McNeese State University Professional Development Opportunity Course Design January 10, 2019

What word/phrase comes to mind when I say the word LEARNING? What does the word ‘learning’ mean to you?

What word/phrase comes to mind when I say the word ENGAGEMENT? What does the word ‘learning’ mean to you?

Ice Breaker- 3 minutes Turn to a shoulder partner Introduce yourself Name College Courses you teach including if they are face-to-face or online Discuss the most AWESOME activities you include in your courses!

Passive Learning Student is responsible for absorbing information. Lectures or assigned readings. Promotes defining, describing, listening, and writing skills. Normally tested through quizzes, assessments, and handouts. Student is responsible for absorbing information. Information is presented in the form of lectures or assigned readings. Promotes defining, describing, listening, and writing skills. Normally tested through quizzes, assessments, and handouts.

Active Learning Activities and discussions. Constant feedback between the student and the material. More time spent in terms of the big picture and less energy spent in terms of individual concepts. Increases a student’s ability to draw connections to the world, especially their own lives. Skills developed through this process are analysis, evaluation, public speaking, and collaboration. Involves the student in the instructional process through the use of relevant activities and discussions. Stimulates and reinforces the student’s conceptual understanding of the course material by engaging them within the lesson process with constant feedback between the student and the material. Helps students to think less in terms of individual concepts and more in terms of the big picture. Increases a student’s ability to draw connections to the world, especially their own lives. Skills developed through this process are analysis, evaluation, public speaking, and collaboration.

Passive Learning- Poll Who benefits more from passive learning? Teacher Student Why?

Passive Learning Disadvantages Benefits Quickly present a variety of information. Lecture notes can be pre- planned and reused. Professor has more control over course delivery. Provides a concrete and organized presentation of the material. May appear boring or unrelatable. Presents fewer opportunities to assess student comprehension. Student are more likely to shy away from voicing a misunderstanding. Students are less involved in the learning experience.

Active Learning- Poll Who benefits more from passive learning? Teacher Student Why?

Active Learning Disadvantages Benefits Increases critical thinking. Provides frequent feedback on a student’s comprehension of material. Gives the student a larger role in their learning environment. Promotes student-centered learning and collaboration. Increases student attention. Stimulates discussions. Require more spontaneous and flexible plans. Limit the amount of material that can be presented at once. Create the potential for distractions if students are not monitored and/or activity is not meaningful. Not naturally a test-prep form of learning.

Thinking about your current course design whether it include mostly active or passive learning for students, it can be tweaked to move more toward active learning.

Provide an opportunity for students to gain exposure to content prior to class. Assign a reading. Watch a video. Listen to a short lecture. Complete a discussion post. Bring a question/concept that needs clarifying. Take notes on a graphic organizer from reading/video/pre- recorded short lecture. I count these items as participation points.

Your ideas for active learning?

Provide in-class activities that focus on higher level cognitive activities.

Some ideas… Within a English writing class- use small and whole group discussions with writing workshop activities and shared writing activities. Within a physics class- sort students into groups for hands-on activities, mixed with lectures to supply critical information. Within a mathematics class- give a set of challenging problems/tasks letting teams of student workout their problems individually and then collectively. Within public health class- set up real-world scenario stations and have teams of students work through each case study letting them share out their strategies.

Provide a mechanism to assess student understanding. Using technology. Observation Notes. Show what you know. One minute paper Quick quiz. Muddiest (or clearest) point. Passive learning usually lends itself to assessing students at quiz/test time. Active learning allows for the professor to informally check understanding throughout every class period and prior to the actual ‘exam’

Moving toward active learning… brief, easy supplements for lectures Every 12-15 minutes students can: Discuss and rework notes in pairs. Write everything they can remember. Predict the results of a demonstration with a partner. Answer a higher order thinking questions. Use technology. One minute papers—students can write what they know, answer a question prompt, write their own questions about the content Encourage student to discuss and rework notes in pairs so they have the opportunity for questioning and clarification. Have students write everything they can remember. Encourage questions. Ask students to predict the results of a demonstration with a partner. After continuing demonstration as for them to discuss the observed results. Ask students a higher order thinking questions (open-ended and supports discussion). They can write for one minute and then discuss their thinking with a peer. Use technology to gather students thoughts about an open-ended question to build whole group discuss or check for understanding with a multiple-choice question. One minute papers—students can write what they know, answer a question prompt, write their own questions about the content

Moving toward active learning… activities to replace some lecture Sequence strips in partners Concept mapping Mini-maps Student-generated questions Real-world scenarios Using a piece of text Case-based learning. Sequence strips. Work with partners to discuss and reconstruct proper sequence. Concept mapping. Mini-maps are where students use a concept map but are given terms to include within them. Student-generated test questions/discussion prompts. Real-world scenarios small group/partner work. Using a piece of text, have small groups/pairs create outlines of the information included within the text. Case-based learning. Give an open-ended situation where students must decide on a solution with supporting evidence.

What will you add to your current course design that incorporates active learning?