What is active learning?
Active learning is a term used to describe instructional strategies that promote students’ active participation in knowledge construction processes. Such strategies may include hands-on activities, brief writing and discussion assignments, problem solving tasks, information gathering and synthesis, question generation, and reflection-based activities, among others. Together, these approaches seek to engage learners’ higher order thinking skills through the production and articulation of knowledge, as opposed to through the passive transmission of facts and ideas.
Active learning strategies are built upon constructivist theories of learning, which emphasize the importance of building connections between one’s prior knowledge and new experiences and concepts. As such, active learning tasks are designed to tease out learners’ current understanding, make that understanding explicit, and then create opportunities for learners to integrate new knowledge into their understanding.
Typically, active learning strategies involve a mixture of individual and collaborative tasks, giving students the chance to reflect or predict outcomes, and then to share and discuss their ideas with peers. Activities can last anywhere from mere minutes to large segments of a class period; the point is simply to activate learners’ cognitive processes while they are in class. The information below will help you design and implement strategies that support this decidedly broad category of instructional methods. The Center for Teaching and Learning is happy to help!
What Does Active Learning Look Like in the Classroom?
In a course focused on active learning, students are truly engaged in the learning process.
- Students might be grappling with the course material by working collaboratively on problems.
- They are constantly processing what they are learning.
- Students may look at PowerPoint slides, but they are also discussing or debating questions posed by the instructor and are asked to critically analyze the information presented.
- They may search the Internet, but they are looking for data and resources to support their arguments.
- In some cases, they are exposed to an extensive amount of material outside of class so that most of the in-class time can be devoted to hands-on learning.
In fact, some courses are so active that an outside observer might not be able to immediately identify who the instructor is, as the instructor might be circulating and interacting with groups of working students.
What are the benefits?
Active learning helps students reflect on their understanding by encouraging them to make connections between their prior knowledge and new concepts. Often, active learning tasks ask students to make their thinking explicit, which also allows instructors to gauge student learning. Although most of the literature on active learning has focused on STEM disciplines, research suggests that active learning may benefit students in any field, particularly students who have had fewer educational opportunities, or encounters with active learning in high school. Several studies have shown that students in active learning classrooms have a lower rate of failure, and perform better on assessments than students in a traditional lecture.
It takes time and creativity to effectively incorporate active learning strategies into teaching and achieve the full benefits across instructional settings and disciplines. Faculty can reach out to the staff at the Center for Teaching and Learning for help implementing active learning into their courses.
Best practices
Because active learning encompasses so many different varieties of classroom activity, it is important to keep in mind a few core principles when designing active learning tasks:
Above all, active learning tasks should target specific learning objectives.
They should help students develop the knowledge and skills that they are expected to acquire in your course.
Identifying an argument, using evidence to support a claim, organizing information, and defining a given problem are all skills that support complex learning objectives, such as writing and problem solving.
Active learning tasks should aim to provide students with opportunities to practice and gain proficiency in such skills.
Active learning tasks should provide a low barrier-to-entry, and invite involvement among all students. Therefore, tasks should be simple or discrete. For more complex tasks, instructors should provide clear instructions that outline (and model) how students will participate in the activity.
- How will students engage with each other in the activity?
- What are the ground rules or guidelines for group interaction?
Answering these questions explicitly will help students understand what is expected of their participation.
Ideally, feedback should not only target the skills and knowledge students are expected to acquire from the course learning objectives, it should clearly indicate how students can improve their performance or enhance their understanding of the topic at hand.
While providing detailed, individual feedback is often time consuming for individual instructors, and therefore difficult to achieve in a single class period, feedback from an active learning task can come from a variety of sources.
Peer-based discussions or review sessions in which students receive a rubric with which to assess their classmates’ learning also provide opportunities for students to both make their thinking explicit, and to obtain informal feedback.
The purpose of feedback in such cases is to provide students with information on their understanding or performance that can guide them towards a desired learning goal. Whether it come from a digital tool such as a survey, or from a classmate, active learning tasks should give students a sense of their learning progress, and help them hone further practice.
