Active Learning Blog

Our recent blog series has highlighted how instructors at leading institutions around the world use active learning technology to boost student engagement before, during and after class.  Through innovative and creative course design, instructors can gain a better understanding into whether or not students actually comprehend key learning points. Instructors can employ techniques such as student surveys, polls or short quizzes to benchmark understanding of course material.  Institutions such as Ohio State University use what they term, “low-stakes testing” to set a comprehension marker for students.  Within the active learning environment, students can anonymously ask questions and instructors can redirect classroom activities to answer questions that previously might have gone unasked and unanswered.

Many institutions are taking a “deep dive” into the rich analytics that an active learning solution can provide.  At Georgetown University for example, instructors are able to see where students are lingering while viewing their lectures. They then can ask students during class why they spent more time at that specific point in the lecture.  Other instructors monitor student discussions surrounding specific video segments or course slides. They can then flag these lecture segments for use in future classes to reinforce and clarify that material.

What insights can analytical tools contained in a complete active learning system provide?  With the proper built-in measurement tools, an active learning solution can provide instructors with information such as:

• Viewing statistics and “heat maps” – instructors can see whether or not students have actually viewed their lecture material and presentations, whether or not they have completed viewing the lecture and more.  Just like Georgetown University above, you can identify areas where students are lingering in a lecture and then clarify those points later in class.
• Student participation – Analytics within a student engagement solution let instructors see which students are asking questions and what types of questions they are asking.
• The ability to monitor discussion threads – instructors can review online student discussions around lectures.  Instructors can answer student questions online,  providing additional information or material to clarify concepts providing in the lecture.
• Web analytics – instructors can see how their students connect with the lectures, the types of browsers they use, whether they connect with a laptop or other mobile device and gain other insights.

Learning analytics within an active learning system let instructors look into the minds of their students. You will better understand what your students understand and know what they don’t know. With this kind of data, you now will be able to identify students who might be at-risk.

Embracing active learning and all of its components requires that you be fearless. Such technology was probably not in place when you were a student. But look at all of the possibilities now.  Through active learning technology you’ll be able teach in a way you never thought possible. You’ll be able to teach fearlessly.