Center for Teaching and Learning

Active Learning

"Active learning" is a general term that describes any time that students get to learn something by performing an activity in class—such as answering a poll question, think-pair-sharing, working in small groups on a worksheet, role playing as fictional character, simulating how to respond to a historical crisis, creating a concept map to show how various ideas connect, etc.

At its best, active learning inspires students by asking them to apply, discuss, and reflect upon the course material, and helps them avoid what psychologists call the "illusion of explanatory depth"—that is, the mistaken belief that because they have seen or heard you (the instructor) explain/perform something, they will be able to explain/do it themselves.

How often should I incorporate active learning?

While every class is different, and there’s no single perfect number for how much active learning yields the best results, there are a couple rules of thumb to keep in mind:

• Try to include at least 2-3 activities per class; and/or
• Try to aim to spend 40-60% of class time on active learning exercises.

 What are some examples of active learning?

• Some of our favorite active learning strategies
• List of active learning techniques

What is the easiest way to start incorporating active learning into my course?

One of the easiest ways to incorporate active learning is to add 1-3 multiple choice “anonymous poll” questions into each class session. Using Echo360 to ask your students polling questions allows you to give students points for participating during in-class activities, incentivizing student attendance and engagement.

• Read the guidance on how to set up anonymous polling using Echo360

• “Check up” questions to see if students are following along, in which you ask them a question they should be able to answer correctly if they understand the skill or concept you were just lecturing about, or 
• Extension (or prediction) questions in which you ask them to tackle a concept or skill you haven’t yet taught them.

Recent evidence indicates that including extension questions in which students are asked to construct their understanding beyond what they’ve been taught is a particularly effective application of active learning (Menekse et al., 2013; Chi et al., 2014; Wiggins et al., 2017; Smith G, 2020.)