Quick tips for getting started with active learning
- Assess the needs of the class
- What topics or ideas do students struggle with most in your course?
- What data or information will help you understand what students are learning?
- Which active learning strategies will provide this data, and ultimately help your students meet their learning objectives?
- Design the activity
- Prepare a timeline to help you manage the activity. Will it take place in the classroom? How long will it last? What instructions will students need to participate in the activity?
- Establish ground rules for the activity. How should students interact with each other? What are they expected to do during the activity?
- Evaluate the activity
- Consider any roadblocks or challenges that you and your students experienced in carrying out the activity. How might these be overcome?
- Elicit feedback from students on whether or not the activity assisted in their learning. Did they find the activity helpful?
- Assess the usefulness of the information the activity provided you. Did the students
improve their understanding of the topic or concept? Can you use data from the activity
to make further improvements to future activities or instruction in general?
Active Learning Activities in the Classroom
Engaging students in individual or small group activities is a great way to get students actively involved in the class. Many students feel more comfortable in small groups (four or less) rather than in large ones. Below you will find several activities that can be used in any classroom to engage students. Many of the activities below can also serve as formative assessments, a way to monitor student learning / understanding.
Exam wrappers are short worksheets students complete when they receive an exam back. An exam wrapper asks students to:
- identify their own individual areas of strength and weakness to guide further study;
- reflect on the adequacy of their preparation time and the appropriateness of their study strategies; and
- characterize the nature of their errors to find any recurring patterns that could be addressed.
When to Use: An exam wrapper is most often done as a survey given to students when they receive their graded exam, giving them a structured opportunity to reflect on their performance.
How to Use: Create your exam wrapper. This can be a Word Document or a short survey created using Canvas Quizzes. Use the questions below to help you think about what your exam wrapper should include:
- How did you study for this exam? What strategies did you use?
- Here you could include a list of study strategies and have students indicate which they used. This can serve as a subtle reminder of the range of study strategies students could draw from when they prepare for the next exam.
- How much time did you spend studying?
- This gives students a chance to connect their studying with the outcome of the exam—the grade—in a way that might motivate them to change their studying behavior for the next exam.
If students are allowed to see the actual graded exam, an error analysis might be included:
- What kinds of errors did you make? Where did you lose points?
- This kind of question could be particularly useful in courses in which later content builds on earlier content, or in which there is a cumulative final exam. You can list types of errors that are common for that exam (e.g., not understanding the problem, using the wrong formulas, calculation errors, etc.)
Some reflective questions can also be included:
- What was difficult for you in this exam? What was easy?
- These questions help students assess how well they know particular parts of the content, so they can review it for subsequent exams.
- What did you do well to prepare for the exam?
- This question has been shown to be particularly beneficial for first-generation college students, to help them overcome a fixed mindset and boost their confidence.
The exam wrapper can also encourage students to begin planning for the next exam:
- What could you do differently to study for the next exam?
- This can encourage students to develop a “study game plan” for the next exam, to help improve their performance.
Carnegie Mellon University Exam Wrapper Examples
Blooms' Level: Remember, Understand, and Analyze/ Analysis & Critical Thinking
Students use an investigative process to discover concepts for themselves. After the instructor identifies an idea or concept for mastery, a question is posed that asks students to make observations, pose hypotheses, and speculate on conclusions. Then students share their thoughts and tie the activity back to the main idea/concept.
Bloom's Level: Application, Analysis, and Critical Thinking
Use real-life stories that describe what happened to a community, family, school, industry, or individual to prompt students to integrate their classroom knowledge with their knowledge of real-world situations, actions, and consequences.
Bloom's Level: Application, Analysis, and Critical Thinking
Students can interact with a survey, poll, or online discussion to respond to questions to determine how familiar they are with the course subject matter.
