Rami Zeedan ^*

• University of Kansas, Lawrence, United States

This paper presents the results of a collaborative effort to redesign two courses about Israel and Palestine. The focus was on creating a more inclusive learning environment for students. The project aimed to enhance student retention, attendance, participation, and academic performance by implementing four fundamental pedagogical changes. These changes included revising the final assignment as an experiential learning project to improve engagement and retention, introducing group discussions to foster cooperation and active learning, redesigning and scaffolding the final assignment into multiple steps to provide prompt feedback and validation, and providing optional resources such as YouTube videos and podcasts to increase time on task. Additionally, students played a crucial role, as they provided feedback on the changes and were allowed to publish their final projects on a public website, which further motivated them to work on their final assignments. These changes were tested in classes with students from various backgrounds who had difficult discussions during politically transformative times relevant to the topic of these classes. The project's initial results are positive, with significant improvements in drop/fail/withdraw rates, time on task, and grades, providing encouraging evidence of the project's effectiveness in the changes made.