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Browse answers to frequently asked questions.
Students
Perspectives is a blended learning program that uses psychology and interactive activities to teach ways to engage across differences and work through conflict. Students who complete the program gain communication and collaboration skills essential for academic, professional, and personal success.
The program includes interactive online lessons (30 mins each), video and audio content, and may also include peer-to-peer conversation guides, depending on which version of Perspectives your instructor has assigned.
Constructive dialogue is a form of conversation where people with different perspectives try to understand each other — without giving up their own beliefs — in order to work together.
There are five principles of constructive dialogue:
- Let go of winning.
- Ask questions to understand.
- Share your story and invite others to do the same.
- Make yourself and others feel heard.
- Find what's shared.
Perspectives dives deeper into each principle, but you can read more about constructive dialogue here.
The Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI) is a nonprofit organization that helps college students build mindsets and skills to communicate, collaborate, and address conflict across differences.
At CDI, we make research-backed education tools for universities/colleges, and educators to use with their students. Perspectives is one of the education tools we offer.
Your school or instructor will invite you to Perspectives using either an email or a signup link.
If you are invited by email:
You’ll receive the invitation email from no-reply@eduflowmail.com and the subject line will begin with “You have been invited to the course…”
The email will include a link to “Join Course”
Follow that link to create your Perspectives account
Once you create your account, bookmark this link for accessing Perspectives going forward: learn.constructivedialogue.org
If you are invited by signup link:
Follow that link to create your Perspectives account
Once you create your account, bookmark this link for accessing Perspectives going forward: learn.constructivedialogue.org
The link you received will allow you to create your Perspectives account and begin completing the course assigned by your school or instructor. We recommend bookmarking the link to the Perspectives login page so you can easily access your account going forward: learn.constructivedialogue.org.
Additional instructions from your school or instructor may have come in a separate email, orientation guide, or another form of communication. We recommend checking your email to see if you missed them or if they went into your spam folder.
Perspectives incorporates "life hacks" into each lesson. You’ll reflect on real-life scenarios that help you envision use cases for the skills you are gaining from the program.
The skills you’ll gain from the program can help with:
Roommate disagreements
Arguments with relatives about politics
Debates with classmates
Collaboration on school or work projects
Managing emotions during heated discussions
Making and maintaining friendships with people from different backgrounds than your own
The course in your Perspectives account may include two lessons, four lessons, or six lessons, depending on how it was configured by your school or instructor. It may also include 1-3 peer-to-peer conversations or no peer-to-peer conversations at all.
We recommend completing all of the lessons and activities that appear in the course and reaching out to your school or instructor if you have any questions about what exactly is required.
A Peer-to-Peer is a guided conversation you complete with one or more other students. These conversations allow you to practice the skills you’ve been learning from Perspectives, while also building connections with your peers. Many students even report being pleasantly surprised at how the peer-to-peer conversations allowed them to form connections (and even friendships) in a new way!
Each Peer-to-Peer comes with a PDF guide with prompts and instructions to lead you through the conversation, and each conversation is designed to take 30-40 minutes to complete. (Some students enjoy talking to each other so much that they go over time. That's okay!)
Your school or instructor will provide information about who your group is and how to contact them. Once you have that information, you should reach out to your group to schedule a time for the conversation(s).
If you will be completing peer-to-peer conversations as part of your Perspectives course, then your school or instructor will let you know who your group is and how to contact them to schedule your peer-to-peer conversations.
If you do not have this information yet, please reach out to your school or instructor.
If you have other questions about Perspectives or need technical support, please contact us at info@constructivedialogue.org for assistance.
If you have other questions about your class, registration, orientation, or anything else not related to Perspectives, please get in touch with your school or instructor.