How It Works: Ask students questions to get a general idea of where your students fall. If most of your students understand the concept at a high level, then you can adjust your coursework to be more challenging. If they fall more on the lower levels of understanding, then you can adjust your course to cover the basics before diving into more challenging work.
Online Methods of Use: You can also ask background probe questions as a discussion forum. You can ask a question similar to the following example: “What is your experience with critical race theory? Have you read books, attended talks, or taken other courses related to this course?”
- Synchoronous - In Person: During the lecture, ask students to respond to questions that check their understanding. You can use Microsoft Forms/Quizzes and embed them into a PowerPoint presentation (only available to Windows users)
- Synchronous - Virtual: Set up a Zoom Poll to use during your live sessions and ask questions about students’ prior knowledge or experience with key terms and concepts in your course.
- Asynchronous: Set up a survey in the Canvas Quizzes tool and ask questions like, “What is your understanding of the concept of intersectionality and how it relates to social issues and identity?”
Learning Level: Recall
Create a New Form or Quiz - Microsoft 365
Insert a Form or Quiz into PowerPoint
Canvas - How to Set up a Survey
Bloom's Level: Remember and Understand
3-2-1 is a graphic organizer that allows students to capture important information from a lecture or reading assignment and give feedback on concepts that may be unclear. 3-2-1 can be used as a “knowledge check” after each lecture to ensure students are interacting with and understanding the content.
In 3-2-1, students write about three things they learned from the lecture, two things they found interesting, and one question they have about the content.
How to Use:
- Graded Quiz/Survey: create 3 open-ended essay questions, assign desired point value, or create total points for zero if grading for completion.
- Assignment: provide directions and template to be downloaded, completed by the student, and submitted as an upload for instructor review.
- Discussion Board: use questions as discussion board prompts.
- During Class: Ask students to jot down and share with a partner or small group:
- 3 ideas/issues etc. presented
- 2 examples or uses of the idea/information covered
- 1 unresolved/remaining question/area of possible confusion
Bloom's Level: Application, Analysis, and Critical Thinking
Prior to the start of class, the instructor places a question in each corner of the room as well as a place for students to write (flipchart, whiteboard, construction paper, etc.).
During the activity, groups of 3-6 people move from corner to corner and answer to each question.
The groups develop a consensus and write their answer directly on each flipchart / whiteboard / paper. When the flipchart has an answer already written by a previous group, the next group revises/expands/ illustrates that response with additional information.
Different colored markers can be used for each group to see what each group wrote for each question.
Bloom's Level: Application, Analysis, and Synthesis
Students move to different corners of the room (or breakout rooms), depending on their point of view. This activity helps students/understand see that not everyone shares the same point of view, and it may stretch their own way of thinking.
- The instructor announces the question: ex. “If you caught a student cheating on an exam, what do you think is an appropriate consequence: makeup exam, failure of the test, failure of the course, or other?”
- Students are then given a small amount of silent think time to make a choice. They will write the name of their corner on a piece of paper but should not discuss it with anyone else.
- The instructor tells students to go to their chosen corners. Once they are in their corner, they must find a partner to talk with someone not on their regular team.
- Pairs will then discuss the reason(s) for their choice. The instructor will then select a few students from each corner to share what his or her partner shared.
Bloom's Level: Application, Analysis, and Synthesis
In this activity, student teammates work together to ensure all members understand some course concept; one student is randomly selected to be held accountable.
- Students count off numbers in their groups.
- The instructor poses a problem and gives wait time (Example: “According to Rebecca Moore Howard, what is patchwriting? Now make sure everyone on your team understands what patchwriting is.”)
- Students stand up to discuss and teach.
- Students sit down when everyone knows the answer or has something to share or when time is up.
- The instructor calls a number. The student with that number from each team answers the question individually, using response cards, the whiteboard, electronic tools.
Bloom's Level: Application, Analysis, and Synthesis
Each student lists 3-5 ideas about the assigned topic.
For example, an instructor in an education course might post the question, “How can we prevent cheating in classes?”
One student begins the “idea wave” by sharing his / her idea. The student to the right of the student shares one idea; the next student to the right shares one idea.
The instructor directs the idea wave until several different ideas have been shared.
At the end of the formal idea wave, a few volunteers who were not included may contribute.
Bloom's Level: Application, Analysis, and Synthesis
The basic premise of the jigsaw is that students work in small, interdependent groups with individuals given the responsibility for becoming “expert” in one aspect of a topic that they then teach to their peers in order to accomplish a group goal.
How It Works:
- Select a subject and divide it into four to six subcategories (puzzle pieces).
- Students form groups for each subcategory and each group is responsible for becoming an expert on their topic
- After each subcategory group has mastered their topic, the instructor will create new “jigsaw” groups that include one expert from each of the four to six subcategories.
- Once in their new groups, each subcategory “expert” will teach the rest of the group about their topic.
- This activity is designed for groups, but the size of the group is limited to the subtopics.
How to Use:
- Select the types of tools and methods students will use to learn and teach about the topics (i.e texts, webpages, discussion boards, breakout rooms)
- Identify your topics and label them (A-D for example). Create “expert” discussion board groups for each topic. Instruct students to work together in these expert groups to learn about their topic
- Asynchronous: create new jigsaw discussion board groups that contain an expert from each of the topics. Students will use the discussion board groups to share their knowledge of their subtopics with each other.
- Synchronous: if meeting synchronously in person or virtually, breakout groups can be created for the jigsaw groups and each expert can teach their content to the group.
Blooms' Level: Remember, Understand, and Analyze/ Analysis & Critical Thinking
This activity is a variation on the minute paper. After explaining a concept, or at the end of class, ask students, "What was the "muddiest point" in today's lecture? What are you unclear about?"
Bloom's Level: Application, Analysis, and Synthesis
In this activity, instructors ask students pair with a partner/small group to briefly (2-5 minutes) share notes. This is a chance for students to get clarification on a course concept.
This can be done virtually via breakout rooms or in person.
In this activity, ask students to write for 2-3 minutes on a topic or in response to a question that you've developed. This gives students a chance to explore their own ideas before discussion or to bring closure to a class or topic. The University of Minnesota Center for Teaching and Learning recommends asking students to do a minute paper "if a discussion takes a turn you didn't expect – when a particularly good question comes from the group, when discussion keeps circulating around a basic idea rather than inching its way into potential applications or deepening of ideas."
Bloom's Level: Application, Analysis, and Synthesis
The instructor asks students a specific question about the lesson.
Students then respond on the ticket and gives it to the instructor, either on their way out or on their way in the next day (submitted via Canvas).
This is a great formative assessment; an instructor can then evaluate the need to re-teach or questions that need to be answered.
Bloom's Level: Application, Analysis, and Synthesis
The Think-Pair-Share method is a low-risk, collaborative, active learning strategy that can be easily used in any classroom, face-to-face or online. The instructor poses a challenging question, gives students a moment to think about it individually, then the student collaborates with a neighbor, and finally, they share their agreed-upon answer with the class. This strategy helps with low participation, low motivation, and surface learning.
Formulate a good open-ended question that could have several paths to an answer, and pose the question to the students. Give the students one minute to think about the question on their own and then have students discuss their answers with their collaboration partner for several minutes. Solicit student comments or take a classroom vote and then discuss the answers, soliciting defenses of right and wrong answers.
In the virtual classroom or asynchronous courses:
-
- Synchronous - In Person: Pose an open-ended question for students to answer and ask them to think to themselves for about a minute and write down their thoughts. Ask them to turn to the person next to them (groups of 2 or 3 only) and share their thought process/answer with each other.
- Synchronous - Zoom: For synchronous delivery, use breakout rooms in Zoom to allow pairs of students to talk to each other. Have students chat or message each other in Zoom (but remind them that all chats are recorded if the session is being recorded.) Bring the breakout rooms back together to discuss as a class. Use Zoom Poll for simultaneous reports out and follow-up by asking them to defend their answers.
