The right tool for the job: matching active learning techniques to learning objectives

For decades, international studies instructors have adopted active learning techniques to engage students in a wide range of classes. The literature on active learning suggests many benefits of integrating these methods into courses as a complement to traditional teaching modes such as lectures. These benefits include motivating and engaging students, enhancing learning of content, and supporting skill building. Although the empirical literature on active learning is mixed, the general consensus from the literature is that active learning is a valuable supplement to other teaching methods. Students and faculty find active learning enjoyable and engaging. Human rights courses, specifically, can benefit from engaging students. Active learning can help students unpack their preconceived ideas about human rights, identify the challenges that face international efforts to cooperate, and better understand the world around them. At the same time, human rights courses often cover sensitive topics that can present challenges for instructors wanting to engage in active learning techniques. It is important to be mindful of how to approach these topics, regardless of teaching method and especially when using active learning techniques that give students more agency in the classroom. Focusing on best practices for active learning provides a useful guide to managing the challenges that using active learning poses in human rights courses. In particular, instructors should align activities with course learning objectives, give careful consideration to the selection of topics and questions, create a classroom environment that is conductive to respectful engagement, and use debriefing techniques at the conclusion of an activity. Active learning, when designed and implemented carefully, can help create a transformational learning experience for students in a human rights course.

Although effective teaching is focusing more on the need to use active learning techniques, the research literature regarding the efficacy of various teaching methods is inconclusive. An innovative active learning technique combining the features of role plays and simulations for an industrial psychology course is presented. Subjective reports and objective assessments of knowledge retention measured at two distinct times indicated the role play simulation is an effective teaching technique. The differential importance of active learning and passive learning (i.e., lectures) techniques for the college classroom was also examined. Finally, the application of this technique for several college courses is presented.

In recent decades, educators have pushed to implementing active learning techniques that can advance students' competences. Universities are increasingly required to develop knowledge measured in terms of grades (hard skills) and inter-personal, social, and communication abilities (soft skills). Nevertheless, within the field of active learning, educators often focus on how these techniques can improve students' hard skills and their satisfaction. Few have analysed whether and how these techniques might improve students' soft skills. Moreover, among these few studies, the majority has analysed hard and soft skills separately, measuring whether different active learning techniques may or may not improve them. Virtually no one has studied whether students' hard and soft skills can converge or diverge in an active learning format. This study allows us to understand the relations between these two sets of variables, for example, whether an improvement (or deterioration) in the hard skills corresponds to an improvement (or deterioration) in the soft skills, and vice versa. In our experiment, we analyse the impact of a specific active learning format, such as the Flipped Classroom (FC), on both students' hard and soft skills, by comparing it with a traditional class integrated with other active learning techniques, such as presentations, debates, and teamwork activities. First, we use Pearson correlations to measure the relation between students' hard skills, understood in terms of grades, and a set of soft skills, such as critical thinking, self-efficacy, teamwork, and perception of learning. Second, we use canonical correlations to analyse whether hard and soft skills converge or diverge in an FC format, in comparison with a traditional teaching format integrated with the other active learning techniques. Our main finding is that the FC per se neither improves nor worsens students' performance in terms of hard and soft skills.

The Proposed paper is related to use of active and collaborative learning techniques in the course digital communication of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering branch at Rajarambapu Institute of Technology, Rajaramnagar where large population of students is from rural areas. Although many researchers have confirmed that active and collaborative learning techniques are very useful in improving learning, motivating students, bringing critical thinking skills in the students, we need to develop special strategies for students with rural background. In this study, initially the learning styles of the students are obtained using Felder's learning style index survey. The active and collaborative learning techniques are implemented for this class and found that irrespective of the background of learners active and collaborative learning techniques are very beneficial to students for their learning. Only challenge is that instructor has to take some additional efforts.

