Active Learning Resources
Active Learning is any activity in which students engage actively (rather than passively) with course materials during class time. Traditional classroom activities such as lectures are considered passive learning as students are limited to listening and taking notes.
Active learning promotes higher-order thinking, helping students to improve their analytical, synthesis, and critical thinking skills. It can take many forms, including collaborative or discussion-based activities, gamification, and verbal or written response interactions, including reflection.
Benefits to Students
- Improved learning
- Better retention of material
- Engages students with material (active vs passive learning)
Benefits to Instructors
- Provide ongoing (informal) assessment of student learning progress
- More flexible approach to teaching
Active Learning Teaching Methods
Engaging students in active learning is a positive way to improve the learning experience and learning outcomes, but it can be tricky to determine what active learning technique is best for your class.
Wondering what kinds of instructional activities to use in your class setting? Need a specific type of activity to complete your lesson plan? The Active Learning Library of searchable activities (external link) as well as the tables below can help you find the best activity type for your classroom and provide inspiration for incorporating active learning in the classroom.
Detailed information about each of the activities is available in the (google doc) Best Practices: Active Learning (external link) guide and the (google doc) Classroom Assessment Techniques Overview (external link) .
Find activities to support your teaching by searching the tables of small, medium, large or any-sized classes below.
Small: Less than 25 students
Medium: Between 25 and 80 students
Large: More than 80 students
Note that many of these activities can be adapted for smaller or larger classes.
Find activities to support your teaching by searching the tables of activity types below.
Find activities to support your teaching by searching the tables of activity types below.
Student-to-Peer: Students work collaboratively with their peers
Student-to-Self: Students work individually, typically in reflective practice
Student-to-Instructor: Students engage with the instructor directly
Find activities to support your teaching based on preparation needed to be completed by instructors or students.
Classroom Configurations and Teaching Methods
The arrangement of furniture in your classroom can help improve student learning. Depending on your classroom configuration, different teaching methods and activities may be more effective. Use the diagrams and matrices below to identify the configuration of your classroom and the best teaching methods and techniques.
If you are teaching in a room with moveable furniture, you can re-arrange the furniture to suit your preferred teaching methods and techniques using the configurations below.
Classroom Type Teaching Methods and Techniques Matrix (external link, opens in new window)
Traditional Classroom Configurations (external link, opens in new window)
Collaborative Classroom Configurations (external link, opens in new window)
High Engagement Classroom Configurations (external link, opens in new window)
Looking for more Teaching Resources?
Check out the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching's Resources Page for more information about course design and delivery, assessments, teaching with technology, experiential learning, and more!
