OERs Can Support Active Learning

Active Learning is a phrase used by educators to mean an approach to classroom activities in which students engage the material they study through reading, writing, talking, listening, and reflecting. In contrast, a traditional instructor is sometimes referred to as the "sage on the stage," where the teacher does most of the talking and students are passive.

Proponents of active learning suggest augmenting classroom activities by talking and listening in small groups, and having students write, read, and reflect on material. A variety of classroom tools have been forwarded for engaging students including discussion of scenarios and case studies, one minute papers, "shared brainstorming," and the like. For more details, see a site sponsored by the University of Minnesota that provides a list of basic active learning activities or a summary from the University of Vanderbilt.

Active learning is typically used in reference to classroom activities but it can also refer to a textbook that is online. In our implementation of Loss Data Analytics, we propose to include a number of interactive features that will allow a student to actively explore the content. The features that we will include will be an online glossary, quizzes at the end of each section, video explanations of concepts, interactive statistical code, and so forth.

When taken outside of the classroom, the concept of active learning promotes one of the deeper learning goals set forth by some educational leaders: The ability to learn how to learn independently. We hope that instructors will be able to use the online text so that students can discover how to monitor and direct their own work and learning.