Active Learning Spaces

There has been significant research published on the concept of Active Learning (AL) Classrooms, detailing the potential benefits of engaging students in authentic, meaningful experiences and well-aligned assessment, measurement and evaluation. AL spaces typically include highly mobile furniture, mobile and/or portable white-boards, more than usual mounted whiteboards (or whiteboard paint on walls); untethered methods to share/project information (tablet computer with remote app to operate desktop system or Apple TV-like remote, which instructor or students can share the work on their mobile devices); fixed video-camera’s to capture instructor/student object demonstrations; robust WiFi connections along with plentiful (perhaps portable) electrical outlets; reliable, broadband Internet service to facilitate collaborative work, such as sharing a Google Document.

As more faculty consider and offer additional AL opportunities, ideally more AL spaces will become available. Many of you have already requested the list of 228 Active Learning , and hopefully you have been able to integrate some of these into AL sessions, regardless of class size/space. Additional methods to create an active space are to gather formative assessment in the form of Student Response Systems. These range from a Quadrant colored paper or electronic alternatives such as Plickers; Poll Everywhere; Go Formative or Kahoot.

There are also ways which your students can create active representations of their conceptual understandings by creating Electronic Learning objects (eLO) using Video Scribe, StopMotion, Screencast or a Green Screen. To measure the eLO’s reliably, you can create an analytical Rubrics using an online rubric generator, such as Rubistar.

Recent Research on AL Spaces include:

1. Comparison of Student Learning Gains in High- and Low-Tech Active-Learning Environments, "results suggest that the benefits of an active learning experience can be achieved at lower cost without technology features."

2. "When teacher-centered instructors are assigned to student-centered classrooms "data suggest that student-centered classrooms are effective only when instructors’ epistemic framework of teaching and learning is consistent with a student-centered pedagogy."

3. Does the Room Matter? Active Learning in Traditional and Enhanced Lecture Spaces "concludes that, while active learning classrooms may facilitate implementation of active learning, it is the active learning and not the infrastructure that enhances student performance.”

4. Space and consequences: Impact of different formal learning spaces on instructor and student behavior by Brooks, DC (2012), Journal of Learning Spaces, 2 (1).