- Asynchronous - Discussion Board: For asynchronous delivery, put student pairs in Groups in Canvas and allow the pair to use the Group discussion board to consider the question. Have student pairs post an answer on the main classroom board. Follow-up by asking them to defend their answers.
Bloom's Level: Application, Analysis, and Synthesis
To help students keep up with the course readings and prepare for class discussion, ask students to write in their learning log. Each entry should include the following:
- a concise summary of the central points of the chapters read;
- a response that demonstrates a synthesis of the ideas in a variety of articles;
- a response to the article;
- a question or two for discussion.
Instructors can either ask students to write in a notebook or submit their entry to Canvas.
Bloom's Level: Application, Analysis, and Synthesis
Students conduct a class discussion with a twist. The students sit in concentric circles the inner circle participates in the discussion and the outer circle observes and evaluates the discussion.
How It Works:
- Classes under 25: This exercise is configured in two circles: the inner circle where the discussion will take place, and the outer circle where the discussion will be observed.
- For the inner circle: Choose 5-7 participants or ask for volunteers. Develop a discussion prompt for the inner circle that will spark a lively or deep discussion. Set a time limit for the discussion and remind everyone that only the inner circle may speak.
- For the outer circle: Create a handout for them to record their observations of the inner circle. Create spaces for 1) the order of participation, 2) the type of participation (new information or reinforcement), and 3) the duration of participation. In addition, outer circle students will take notes on the content discussed (questions, comments, etc.) and the group dynamic (how the group functioned in the discussion.)
- Follow-up with a whole class discussion: Unpack the previous discussion with the outer circle. Ask them to limit their commentary to comments and questions about content, to help solidify understanding and clarify unclear points. You will discuss the group’s operation, to help students discover what makes a group work well and poorly. During this discussion, the inner circle should only respond if asked for clarification.
- Groups: In larger classes, you can make more than one set of circles using the same or related prompts. When you come back together as a class, follow the directions for Follow-up with whole class discussion above.
Online Use:
- Synchronous - Virtually or In Person: Set up a group of 2-3 students to discuss the topic/prompt in the virtual classroom assign breakout rooms. You will use a smaller group for the inner circle because discussions can become unwieldy with too many contributors. Have the rest of the students observe as indicated above, and then conduct a whole class discussion as described above.
- Asynchronous: Use a discussion board for the inner circle and for the outer circle. Allow the outer circle to read, but not comment on, posts on the inner circle board and set a specific time limit on participation in the inner circle discussion. If the discussion fades out or hits a snag, you can privately email the participants to kick-start it. When the inner circle has finished, open the outer circle discussion board for discussion and observations about content and the group’s dynamics.
Learning Level: Synthesize and Analyze
Ask students to post questions, observations, or answers to questions either before or after class on the online discussion boards in Canvas. If you want them to respond to other students’ posts, remember to give two due dates: one for the first post and the second for a response. Student discussion posts are also a great way to start the next class discussion, identify areas of confusion, and encourage students to complete reading and other assignments. Social annotation tools such as Hypothes.is and Perusall support online course discussions focused on a text.
Bloom's Level: Remember, Understand, and Analyze
Instructors can set up Canvas Groups as a dedicated place where students can collaboratively develop and discuss their projects and share materials (they can collaborate on O365 documents, create their own discussion boards, post project announcements, use the Conferences tool, and share files). Students can also submit their team projects to Group Assignments in Canvas.
Bloom's Level: Remember, Understand, and Analyze
Tips for Managing Active Learning
- Display the activity directions on a presentation slide.
- While students engage in the task, circulate around the classroom and answer any questions. If you have a teaching assistant or learning assistant, ask them to do the same.
- Depending on the activity, it might be beneficial for groups to report their findings on a collaborative document. This is particularly helpful in hyflex courses.
