Inspire Blog Tag: active learning

Collaborative Online Annotation Tools for Engaging Students in Readings

Do you ever get the sense that students posting in their online discussions haven’t really engaged with the reading materials for that week? One way to encourage active engagement with course readings is to have students annotate directly in the article or textbook chapter that they are assigned. While it is common to see students annotating in their paper copies of their textbooks or readings, these aren’t easily shared with their peers or instructor. Of course, students could snap a photo of their handwritten annotations and upload that as a reading assignment task, though that does require additional steps on the part of both the student and instructor, and there is no interaction with others in the course during that … Collaborative Online Annotation Tools for Engaging Students in Readings
by · April 27, 2020

Facilitating Active Learning with Zoom

Facilitating Active Learning with Zoom By Christine Scott, Instructional Design Specialist, Oregon State University Ecampus So you managed to get your face-to-face courses up and running remotely in the midst of a global pandemic. You’ve secured your Zoom sessions to avoid unwanted disruptions, your students are in their virtual seats, and you’ve successfully delivered a few lectures. So what’s next? Now that you have students’ attention, you may find that you’re ready to focus on transforming your synchronous session into a space for active learning to take place. It’s no secret that students learn better when they are actively engaged in the learning process. The question is how that translates to a remote Zoom session. Is it even possible to … Facilitating Active Learning with Zoom
by · April 17, 2020

Active Learning: What Does the Research Show?

Active Learning: What Does the Research Show? We often hear about new approaches in teaching, and some can take on near-mythical status. That might be the case for active learning. It’s been widely touted as the “most effective” pedagogical approach, but unless you have time to dig through the research, it may not be easy to determine if this trend is applicable – or beneficial – to your teaching and discipline. So what does the research say about active learning? This article provides a brief summary of research results for active learning applied in STEM subjects. Why Use Active Learning? Before we discuss why active learning is beneficial, let’s clarify exactly what active learning is. As opposed to passive learning, … Active Learning: What Does the Research Show?
by · March 1, 2019

Active Learning Online – Part 2

Active Learning Online – Part 2 The first post about active learning looked at how to include active learning in an online course. You heard about how a history professor used an interactive timeline. Each student added images, facts, and descriptions to the timeline, and the result was a visually-rich historical review. Students had fun while learning about facts and events. This is an example of collaboration and active learning at its best. The second example focused on interactive textbooks as an alternative to printed books. The Top Hat product combined words, images, video, and engaging activities to improve learning and make it more active. In today’s post we look at two new active learning ideas: mind mapping and annotated reading. … Active Learning Online – Part 2
by · May 18, 2018