Active learning is a pedagogical approach that emphasizes higher-order thinking and encourages students to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate rather than to solely passively listen to lectures. This chapter categorizes, describes, and provides examples of various active learning techniques in a computing education research context. The techniques have varying types of student accountability and interdependence (solo, collaborative, or cooperative activities), instructor effort in terms of guidance, preparation, and feedback (before, during, or after the class session), and student engagement (active, constructive, or interactive), with different benefits and resource requirements. From commonly used techniques such as pair programming to those less frequently used in a computer science context such as jigsaw or fishbowl, this chapter provides computer science teachers with a toolbox of methods for actively engaging students in their learning process. This chapter describes active learning techniques commonly used in the computer science context and proposes how other active learning techniques could be adapted for this context. The materials in this chapter will empower preservice teachers to design lessons with these techniques in mind and to incorporate the techniques into current classroom practices.

Educational literature contains extensive descriptions and analysis of active and collaborative learning techniques. For example, experiments in mathematics date back to at least the 1980s. Physicists have been particularly active in developing courses that promote active learning and integrate laboratory activities with lectures. In the mid 1990s, Hake collected data on 6542 students in 62 introductory physics courses to conclude that lecture-based courses yield only meager learning of physics concepts, while courses utilizing interactive engagement are substantially better in promoting student learning of concepts. Further, extensive studies have shown that active and collaborative learning techniques improve skill development, decrease failure rates, encourage success and interest among women and under-represented groups, and promote higher-order thinking skills.In computer science, much discussion at SIGCSE conferences and other forums has focused upon active and collaborative learning. For the most part, however, faculty have focused on small-scale activities within classes, such as small-group exercises, kinesthetic learning activities, hands-on activities, and student-faculty dialog. Further, while many courses contain a component involving active learning, these courses often continue with extensive use of lecture. In many cases, it seems that active and collaborative activities are not trusted to promote learning, so lectures continue.The pedagogy described in this paper utilizes a lab-based style emphasizing collaboration. In its pure form, developed and refined by the author in several courses since Fall 1992, students work in pairs within introductory-level computing courses to complete about 45 laboratory exercises in a course that meets for 56 sessions in a semester. In this format, the instructor lectures about 4 hours per month --- often in 5--15 minute segments. In an alternative format, students complete about 35 laboratory exercises, some of which extend over two class periods.In comparing this approach with a traditional format that utilizes lectures and separate lab sections, the lab-based approach covers more material, student performance on tests is improved, students are highly motivated and consistently prepared for class, students are engaged in the material, and retention rates are very high.

Public health programs are increasingly offering health policy content to meet workforce demand for public health professionals with health policy analysis and communication skills. Undergraduate public health education in health policy and related curriculum is lacking. Existing work describes service- and experiential learning approaches, which may not be feasible in large courses or public health programs with limited administrative or financial resources. This article describes health policy curriculum, learning objectives, and course activities (i.e., individual writing assignment, mock policy debate, and policy analysis exercise) that integrate an active learning approach and use simulation to develop policy analysis and communication skills in an undergraduate classroom setting. An active learning approach can increase teaching effectiveness, critical thinking, peer interaction, and student engagement to cultivate these applied skills. The described curriculum has been used in various modalities (in-person, hybrid, and remote) with positive reception in a public research university with a high percentage of first-generation college students. Student course evaluations and an independent assessment of the policy analysis exercise reflect high student interest, engagement, problem solving, satisfaction, perceived benefits, and application of policy analysis and communication skills, providing support for teaching health policy curriculum to undergraduate students using an active learning approach. The discussion includes strategies to address resistance by public health instructors and students to using active learning techniques.

