimedia, announcements, rubrics, flexible assignment pathways, and structured module design helped create a learning environment that emphasized transparency, accessibility, learner choice, and connection. Brightspace also supported the integration of external tools such as VoiceThread, which expanded opportunities for multimodal engagement, peer interaction, social learning, and community building. Rather than functioning solely as a content delivery platform, Brightspace became a vehicle for enacting inclusive, relationship-centered, and trauma-informed pedagogy.
5. Finish this sentence: “One thing I hope other educators take from this research is…”
One thing I hope other educators take from this research is that creating trauma-informed and inclusive online learning environments does not require faculty to be experts in every aspect of pedagogy, technology, accessibility, or course design. Some of the most impactful design choices in this course emerged through collaboration with colleagues who brought expertise in areas where I had less experience, particularly around LMS tools. Trauma-informed and inclusive learning environments are strengthened when educators partner with instructional designers, online learning professionals, accessibility specialists, and others who can help translate pedagogical goals into intentional learning experiences. Students experience belonging, psychological safety, and engagement when digital tools are paired with thoughtful pedagogy, meaningful choice, clear communication, and authentic human connection.
Want to see what else Heather Horowitz has been working on? Click here for more.
Written by:
