How to Use Active Learning (With Canvas)
Impact on Learning
Assessment Strategies
Relevant Technologies
Things to Consider
Bibliography
Active learning is a category of instructional approaches used to engage students through numerous types of dynamic activities. “Active learning stands in contrast to ‘traditional’ modes of instruction in which students are passive recipients of knowledge from an expert. It can take many forms and be executed in any discipline” (Center for Educational Innovation, n.d.). Typically, active learning involves students in learning through doing or through thinking about what they are doing to learn. “In an active learning classroom, students must think, create and solve problems rather than passively listen to lecture” (Learning Innovation & Lifetime Education, n.d.). Active learning instructional strategies can be completed by students either in class or outside of class, in traditional courses and online courses, and can be either independent or in the form of group projects or assignments.
When selecting active learning instructional approaches for your class, look for activities that will:
- Engage students in thinking critically or creatively.
- Provide opportunities to work with a partner or small group.
- Allow students to explore prior knowledge, attitudes, and values.
- Create opportunities for giving and receiving feedback.
- Address course learning outcomes, especially with topics students typically find confusing.
How to Use Active Learning (With Canvas)
The following are some examples of instructional approaches used to engage students through active learning including Canvas tools that can be used for each:
- student response systems
- guest speakers
- peer learning
- case studies
- discussion
- collaborative learning
- gaming
Impact on Learning
The impact of active learning has been well documented over time. According to Prince (2004), active learning strategies can impact instruction through:
- improving short-term and long-term recall of information
- improving student academic performance
- increasing conceptual understanding (twice as much as compared to a traditional course)
- improving retention in academic programs
- increasing student attention
- promoting student engagement
- addressing students’ misconceptions
- developing enhanced critical thinking skills
- improving students’ self-esteem
- improving interpersonal relationships
- improving teamwork skills
Assessment Strategies
Active learning requires students to engage with the content being taught. This often makes active learning a natural fit for formative assessment. Formative assessment allows instructors to quickly determine whether students have grasped the content; it also reveals any weakness in comprehension or application of knowledge. By frequently checking to see whether students got the concept, instructors can easily adjust the scope and sequence to compensate for student progress.
Relevant Technologies
Active learning instructional approaches listed above in the section How to Use Active Learning (With Canvas) include information on technologies that can be used either in class or in online learning. Addition relevant technologies to consider include:
Virtual whiteboards: Tools like Microsoft Whiteboard and Zoom Whiteboard support students in brainstorming ideas, creating mind maps, and engaging in collaborative writing activities.
Group presentations and websites: VoiceThread is designed to promote asynchronous collaboration and teamwork, and it serves as a great platform for students to create group presentations that leverage different types of digital media. Website-building tools, like Sites at Penn State, serve as another means for groups to collect and publish collaborative digital work.
Polls and surveys: Software for interactive polls and quizzes can be used to create activities for in-person, hybrid, and fully online classes. Some options, like H5P live engagement tools and Kahoot! have a gamified design to better engage students in knowledge check activities. Other options, like Microsoft Forms and Google Forms, can be configured as self-paced quizzes or survey tools that allow you to share results in different ways.
Reflective writing: Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and other similar software for document creation support writing activities that allow students to think critically about what they’ve learned and how they can apply it.
Multimedia projects and websites: Viewing, analyzing, critiquing, and creating multimedia content can engage students and help them visualize complex concepts (Andreas, 2023). Kaltura, YouTube, and Adobe Creative Cloud all support the creation and sharing of different types of multimedia content.
Videoconferencing: Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom are examples of tools that can be used for online synchronous group meetings.
For more suggestions, MERLOT offers additional peer-reviewed classroom activities online (search under active learning).
Things to Consider
In the well known article “Twilight of the Lecture,” Harvard Magazine (2012) shares classic insights from renowned physics professor Eric Mazur regarding the continuing shift in higher education towards active learning. Mazur’s insights still ring true as seen through the following list of items to consider when implementing active learning pedagogical approaches, and recommendations on how to benefit the most from this approach:
- Active learning means having students take new information and apply it, not just take notes about it.
- Using active learning strategies means revamping instruction; it is the opposite of the “transfer of information” model that higher education has been entrenched in for hundreds of years.
- Students resist active learning, often complaining that they are having to do all the work and that the instructor is not “teaching.”
- Lecturers are challenged to consider what they can do during class time that contributes most to student learning.
- Technology plays a large role in contemporary instructional methods, including active learning.
- Classrooms and lecture halls are typically not optimally designed for active learning.
Bibliography
Andreas, N. B. (2023, August 9). Unleashing the power of active learning: Revolutionizing online education for unprecedented engagement and achievement. Faculty Focus, Higher Ed Teaching & Learning. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-student-engagement/unleashing-the-power-of-active-learning-revolutionizing-online-education-for-unprecedented-engagement-and-achievement/
Center for Educational Innovation. (n.d.). Active learning. University of Minnesota. https://cei.umn.edu/teaching-resources/active-learning
Center for Teaching Innovation. (n.d.). Active learning. Cornell University. https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/active-collaborative-learning/active-learning
Curriculum and Instructional Support. (n.d.). Active learning. Central Michigan University. https://www.cmich.edu/offices-departments/curriculum-instructional-support/explore-teaching-and-learning/explore-instructional-methods/active-learning
Drake, E. (2015, February 23). Active learning strategies. Central Michigan University. https://www.cmich.edu/office_provost/facit/Pages/Teaching%20and%20Instructional%20Design/active-learning-strategies.aspx
Drake, E., & Battaglia, D. (2014, March 18). Teaching and learning in active learning classrooms. Central Michigan University. https://studylib.net/doc/8246660/teaching-and-learning-in-active-learning-classrooms
Lambert, C. (2012, March/April). Twilight of the lecture. Harvard Magazine. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2012/02/twilight-of-the-lecture
Learning Innovation & Lifetime Education. (n.d.). Active learning techniques for the classroom. Duke University. https://learninginnovation.duke.edu/resources/art-and-science-of-teaching/active-learning-techniques-for-the-classroom/
Prince, M. (2004). Does active learning work? A review of the research. Journal of Engineering Education, 93(3), 223–231. https://www.engr.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/drive/1smSpn4AiHSh8z7a0MHDBwhb_JhcoLQmI/2004-Prince_AL.pdf