Using Technology to Support Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Active Learning

by Site Factory admin
May 02, 2019

Dear Faculty Colleagues,

April 19th’s faculty forum on integrating technologies to support cross-disciplinary approaches to active learning provided insight into common concerns as well as how instructional technology can be used to mitigate these concerns.

Faculty expressed a wide-range of common concerns when thinking about integrating active learning. These included:

incorporating active learning with instructional technologies in large classes,
getting student buy-in with both face-to-face and online interactions,
guiding students through materials,
supporting TAs and adjunct lecturers,
and addressing students’ concerns about discussion-based exploratory learning (e.g., how do students’ know if they get the “right” answer).

As our discussion continued, faculty shared many of the ways they have used instructional technology-supported means to address or mitigate these concerns, including the following:

using clickers (or personal response systems) as a means to integrate low-stakes formative assessments,
strategically using tools in Canvas that facilitate group projects,
using instructional video to explain course concepts or to welcome students to a new class,
and clarifying expectations with detailed rubrics in SpeedGrader.

Through this fruitful discussion, one idea stood out as especially helpful when considering how to integrate technology to support cross-disciplinary approaches to active learning: Patience. To quote faculty forum participants, “Be patient with yourself as you try active learning over more than one quarter,” and “Be patient with the students as they participate in ways that are potentially new to them.”

SITT 2019 will occur on September 13th and will focus on using instructional technologies to support active learning strategies. If you are interested in applying as a faculty speaker at SITT 2019, please visit this invitation to participate as a presenter (or use this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfkB3t8C3ylnMoSWoeXHfNAsSp4OhhnAzKO5CZHNqLmRsggUw/viewform?usp=sf_link ). Proposals are due by Friday, May 24th.

Best,

Andy Jones

Primary Category

Faculty Events