ACTIVE LEARNING IN ONLINE CLASSES

ACTIVE

LEARNING IN

ONLINE

CLASSES –LESSONS FROM THE

FRONT LINE

By Nicole Mitchell

Marketing Lecturer / Educational Designer

Charles Sturt university

Use the ANNOTATE

tool, to circle the

Emoji that best

reflects how you

are feeling about

using active

learning in the

online environment

Getty Images

WHAT

“Active learning is…having students

engage in some activity that forces

them to think about and comment on the information presented.”

(Speaking of Teaching, 1993, cited in Cantu 2020, para. 1)

ACTive Learning

For Kolb, learning … works best when students

are encouraged to be actors as well as

observers,

to interact and experience

as well as to apply abstract reasoning and

theoretical constructs to issues.

(Kolb cited in Revell & Wainwright, 2009, p.211)

WHY

Adding some ‘action’ to your lectures

has many benefits including:

Attendance

Engagement

More fun

Better learning(Gibbs 1992)

https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/resources/learning-

resources/promoting-active-learning

Context

Context

KNOW my

STUDENTSKNOW my

CONTENT

KNOW my

PURPOSE

Learning

activity

Engagement/interest Revision

Application of theoretical concepts

HOW

Facilitating Active Learning

THREE themes….

Social connections

Content based Activities

Group activities/tasks

NOTE: Throughout the whole process, consider the use of

questioning to keep students engaged.

Social Connections

THEME:• Bring your pet

• Wear a funny

hat

• Wear

something RED

etc…

Lesson learnt: Social connections were MUCH

easier in session 1 when I had an on-campus

class go to Online as the students had met

each other in person. It was much more difficult

in Session 2, when these same students were

combined with the Albury cohort.

More time needed to develop students’ ‘social

confidence’ online.

Content based

activities

Lesson learnt: Annotations can get very

messy BUT students seem to like them.

You can also SAVE the image and then

incorporate it in an Announcement.

Although these Annotations usually do

not require high-order thinking, they do

get students to think, you can get an idea

pretty easily of what they know/don’t

know AND provide a discussion point.

Learning together

Image from: https://i.insider.com/5e7a2c002d41c175747b4388?width=1200&format=jpeg

Kahoot! is a free game-based learning

platform useful to:

• Introduce new topics

• Review, revise, reinforce

• Re-energise and reward

• Teach each other

• Get classroom insights

• Gather opinions

https://kahoot.com/

https://create.kahoot.it/

1. Ask the question

2. Use Breakout

rooms in pairs -

students to

discuss

3. Instructed them

what to do when

they got into the

‘room’ i.e.

introduce

yourself, your

business and

what you think

their differential

advantage is

4. Used ‘Broadcast

message’

function to send

the question via

Chat to each

room

5. Asked students to

write down using

Annotate tool

1. Ask the question

2. Use Breakout

rooms in pairs -

students to

discuss

3. Instructed them

what to do when

they got into the

‘room’ i.e.

introduce

yourself, your

business and

what you think

their differential

advantage is

4. Used ‘Broadcast

message’

function to send

the question via

Chat to each

room

5. Asked students to

write down using

Annotate tool

Questioning

Techniques

We want to avoid this situation….

Ad

ap

ted

fro

m A

ust

ralia

n A

rmy –

Ma

nu

al o

f La

nd

Wa

rfa

re, P

art

Th

ree

–Tr

ain

ing

, V

olu

me

1

Pa

mp

hle

t N

o 6

‘In

stru

cto

r’s

Ha

nd

bo

ok’(

1984

) -

Ch

ap

ter

8 S

ec

tio

n 2

3. Q

ue

stio

nin

g T

ec

hn

iqu

e

805 –

811))

Lesson learnt: I was concerned that some

students lacked the confidence to be ‘put

on the spot’ and then stop attending our

classes.

As a work-around, and to encourage

participation, I started sending students ‘pre-

class questions’ the day before class. I

explained to them WHY it was important for

them to prepare before class. I also told

students that I would ask someone different

each time AND in the small classes I would

ask everyone!

This worked really well until about week 7

when students stopped doing the questions

before class – too busy doing assessments -

however they were less reluctant to

participate by then!

TOP TIPS

Remember the student experience

Keep it simple

Try ONE new thing each week

Active learning is relevant for ALL modes of delivery!

Use the ANNOTATE

tool, to circle the

Emoji that best

reflects how you are

feeling about using

active learning in the

online environment

NOW!

Getty Images

Any questions?

For more information about the guide and/or any of the tools and

tech, please log a job via the DLT SRS Request system and ask for

Nicole Mitchell in the notes section!

Nicole Mitchell

Educational Designer/Sessional Lecturer in Marketing

[email protected]

Resources + Contacts