How Students’ Lived Experiences Lead to Innovative Course Design (Sara Eisenberg)

It can be hard to talk about racial and gender equality. But Sara’s course, Radical Inclusion Immersion, creates an in-depth curriculum based upon students’ lived memories and experiences, leading to transformation and empathy. In this episode of Course Lab, Danny and Abe talk to Sara Eisenberg about her course and its innovative course design.

Show Notes

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Episode summary: How Students’ Lived Experiences Lead to Innovative Course Design (Sara Eisenberg):

The feeling of a broken world and Sara Eisenberg’s own experience as an activist were drivers in the creation of her four-week online course, Radical Inclusion Immersion, which helps attendees deconstruct their biases. The course teaches simple practices that deepen curiosity, empathy, and visceral understanding of belonging and exclusion and invites a natural shift to more inclusionary behaviors.

In this episode of Course Lab, Danny and Abe discuss Sara’s course and explore how she uses students’ lived memories and experiences to create an in-depth and innovative curriculum. She shares how the pandemic helped her understand that Zoom meetings with the participants created a more intimate environment in which to be vulnerable and safe to share experiences.

 In this episode we discuss:

• The approach of “radical inclusion.” 
• How the students sharing their experiences and perspectives builds the course’s innovative structure.
• How to enroll people into a course with sensitive topics such as racial and gender equality.
• How Sara creates a safe and intimate environment in the group’s Zoom calls.
• Danny and Abe’s debrief after the interview.

“Now I'm closing the loop, bringing the consciousness practices from my healing path back into the work of the  divisive issues of race and gender. Because we haven't made a lot of progress using the tools that we have. ”  

“In some cases, I'm writing the curriculum as we go based on how the students’ material interacts with one another.” – Sara Eisenberg

Guest bio:

Sara Eisenberg is a healer, herbalist, activist, elder, and the founder of  A Life of Practice, her online home, where she integrates her work in Nondual Kabbalistic Healing, Herbal Medicine, and Radical Inclusion with A Life of Practice©.  Sara brings over 35 years of experience as a teacher, facilitator, and healer in academic and community settings to her work. 

Sara teaches CEOs, professionals, activists, and seekers committed to race and gender justice, guiding them to naturally shift to more inclusionary behaviors by engaging them in simple practices that deepen their curiosity, empathy, and visceral understanding of belonging, exclusion, and agency.

In Radical Inclusion Practice©, she partners race and gender justice beginners with seasoned practitioners in a variety of settings: one on one, small group settings by contractual agreement, and in online learning settings where course size is limited to optimize transformational learning.

In spite of her years as a community organizer, nonprofit CEO, and large-systems change agent, Sara was also trying to solve her own pain over the constant harms caused by a broken world. 

Radical Inclusion Practice© is the fruit of her desire to make this path available to others.

Now she offers a 4-week beta course, Radical Inclusion Immersion,  a protected space for professionals, seekers, and activists who:

• are committed to racial and gender justice
• wrestle with being part of the problem they want to solve
• are ready to look within and work with their own stories and lived experiences

Resources or websites mentioned in this episode:

1. Mirasee
2. Sara’s A Life of Practice website
3. Sara’s course, Radical Inclusion Immersion
4. Sara’s LinkedIn

Credits:

• Guest - Sara Eisenberg
• Hosts - Danny Iny & Abe Crystal 
• Producer - Cynthia Lamb 
• Executive producer - Danny Iny
• Assembled by - Geoff Govertsen and Michi Lantz
• Audio Post Supervisor: Evan Miles, Christopher Martin
• Audio Post Production by Post Office Sound
• Music soundscape: Chad Michael Snavely

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Music and SFX credits: 

• Track Title: Bossa BB

Artist Name(s): Marie

Writer Name: Chelsea McGough

Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

• Track Title: Grace

Artist Name(s): Shimmer

Writer Name: Matthew Wigton

Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

• Track Title: Carousel Lights

Artist Name(s): Chelsea McGough

Writer Name: Chelsea McGough

Writer Name: Matthew Wigton

Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

• Track Title: Coo Coos

Artist Name(s): Dresden, The Flamingo

Writer Name: Matthew Wigton

Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

Episode transcript:  How Students’ Lived Experiences Lead to Innovative Course Design (Sara Eisenberg) coming soon

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What is Course Lab: Lessons from Successful Online Course Creators?

Want to create a hugely successful online course, one that has a major impact on the lives of your students? If you want to learn how to create online courses from the best, you turn to Mirasee; and if you want to host that course, you can’t go wrong using the powerful platform, Ruzuku.

Ruzuku co-founder Abe Crystal and Mirasee founder and CEO Danny Iny know what it takes to stand out and be successful in the online courses industry. And now they’re teaming up to share this intel with you in their new Course Lab podcast.

In every episode, Course Lab showcases an entrepreneur/course creator who is nailing it with their online course -- and not because they’re teaching people how to make more money. In fact, most of these creators occupy unusual or overlooked niches, like music, writing for video games, overcoming inherent bias, and finding your life purpose.

Turns out, the key to their success all comes down to their online course design. In this podcast, Danny and Abe reveal the most important design tactics that are making all the difference for these online course creators -- and how you can implement them in your own online course. So if you want to create a successful online course that changes the lives of your students, this is your big chance to learn how it’s done from the best in the industry!