Welcome to the Teaching & Learning Guide for Using Active Learning to Engage Students! 

This guide includes best practices and tips designed to help you: 

• Explore the research on active learning and its effects on student engagement, motivation, and participation;

• Choose active learning activities to include in your Canvas courses;

• Select appropriate active learning teaching strategies;

• Develop your own Active Learning Strategies Plan using the provided template;

• Request support from your Instructional Designer and the Technology Service Desk.

Active learning involves designing activities that engage students through participation and are constructed based on how people learn (Yale Center for Teaching and Learning, 2021). The objective is to ask students to fully participate in learning by thinking, discussing, investigating, and creating. Students participate in a variety of higher-level activities to construct new knowledge and build new skills by solving problems, addressing complex questions, proposing solutions,  explaining ideas through writing or discussions, etc.

You may find it helpful to consider the active learning cycle, which effectively engages students in the process of learning in a way that solidifies new knowledge in their minds and helps them place new concepts in their long-term memory. The cycle is meant to pique student interest first, build on their foundational knowledge, introduce them to concepts via course materials,  and then ask students to apply new knowledge.

Active learning strategies emphasize two key characteristics: motivation (cooperative and social learning through student autonomy) and participation (well-structured, sequenced activities that allow students to internalize information). These active learning strategies are designed to provide structure and assessment of learning goals, as well as support progression of the goals and expectations outlined in the course. The activities you include should work together to form a student engagement cycle that begins with motivation to learn and grow, participation that provides for active involvement, and progression in moving toward clear, relevant goals to support student autonomy (Jonassen et al., 2020). 

Various active learning strategies can be implemented, including reciprocal or paired teaching activities focusing on collaborative problem solving and metacognitive strategies; and cooperative learning principles implemented through peer teaching and coaching; cooperative case studies; and problem-based learning. These active learning activities should create a supportive learning environment where students are free to ask questions, provide feedback, and support their peers in learning new material (Frisby & Martin, 2010). 

Research shows that using active learning narrows the achievement gap for underrepresented students in undergraduate STEM courses (Theobald et al., 2020). 

Benefits include:

• enhanced critical thinking skills

• increased retention and transfer of new information

• increased motivation

• improved interpersonal skills

• decreased course failure. (Prince, 2004)

Active learning reinforces important material, concepts, and skills and provides more immediate and frequent feedback. Taking the time to implement active learning strategies in your course will improve student learning outcomes. 

A sense of community is established when students influence the content, activities, materials, and pace of learning (Cornell University, 2021). Active learning places the student in the center of the learning process while you provide students with opportunities to learn independently and coach them in the skills they need to do so effectively. This approach includes techniques such as reciprocal questioning to encourage an open dialogue. Students are given question stems which provide a foundation for a response but require students to think critically about a topic, text, or another aspect of the course material before answering the question. For example, “Describe x in your own words. What does y mean? How could x be used to y?” 

Correctly implemented active learning strategies can provide students with an increased motivation to learn, better retention of knowledge, deeper understanding, and more positive attitudes towards the subject being taught. 

There is an abundance of active learning strategies you can select to incorporate into your Canvas courses, and the follow section will highlight a few of these strategies and provide tips for implementation. 

You can select the strategies that most closely match the learning outcome you want to achieve for the module or class session. For example, to incorporate cooperative, community-building activities, you could consider concept maps, Venn diagrams, and jigsaw assignments. For well-structured, sequenced activities which encourage participation and allow students time to internalize information, consider the think/pair/share and minute paper options. 

A jigsaw assignment asks students to piece together knowledge by working with other students. Just as a jigsaw puzzle is a collection of various pieces that come together to make a complete picture, the jigsaw method of teaching is a collection of topics that students will develop separately before coming together as a group to assemble the complete concept. To be more specific, this type of cooperative learning strategy allows individuals or small groups to become responsible for a subcategory of a larger topic. 

You could use a jigsaw activity to review your syllabus at the start of a semester. Prompting your students to engage with your syllabus in a meaningful, active way helps them understand and retain the information. 

Consider these technologies to design your syllabus jigsaw activity:

• Create a Google Docs Collaboration for each group using one page for each subcategory. Combine and summarize the results for students.

• Create a Google Slides Collaboration for each group using one slide for each subcategory. Include additional notes and share the results with students.

• Create a Canvas Discussion using one post for each subcategory and have students leave replies with comments and questions. Create a final post that summarizes the different discussions for students. 

