Recap of CTLE half-day professional development workshop: Activate Active Learning

On 8 Feb, CTLE held an online half-day professional development workshop, which focused on activating active learning, including action-oriented approaches, active learning and student engagement. About 70 UM academic staff joined the event.

Prof. Michael Hui, Vice Rector of Academic Affairs, gave the opening remarks for the event. He thanked UM academic staff for the support and dedication to the University’s effort in adhering to the SAR Government’s public health guidelines and encouraged colleagues to make use of both physical presence and educational technologies to activate and facilitate active learning in classrooms.

Prof. Aline German-Rutherford, Vice-Provost of Academic Affairs, University of Ottawa, gave a keynote session on the topic “Active learning in a blended learning approach”. She shared her experience of blended learning and teaching, and explored different models of instructional design for hybrid courses, such as pragmatic model of learning and its Iterative loop and framework. She also shared 2 models of flipped classroom in 4 steps, which could help engage students in deeper understanding. She also discussed different approaches, benefits, opportunities and challenges of blended learning with colleagues in their own context. Finally, she shared the blended learning initiative at the University of Ottawa and some interactive online resources with colleagues. (Download Slides) (Watch Video)

A faculty–student panel session was hosted by Prof. Katrine Wong, director of CTLE, in which colleagues and students from different faculties shared their experience and thoughts in active learning. She led the discussion with 3 talking points for faculty panelists: significance of active learning in their course and its alignment with their teaching philosophy, elements of active learning, and ways to support students who may hesitate or struggle. Student panelists took turns and spoke about their thoughts on receiving lectures and participating in constructing their own knowledge, as well as their experience of active learning at UM and possible challenges with active learning. Prof. Nevia Dolcinin (FAH), Prof. Javier Cuervo (FBA), Prof. Thomas Lok (FST), Ms Carol Wong (FBA) and Ms. Hariel Sandra Agoot Raez (FAH) joined the panel discussion. (Watch Video)

Different thoughts are brought about in the discussion:

• Student expressed that they might not feel ready because they were not familiar with the set-up [of active learning]. Teachers can turn this into an opportunity to introduce students to what active learning is and help them transition.
• Teacher may need more time to warm up with students before involving students in active-learning class activities. Also, to help facilitate active learning, teachers can spell out steps one by one, guide with questions and give enough time for students to complete the tasks.
• Students feel more engaged with their learning when they know what goals they should achieve. Teachers can help students become more goal-oriented by reminding students of the intended learning outcomes of a course.
• Active learning reduces, but does not remove, opportunities for students to receive instructions. Teachers can help students become active gatherers of knowledge, which does not at all mean abandoning lecture time. We can make lecturing more effective and more fun for classroom teaching when we incorporate suitable, manageable active learning strategies in classes.

The technology session also focused on facilitating active learning. Prof. Maggie Pui Man Hoi (ICMS) shared experience on teaching with polls by facilitating student choice, ways to increase motivation in discussions, and how to increase graduate student’s awareness of plagiarism with Turnitin. Dr. Chris Fulton (CTLE) introduced several hidden features in Moodle that teachers can use to facilitate group activities such as the new interface for discussion forums, private group discussions. (Download Slides1) (Download Slides2) (Watch Video)