Object detection requires substantial labeling effort for learning robust models. Active learning can reduce this effort by intelligently selecting relevant examples to be annotated. However, selecting these examples properly without introducing a sampling bias with a negative impact on the generalization performance is not straightforward and most active learning techniques can not hold their promises on real-world benchmarks. In our evaluation paper, we focus on active learning techniques without a computational overhead besides inference, something we refer to as zero-cost active learning. In particular, we show that a key ingredient is not only the score on a bounding box level but also the technique used for aggregating the scores for ranking images. We outline our experimental setup and also discuss practical considerations when using active learning for object detection.KeywordsActive learningObject detectionEvaluation paper

Outcome in the traditional setting of chalkboard teaching, students tends to remain in the passive mode and do not actively participate in the teaching and learning process. As a result of this, they may lose interest in the course content and conceptual understanding declines. It directly impacts their performance in the examination. With the use of active learning strategies, the subject teacher plays the role of facilitator and creates a conducive environment for students to actively participate in the teaching learning process. This paper discusses effective use of various active learning techniques implemented for the course of ‘Automation and Control Engineering’ for Third year undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Program at CCEW. Techniques such as expert lecture, open ended assignments, YouTube video for animation were employed for content delivery in theory as well as laboratory sessions. Performance evaluation was carried out by using techniques such as google quizzes and group activity on hydraulic and pneumatic trainer kit. Students' perceptions about the implementation of these active learning techniques are studied and analyzed which are reported in this paper. It is observed that as the results of this implementation students' overall understanding of the course content is enhanced. Keywords— Active Learning; Demo Based Exam; Open Ended Assignment; Oral Exam; Quizzes.

With higher education shifting its emphasis from teaching to learning and inputs to outcomes, active learning techniques are gaining prominence. Research has shown that students learn better when they actively engage the course content, rather than passively absorb lecture material. However, many faculty are unsure of how to take advantage of these new techniques to improve the learning outcomes for their students. For one active learning technique, problem-based learning, librarians are well positioned to facilitate its adoption into course curriculum. In order to effect a high-quality problem-based learning experience, a true collaboration of efforts needs to take place between the subject faculty and librarian. In such a synergistic system, information skills are integrated directly into course content, while an engaging active learning experience for students is facilitated. This article describes the background and history of problem-based learning, explaining why information skills are an integral part of the technique. The authors then detail the experiences of librarians at Purdue University, both in forming collaborations with subject faculty, and in the development of problem-based learning instructional modules.

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Session 2632 Active Learning in Large Lectures Russell D. Meier Kansas State University I. Introduction Active learning is powerful teaching. I have used active learning techniques in undergraduate computer engineering courses at Iowa State University and Kansas State University. I firmly believe that the learner-centered, active learning exercises have enhanced student knowledge of the material. I was challenged by two large lecture courses during the 1997-1998 academic year. Each course had a class size approaching 100 students. Many instructors believe that a large lecture is not an appropriate active learning environment. I strongly disagree. Properly designed exercises with appropriate individual-accountability measurements work very well in large lectures. In each course, the students formed cohesive learning teams. The teams enjoyed the active learning challenge problems and directed class discussion. My role evolved from a lecturer to the role of facilitator and mentor. Facilitating these learner-centered classrooms is the most rewarding experience I have had as a faculty member. However, managing large active learning classrooms is not for the weak-at-heart. Large lectures pose unique questions that must be faced when designing active learning environments. How will the large number of teams be selected? Is it possible to diversify teams in a large lecture when the student population is mostly homogenous? How can activities be completed in large lecture halls? What about the students that refuse to participate? Does active learning work for every student in the large course? Will the shear number of active learning teams foster competition, and is competition desired? What about incomplete teams caused by truancy? Is it possible to guarantee individual-accountability within the large student population? I had to find answers to all of these questions. This paper will discuss my experience designing and facilitating the active learning environments for the large lectures of my computer engineering courses. II. Background I began my teaching career in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University. The computer engineering enrollment was increasing steadily while the computer engineering faculty size remained static. Thus, class size increased dramatically for the faculty members teaching core courses. I was the only instructor of one four credit-hour course on microprocessor systems design (CprE 301) from 1994 through 1998. My CprE 301 lectures met for 50 minutes three times per week and every student attended one three-hour laboratory during the week. The lecture grew from 40 students to nearly 100 students during these years. In 1997, I was also gifted with a second large lecture to be taught each semester; a three credit- hour course entitled "Fundamentals of Computer Engineering (CprE 310)." CprE 310 had always been extremely unpopular because it was perceived by students to be a mathematics

