Active learning is an instructional approach that focuses on engaging students with discussion, problem solving, case studies, and more. Many approaches to active learning are centered on student collaboration and reflection. They can be implemented using short activities with pairs of students or longer-term, group-oriented activities. Utilizing an active learning pedagogy in your course can lead to better critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills that can be valuable in and outside the classroom.
Engage Students with Active Learning in Your Classroom
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Think-Pair-Share Activities
Help students develop their own understanding of a concept, first by thinking through the concept independently, then discussing it with a partner, and finally engaging in a whole class discussion.
Independent Activities
Engage students in constructing their own understanding of a mathematical or statistical concept through exploration, critical thinking, and reflection often using simulations and graphing.
Polling Activities
Quickly assess the entire class’s understanding of a key concept. Polling is a great way for you and your students to validate comprehension, identify knowledge gaps, and clarify misunderstandings.
Small Group Activities
Provide opportunities for students to learn with and from each other. Social and collaborative activities engage students in higher order thinking, expose them to different ideas and approaches, allow for real-time feedback, and help develop interpersonal and communication skills.
Engage Students in Course Concepts & Discussion
Explore peer-tested strategies you can use to engage your students in your course material including facilitating collaboration, discussion and improving your course content to include more engaging formats.
Schedule Group Work
Assign work for your students to complete in groups within WebAssign. Any student in the group can submit responses for the entire group, and the score for the assignment is the same for all group members. Consider assigning group work for lab reports, or to foster collaboration, discussion and problem-solving skills.
Learn More About Group Work
Create Discussion Boards & Forums
You can create a forum to improve communication between you and your students. Forums provide an easy way for students to answer one another’s questions and help the class stay informed by reading and responding to other’s posts. You have flexibility to create multiple forums for each class, or share forums across various class sections.
Learn More About Discussion Boards & Forums
Use Polling Questions
Create Multi-Mode Questions
You can create a multi-mode question to add extra steps to a single question — for example, multiple-choice and essay. Multi-mode questions provide extra levels of interaction to a question, making it more engaging for students.
Learn How to Create Multi-Mode Questions
Explore More Active Learning Resources
Active Learning Best Practices
Uncover peer best practices to help you apply active learning in your courses from Mathematics Instructor at Rowan Cabarrus Community College.
How to Engage Students and Keep Them on Track
Active learning requires student engagement. Explore these six tips to engage your students and keep them on track with your course topics.
Deliver Group Work to Students in WebAssign
Empower students to collaborate, study or review course topics by organizing study groups for your online course.
Peer Tips for Using the WebAssign Discussion Board
Cengage Faculty Partner Scott Crawford shares how he uses the WebAssign Discussion Board successfully to promote learning.