Classroom Practice: Active Learning
Course Summary
Derek Bruff conducted this course on active learning. The course successfully argued the reasons active learning should be present in college courses. It presented data that supported those findings as well as the facilitators personal experience helping others to engage their students more in the classroom. It also offered example activities and categories of activities that educators can use, or modify to use, in various modalities.
Why Did I Choose This Course?
The culmination of so many of the other course's content goes along with this course. You can't have good “Course Development Made Clear” or even good “Creating Universally Designed Assessments” if you haven't integrated some active learning into the classroom. I've even talked about some things that are mentioned in this course on “Active Learning” in the other courses I took. So, I had to take this course to specifically learn about the different ways I can make the learning process more interactive for my students to help them learn better.
Personal Reflections
While taking this course, I decided that it was one that I'd like to take a step further than just taking the course. I wanted to really work at the active learning aspect for my on-ground classrooms. It is my hope to earn the impact badge distinction for active learning after I can submit the impact statement to OneHE for the implementation. Learning on ground has become less of wanted format for people in the web programming degree path at the community college level. Yet, there are some people who still find it the only way they are able to learn effectively and at a pace that is not accelerated (like the online versions of the class are). I want to add to the on-ground modality another level of effectiveness that could encourage more students to take the class on-ground.I've mentioned before how there is a lot of information to impart to the students when learning how to program HTML to create web pages. It is learning a new language, albeit one in code, and that takes time to explain all the rules and syntax just like any spoken language would have. Derek Bruff refers to the standard lecture format as “continuous exposition by the teacher”, but he also points out that some students still learn well enough with that style. I have to agree with the statement that long lecture times “leave no time for student reflection or peer engagement” because the full class period is used up trying to give the lecture. I know that I had to watch my time on particularly heavy chapters to make sure I still had time left at the end for questions and discussion.
I will admit that I went through this course several times to make sure that I didn't miss any vital detail that could help me to plan a class with better active learning styles in it. I watched the videos several times from the end of October to the end of December. The material was fresher in my mind as I planned out various activities and formats for the upcoming Winter Semester 2026 classes.
The key, and really the hardest part, is finding a way to still get all of that information across in a less monotonous format but to still get that information across. It was simply put in the course that we know the inputs to the students and the outputs that we get from them, but “what is happening to connect the inputs to the outputs?”. That disconnect is where active learning comes into play. It isn't that readings and lectures are bad, but just reading and listening to lecturing doesn't reinforce the concepts and information that the students need to move forward with the class and their degree program. We give quizzes, tests, and projects for the students to complete to assess their skills, but what is needed to make that successful leap from lecture to project? Active learning studies suggest that we need what I'd call the in-between stage between inputs and outputs to connect the information with the result. This might not be the technical way of looking at it, but it is how I see the process in my mind.
I could go on and on about how the information in this course jumpstarted my brain on the possibilities for classroom use. Are all of these ideas possible? Possible, yes. Practical, not always or for each topic. I will need to confer with my colleagues who have taught the class to brainstorm on some of the ideas. Some I have already implemented in the latter half of my semester teaching. I can already quantify some of the results as better versus non-active learning formats. Is the difference because of the on-ground modality, or is it because of the extra activities? There is only one other on-ground version of the class, but it is a once a week 4 hour long class instead of a twice a week 2 hours each time class. I will need to research data from the other on-ground class when I can gain access to those statistics.
For the Winter 2026 Semester, I will be teaching both types of on-ground classes. I am concerned about the four-hour long class. I think that it will be very important to implement more active learning elements in that class as well as breaks to keep it from becoming too boring. 4 hours is a long time to sit in a class at once. So, I am motivated to work more activities into this next semester's class to keep the students engaged.
New Approaches
Some of these approaches have been implemented already and some haven't. First, a clock or timer needs to be monitored to figure out a section duration that seems to work for attention spans on the lectures. Mini activities, or on hand practice activities, should be created to break up the sections, especially on harder to understand topics. Using a couple different sources (like the textbook, W3Schools, etc) for examples will also help to bridge the gap of technical jargon and real-world use.For example, JavaScript is introduced in the introductory class. We only spend one chapter's worth of time on the subject, but it is a part of 1 assignment and 2 projects that the students will work on. They don't have to come up with the code on their own, but there is a level of understanding that is needed to be able to put it in the right place to create an interactive document. Before the JavaScript lecture, I researched several real-world examples of JavaScript being used on websites and in apps. I was able to break down those codes into pieces that were explained in the lecture, create an activity that used the codes, and they saw the result of their creation. Each student had a document at their desk to work on to create the effects. I also typed in the code myself and showed the result on the big screen for everyone to see. After a couple examples, I asked the students if they could anticipate what a code would do. Some were able to successfully do that. More raised their hands as we went along.
The testing assessments need to be adjusted to not just be book learning. Integrating several coding examples, instead of just definition type information, will allow the students to see the code in action and determine what it should or shouldn't look like. Adding in debugging questions will help them to recognize the code more easily and cement in their mind what it will or what will happen if something is missing.
Studying for the mid term and final exam will be conducted on a personal and group level. They have the information ahead of time, but we will also go over it in class with more explanation with each person having their own question(s) to research and answer. This was something that I implemented after starting the OneHE courses. It worked very well for the mid-term and still nearly perfect for the final exam.
My Predictions
As time goes by, and the methods are tested, reused and refined, I think the overall classroom knowledge base will grow. I anticipate less confusion and higher scores on assessments the first time around. Instead of major issues with assignments, I can see the errors being centered more around typos or quick debugging to find a misplaced code.As for quizzes, the midterm, and final, I predict those scores will also go up on the first time around. Even though students are allowed open book and open notes for our tests, it is crazy how many students do not get 100% on them. It should be unheard of, but it happens all the time. Some people have even failed them.
My Aspirations
My aspirations are to make better use of the class time available for the students and myself. Lecturing for a couple hours straight, several times a week, is hard on the voice. I'm happy to do it because I love what I teach, but I know that isn't the best way for the students either. I want to find a good balance between lecture, video, discussion, practice activities, and lab time to work on their assignments.When students take an online course, they must regulate their own time according to their schedule and needs. Oftentimes, they don't allow enough time, but that is both the benefit and detriment of an online course modality. They have the freedom to set those schedules up. As an on-ground instructor, I need to come up with those schedules in a way that will benefit the most students. Each class will have different needs as well because they are made up of different personalities and learning styles. That is where the bulk of the struggle lies in my mind.
With that in mind, I want to do the best I can and not be stagnant after coming up with certain activities and skill tests. I think that I'll need to have some extra ways things can be handled if I happen to have a class that goes in a different direction learning wise. I think that being able to adapt to those needs will be a journey that I'll continue to be on for the rest of my career.