Dickinson’s Office of LGTBQ Services has launched a new online training that aims to educate the campus about the LGBTQ community.

The training, called LGBTQ 101, will appear on Moodle and can be completed on any time frame after signing up with the Office of LGBTQ Services. Interim Director of the office Erica Gordon said that the new program is important for the community because “it provides participants with an important baseline of LGBTQ-related knowledge.”

Gordon, who led the creation of the program, said that the training was created “as a way to allow students, faculty, staff and administrators to receive important information about the LGBTQ community in a self-directed, accessible format.”

LGBTQ 101 covers topics such as teaching basic LGBTQ terminology, exploring the sexual and gender binaries, examining privilege and forms of oppression, understanding pronouns and learning some basic symbols of the LGBTQ community. The training is divided into four sections, and asks participants to view and study four PowerPoint presentations, after which they are to take short three-to-five-question quizzes on Moodle.

“It is our hope that having this training as an option will allow more people to engage with this material,” Gordon said.

Gordon said that the training has gone through “fine-tuning” this fall, and that the Office of LGBTQ Services is planning on marketing the program heavily in the spring semester. Right now, about 20 people are signed up for the program, according to Gordon.

“I hope that we will be able to reach more people than we normally would be able to,” said Gordon. “It is sometimes difficult to schedule in-person trainings with all of the organizations and departments that are interested.”

In addition to being a resource for the community and relieving pressure from the Office of LGBTQ Services, Gordon also said that the training will be a prerequisite for future programs, such as an upcoming “Safe Zone” program in the spring.

Dickinsonians can register for the program at tinyurl.com/DsonLGBTQ101 or by emailing [email protected].