This study explores modern approaches in accounting education, focusing on active learning techniques, technological integration, and soft skills development to better prepare students for professional demands. This study uses a qualitative literature review to analyze academic articles, journals, and books from the last two decades. The literature covers active learning, data analytics, blockchain technology, and essential soft skills in accounting education. The thematic analysis identifies key trends, innovations, and gaps in educational practices. Active learning techniques, such as case-based learning, simulations, and problem-based learning, enhance students' critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills. Technological integration, especially in data analytics and blockchain, equips students with modern skills. Developing communication, teamwork, and ethical reasoning skills is crucial for success. The study provides actionable recommendations for aligning curricula with professional requirements. This research highlights the transformative potential of modern educational approaches in accounting, emphasizing continuous innovation and adaptation. The comprehensive synthesis offers insights for curriculum development and pedagogical strategies. However, further empirical research, particularly longitudinal studies, is needed to assess the long-term impact of these approaches on graduates' success and to explore diverse educational contexts globally.

The structural flexibility of organic semiconductors offers vast a search space, and many potential candidates (donor and acceptor) for organic solar cells (OSCs) are yet to be discovered. Machine learning is extensively used for material discovery but performs poorly on extrapolation tasks with small training data sets. Active learning techniques can guide experimentalists to extrapolate and find the most promising D:A combination in a significantly small number of experiments. This study uses an active learning technique with a predictive random forest model to iteratively find the most optimal D:A combinations in the search space using various acquisition functions. Active learning results with five different acquisition functions (MM, MEI, MLI, MU, and UCB) are compared. Results reveal that acquisition functions that combine exploitation and exploration (MEI, MLI, and UCB) perform far better than purely exploiting (MM) and purely exploring (MU) acquisition functions. Interestingly, the proposed model can overcome the bottleneck of extrapolating small training data sets and find most promising D:A combinations in relatively fewer experiments.

Higher-order thinking is as an important skill needed to function effectively in 21st century classrooms. Consequently, teacher professional development should be geared towards assisting teachers in acquiring skills needed to plan intellectually demanding classroom activities for their students. Engaging teachers in activities such as inquiry-oriented discussion, investigation, experimentation with new classroom practices, expansion of pedagogical knowledge, and acquisition of new teaching skills and development of innovative approaches to teaching is an effective way of promoting higher-order cognitive skills. However, information about the quality of the teacher training manual in terms of its intellectual demands are lacking. Hence, the need for this study becomes imperative. Existing prescribed learning objectives for Mathematics and Science components of the manual which served as the data source were analyzed by using qualitative content analysis method. The findings showed that the majority of the learning objectives prescribed in the teacher training manual clustered around lower-order cognitive skills. In addition, reasonable proportion of learning objectives prescribed for the Mathematics component emphasized higher-order cognitive skills more than the Science component. Further results revealed that the subject-matter content is more intellectually demanding than the aspect of the manual focusing on pedagogical knowledge. These have implications for the prescription of learning objectives in teacher training manual and planning of high-quality teacher professional development programme.

In recent years, scholars and educators of the English language have shown a lot of interest in the active learning approach. Although a few studies have been conducted on teachers' perceptions and practices of active learning in classrooms, few studies have been conducted in Vietnamese contexts on teachers' perceptions and practices of the function of active learning in reading classrooms. Due to that gap, the current study was conducted to investigate teachers' perceptions regarding active learning techniques used in reading classrooms and the role active learning plays in reading instructions. The paper conducted a descriptive study in order to identify the active learning approaches employed by EFL teachers in reading classrooms at private language centers and investigates their perspectives on the role of active learning in reading instruction. The questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from two sources. The participants were twenty-six teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) from the province of Vinh Long. The result reveals that the participants had a favorable view of the role of active learning. In particular, they felt that active learning allows students to improve their critical thinking and reading comprehension, as well as teamwork, interpersonal skills, and problem-solving abilities. These findings have a number of educational implications.