Active Learning

What & Why

Active learning is a learning approach that focuses on students actively engaging in the learning process, as compared to “traditional” learning where students are passive recipients of knowledge from the instructor. Active learning refers to a broad range of teaching strategies which engage students as active participants in their learning. Typically, these strategies involve students working together during class, but may also involve individual work and/or reflection.

Strategies range from short, simple activities like journal writing, problem-solving, and paired discussions, to longer, involved activities or pedagogical frameworks like case studies, role plays, and structured team-based learning. Active learning involves varied types of formative assessments, with research showing that in summative assessments, students do as well as or better than in traditional lecture environments.

Active learning does not abandon the lecture format, and some types of active learning strategies can make lecturing more effective for students. Lectures may also be recorded for individual viewing before students gather to apply that content (Sourced from CEI, University of Minnesota).

Active learning builds on the Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (Chickering & Gamson, 2017):

Encourages contact between students and faculty
Develops reciprocity and cooperation among students.
Encourages active learning.
Gives prompt feedback.
Emphasizes time on task.
Communicates high expectations.
Respects diverse talents and ways of learning.

How To

Active learning strategies involve students learning in new ways, and they may initially be resistant to these activities. Steps to take:

Choose meaningful activities or questions. Students value relevant activities over busy work.
Explain your rationale to students. Sharing the benefits of active learning and supporting research will help increase engagement and adoption.
Develop a facilitation approach. Students can work individually, in pairs or groups, or any of these combinations. The focus is that “the one who does the work does the learning.” Terry Doyle
Gather and record feedback. Allowing the appropriate amount of time for students’ activities, or the level of detail they need can take some trial and error attempts. Take notes on what to change for next time, and ask students for feedback.

Additional Resources

Engage the Sage: The Value of Active Learning (8:22) and Engage the Sage: Top 10 Tips for Using Active Learning (8:03) - Don Saucier, Professor, Psychological Sciences at Kansas State University. (2022)
A comprehensive meta-analysis of 225 science, engineering and mathematics education studies by Freeman et al. (2014) demonstrated that active learning can significantly increase course grades over didactic methods and is particularly effective in small classes of <50 students. In their analysis, students in courses without active learning were 1.5 times more likely to fail the course than students in courses with active learning.
Best practices for synchronous sessions in online courses (CID Resource)
Active Learning while Physical Distancing - document of crowdsourced active learning activities from Louisiana State University

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