A think/pair/share (or think/pair/share/write) assignment begins with the instructor developing the question prompt(s) that target critical content concepts based on assigned texts or research topics. The instructor then describes the purpose of the active learning activity and provides guidelines for discussions. Instructors should model the procedure to ensure that students understand how to use the strategy. Monitor and support students as they work.

• T : (Think) Begin by asking a specific question about the text/topic. Students think about what they know or have learned about the subject. Allow students time and structure to think about the question or problem (optional:write down their thoughts).

• P : (Pair) Each student should be paired with another student or added to a small group. The students work in pairs (or small groups) to answer the question or solve the problem.

• S : (Share) Students share their ideas with the class in a whole-class discussion or small group presentations (optional: students pair up again to decide if their views have changed based on the whole class discussion or presentations) (Simon, 2021).

A minute paper (Angelo & Cross, 1993) asks students to answer a prompt in one to two minutes, as the name implies. This technique of asking students to answer one to three questions is a great tool to provide you with a snapshot of your students’ learning in your course. The minute papers serve as feedback and assessment, allowing for a short and simple format to gauge student learning and response. This is a formative tool that can improve teaching and learning by monitoring student comprehension, providing a glimpse into the strengths and weaknesses of your teaching methods, and modifying student learning experiences. Asking students to reflect on their learning using the minute paper can improve teacher-student collaboration and bridge gaps in understanding. 

Example prompts include: 

• What was the most important thing you learned in this module? 

• What important question remains unanswered? 

• What suggestions do you have to improve this module?

It is crucial to summarize the information collected in the minute paper assignment and report back to the students. Depending on the minute paper results, several actions might be required. Consider responding to the unanswered questions and suggestions individually. For questions mentioned multiple times, provide an answer in your Q&A Discussion in your Canvas course. You could also summarize the minute paper results in class, a Zoom Meeting, a recorded presentation, or a combination of these options depending on what is appropriate. Let students know that you are listening to them and using their feedback to improve the course now or for future students.

Engaging Students: Active Learning and Motivation is included in the Strategies for Transformative Teaching Series of Workshops facilitated by  Faculty Success. These workshops will provide you with best practices and concrete strategies for common teaching tasks, challenges, and opportunities. The workshops draw on research-based best practices from the literature on teaching and learning to help you apply those practices in your courses.

You can work one-on-one with your Instructional Designer at any time during the semester to incorporate the strategies you are learning into your courses or for support with developing your courses in Canvas.

Engaging Students: Active Learning and Motivation Workshop Description

How can you engage students and help them maintain their motivation? You will learn current research and best practices on student engagement in addition to gaining practical tips that will help you incorporate active learning strategies as you assess and maintain student motivation throughout the semester.

• Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.

• Caruana, V. (2012). Scaffolding student learning: Tips for getting started. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/course-design-ideas/scaffolding-student-learning-tips-for-getting-started/ 

• Cornell University. (2021). Active learning. Center for Teaching Innovation. https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/engaging-students/active-learning 

• Frisby, B. N., & Martin, M. M. (2010). Instructor-student and student-student rapport in the classroom. Communication Education, 59(2), 146-164. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03634520903564362 

• Jonassen, D. H., Howard, J. L., Marra, R. M., & Crismond, D. P. (2020). How does technology facilitate learning? Education.com. https://www.education.com/download-pdf/reference/22304/ 

• Prince, M. (2004). Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of Engineering Education, 93(3), 223-231. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2004.tb00809.x 

• Simon, C. A. (2021). Using the think-pair-share technique. read write think. http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/using-think-pair-share-30626.html 

• Theobald, E. J., Hill, M. J., Tran, E., Agrawal, S., Arroyo, E. N., & Behling, S. (2020, Mar). Active learning narrows achievement gaps for underrepresented students in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and math. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(12), 6476-6483. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1916903117 

• Yale Center for Teaching and Learning. (2021). Active Learning. Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/sites/default/files/basic-page-supplementary-materials-files/active_learning_handout.pdf 

Instructional Designers

Instructional Designers in Faculty Success design and present learning solutions to continually enhance institutional and instructor performance. We collaborate closely with instructors to translate course objectives into meaningful, customized courses tailored to each instructor’s specific needs, leveraging an aptitude for design and development, along with excellent problem-solving and analytical skills. 

Our technical expertise encompasses a range of programs and best practices, including Canvas, Quality Assurance, Universal Design, and more. Instructional Designers meet with academic components to answer questions about teaching and learning in one-on-one consultations, small group work, symposia, and workshops.

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