Produce Lessons That Encourage Active Learning

It’s not always enough to simply share content with students in an online course. Instead, you must produce lessons that inspire students to actively learn, share, and reflect on their understanding.

In Creating Significant Learning Experiences, Dee Fink describes a holistic view of active learning that includes the following components:

Getting information and ideas: Students learn information through a variety of materials such as watching videos, reading textbooks, or listening to lectures.
Engaging in “doing experiences”: Students actively engage with their studies in an authentic setting. For example, in a marketing class, students can use their knowledge to create a social media marketing strategy for a client. Case studies, gaming, simulations, and role-playing also provide students with indirect doing experiences.
Participating in reflection: Once students have encountered new information and have had an opportunity to engage in “doing” experiences, they need time to reflect and decide what meaning to give these other learning activities.

Whereas traditional views of education tend to be focused on knowledge transmission, active learning is centered on the idea of knowledge construction. Lessons geared toward this help to cultivate deep and meaningful learning for all students.