6 Principles for Active Learning

Notes from the session by David Lindrum and Kay Christensen from Soomo Learning titled Making Active Learning Practical at the Emerging Technologies for Online Learning conference.

The Basics of Active Learning:

Formative interactions
Application assignments
Discussions, assignments, assessments, slides, etc.

“Students must do more than just listen: They must read, write, discuss, or be engaged in solving problems…And must engage in…analysis, sythesis, and evaluation” - Bonwell and Eison, 1991

Questions and assessments need to address all all levels of Bloom’s Taxanomy. If you only have higher level questions then it is all opinion and lower level it is just aswering questions without interacting and engaging with the content

6 Principles of Active Learning

1. Ask Questions

20–30% read the textbook in Gen Eds.
If no requirement or credit is given rarely will students complete it
Find out how many hours students are spending on the hw
Develop a way to assess where students are — email to faculty inbox once a week would be great!
Post-questions, used frequently, increase relevant and incidental learning. Pre-questions can inhibit both. - Frase, Patrick and Schumer
- Post-questions - questions only show up after the reading
- Pre-questions - showing the questions beforehand inhibits that ability
- Helps students learn not only what they are tested on but the peripherals also
Rule of thumb: one formative question per 4 minutes of content

2. Explore Values

“Active learning places a greater focus on students’ exploration of their own attitudes and opinions”
On “value or opinion” questions instant pie chart or something to show other students responses helps engagement
Don’t be afraid of whimsical discussion questions

3. Write

How can your faculty have time to grade writing?
“When students know that their responses to peers will receive attention and public rewards, they invest more effort in thier responses.” - Neubaum, Wichmann, Eimler and Kramer, 2014
Response Board - Have students responses be made public, without being able to see others answers first. After the students answer you see what the other students answer. After a couple weeks the response quality will probably go up. This is helpful for “low-cost” questions . This is not a discussion board.

4. Discuss

“Discussing information introduced in alecture hleps students apply and retain it long-term” - Bonwell and Eison, 1991
Create a problem to be solved - you want a variety of answers. If all the same answers then you didn’t create a problem

5. Apply

6. Solve Problems

Problems to be solved gives them reasons to engage
Problem-based learning produces positive student attitudes and promotes better study habits and scores.