- You can signal the end of the activity by turning the lights off and on or by making a sound to redirect students' attention. You may also consider displaying a timer within your PowerPoint to help students pace their work: Creating an On-Screen Timer in PowerPoint
- Take time to debrief. Ask a few groups to share their thoughts.
- Remember, most active learning opportunities are not graded. When you collect student work (minute papers, for example), make sure to provide feedback. This feedback, however, does not have to be individual feedback. You can spend the first five minutes of the next class period discussing their minute papers, or you can send out a short email/announcement via Canvas.
Implementing Active Learning in the Classroom
When executing Active Learning activities in the classroom, regardless of modality, be sure to consider the following:
When asking students to work or discuss in groups, provide clear written instructions and guidance on what they are expected to do at the end (report back to the class, answer a question, complete a worksheet etc.).
Explain the purpose and value of the learning activities. How will they help students develop their knowledge and skills?
For example, if using online discussion boards, consider providing examples of a good post and your expectations (e.g., the post refers to the reading, poses a question, considers evidence, etc.). If doing a peer review assignment, give examples of constructive feedback and/or provide a rubric.
Be clear about grading and deadlines.
When are activities due?
Are they worth any points?
What if students cannot attend or miss a deadline?
Instructors have reported that having some flexibility (e.g., dropping lowest grades, student choice in ways to participate or type of assignments) has been helpful, especially in accommodating students’ varied circumstances.
Some challenges with active learning
- Begin using active learning strategies early in the course. Introduce the concept early, and let students know that they will be expected to participate in such activities throughout the course.
- Use active learning frequently–at least once a class meeting initially. Vary the active learning strategies you use. After the first several sessions, students will understand that you're serious about active learning and will accept their role as participants more readily.
- Give clear instructions. State the goal students should meet, how much time they have for the activity, what procedures they should follow, and with whom they should partner (i.e., "turn to the person next to you" or "form groups of four with the people nearest you.") Put directions for in-class activities on a PowerPoint slide so that students have something to refer to as they begin the activity.
- Explain to students why you're using active learning and the benefits they can expect from it.
- Be committed to your choice to use active learning and communicate that confidently to students. Students will be put at ease if they understand that you're in charge and have good reasons for what you're doing.
- Start small and simple. Use low-impact strategies such as think-pair-share or in-class writing exercises. These strategies are only a few minutes, and are "low stakes" for students who may be unsure or uncomfortable. As you and your students gain experience, you may decide to graduate to more involved activities.
- Use strategies to efficiently reconvene the large group at the end of active learning activities.
- Consider your learning objectives carefully. Based on them, what content is most important for students to master? Remove non-essential content so you can spend more time on activities that lead to better student learning.
- Consider what content you must cover during class and what content students can cover outside of class by themselves. It may be necessary to create assignments, activities, or other support to help students master material on their own.
- Attempt to use one or two brief active learning strategies during your lectures. Space the activities throughout the lecture to break it up and keep students engaged.
- Avoid racing through material to finish it all by the end of a class meeting. This is almost always counterproductive. Students tend to become overwhelmed and discouraged.
- Remember that just because you say it doesn't mean they learn it. Resolve to spend more time on less material.
- As part of your activity instructions, tell students to get into groups and first introduce each other. This sets the expectation that they may be working with others whom they do not know and allows them space to build rapport.
- Consider whether your activity is challenging enough to require two or more people to work on it. Does the task require that group members have differing perspectives, experiences, or knowledge? Design activities where there is genuine value in working together.
- At the beginning of the course, approach people who are working alone and either encourage them to work with a nearby group or ask the group to invite the individual to join them. Do this everyday so students know that you expect them to work together.
- Consider assigning students to a single group so students know who they are accountable to throughtout the course.
Resources
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How can the CTL help you?
The Teaching and Learning team is ready to partner with instructors to implement active learning by:
- Identifying active learning strategies to transform your course.
- Creating implementation strategies for practical application.
- Evaluating the benefits of applying active learning to your course.
- Providing feedback with ideas on how to transform current activities and assignments into more active learning experiences
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