Active Learning: Where learning comes to life
Active learning means students are doing something beyond listening—they’re applying, analyzing, discussing, or creating. Even simple active learning strategies can significantly improve student engagement and learning outcomes. Therefore, we design learning activities that support students as they practice, apply, and build the knowledge and skills outlined in your learning objectives. While lectures and readings introduce ideas, learning activities give students the opportunity to engage with concepts, develop skills, and deepen understanding.
Effective learning activities are intentionally connected to learning objectives and assessments. Rather than simply keeping students busy, they encourage active participation, provide opportunities for practice and feedback, and help students prepare for real-world application. Research consistently shows that students learn more deeply when they actively work with ideas through discussion, problem-solving, analysis, and creation.
Why Active Learning Matters
Research consistently shows that active learning improves student outcomes across disciplines. Students who actively engage with material:
- Retain information better and longer
- Develop deeper conceptual understanding
- Improve critical thinking skills
- Stay more engaged and motivated
- Perform better on assessments
Quick Active Learning Strategies
Easy to implement in any class session:
- Think-Pair-Share: Pose a question, give students 1-2 minutes to think individually, 2-3 minutes to discuss with a partner, then share with the class
- Minute Paper: Last 2-3 minutes of class, students write brief responses to prompts like “What was the most important thing you learned today?” or “What question remains unanswered?”
- Poll Questions: Use clickers, online polls, or hand raises to check understanding and spark discussion
- Problem-Solving: Give students a problem to solve individually or in small groups, then discuss approaches and solutions
- Concept Mapping: Students create visual diagrams showing relationships between key concepts
Balancing Direct Instruction and Active Learning
You don’t need to eliminate lectures entirely. Instead, break up content delivery with active learning:
- Deliver 10-15 minutes of content, then pause for a brief activity
- Use mini-lectures to introduce concepts, then have students apply them
- Flip the classroom: assign readings or videos before class, use class time for activities
- Start with an engaging activity to activate prior knowledge, then build on it
A Simple Formula
For any lesson, aim for this pattern:
- Activate: Brief activity to activate prior knowledge (5 minutes)
- Inform: Present new information through lecture, demo, or media (10-15 minutes)
- Apply: Students practice or apply new concepts (10-15 minutes)
- Assess: Quick check for understanding and address questions (5 minutes)
Getting Started
Be patient as both you and students adjust to new approaches
Start small—add just one active learning strategy to your next class
Choose low-stakes activities that don’t require extensive preparation
Explain to students why you’re using these strategies and how they benefit learning
Give clear instructions and time limits
Designing Your Activities
Match Activities to Learning Objectives
For each learning objective, identify what activities students need to practice. The verb in your objective suggests appropriate activities.
- Analyze data: Give students datasets to examine, interpret graphs, identify patterns
- Evaluate arguments: Present competing viewpoints for students to assess using criteria
- Design solutions: Pose authentic problems for students to solve through design thinking
- Compare theories: Create comparison charts, debate different perspectives
- Apply concepts: Case studies, simulations, real-world problem sets
Consider Different Activity Types
Individual Activities
Students work independently to develop personal understanding:
- Reflective writing or journaling
- Problem sets or practice exercises
- Reading analyses or annotations
- Self-assessment checklists
- Research or independent investigations
Collaborative Activities
Students work together to construct shared understanding:
- Small group discussions or jigsaws
- Peer teaching or reciprocal instruction
- Collaborative problem-solving
- Group projects or presentations
- Peer review and feedback sessions
Applied Activities
Students engage with authentic or real-world tasks:
- Case study analysis
- Simulations or role-plays
- Laboratory investigations
- Field observations or community projects
- Design challenges or makerspaces
Scaffold Complex Skills
Break down complex objectives into a sequence of activities that build progressively.
Example: Scaffolding Research Writing
Learning Objective: Students will write a research paper synthesizing multiple sources
Activity sequence:
- Week 1: Library workshop on finding sources, practice database searches
- Week 2: Analyze sample papers, identify how sources are used
- Week 3: Write summary of single source, peer review
- Week 4: Compare two sources on same topic, identify agreements and disagreements
- Week 5: Draft introduction and thesis, receive feedback
- Week 6: Write body paragraphs integrating multiple sources
- Week 7: Complete draft, comprehensive peer review
- Week 8: Revise and submit final paper
Advanced Activity Design
Maryellen Weimer emphasizes that meaningful learning happens when students are actively engaged in the learning process rather than passively receiving information. Advanced learning activities support this approach by giving students opportunities to apply knowledge, solve problems, collaborate, and reflect on their learning. In these environments, the instructor shifts from being primarily a content deliverer to a facilitator who creates conditions for deeper learning and student ownership.
1. Providing multiple means of engagement, representation, and action.
Multiple Means of Engagement
Offer choices that tap into different student interests and motivations:
- Let students choose which case study, text, or problem to analyze
- Provide options for individual, partner, or group work on certain activities
- Connect content to diverse real-world contexts and applications
- Include activities at different challenge levels
- Allow students to bring their own examples or applications
Multiple Means of Representation
Present information in varied formats to support diverse learners:
- Combine visual, auditory, and kinesthetic elements
- Provide text alternatives for audio content and vice versa
- Use concrete examples alongside abstract concepts
- Offer both structured step-by-step guidance and open-ended exploration
- Make connections across different representations of the same concept
Multiple Means of Action and Expression
Let students demonstrate learning in different ways:
- Allow written, oral, visual, or multimedia responses
- Provide options for independent or collaborative work
- Offer digital tools that support different working styles
- Build in flexible timing where appropriate
2, Structure significant portions of your course around authentic, complex problems
Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Approach
- Present an ill-structured problem: Realistic scenario without obvious solution
- Students identify what they need to learn: Generate learning issues and questions
- Independent research and learning: Students find and study necessary resources
- Collaborative problem-solving: Groups work together to develop solutions
- Present and defend solutions: Students explain their reasoning and evidence
- Reflect on the process: Metacognitive discussion of what was learned and how
Community-Engaged Learning
Connect course activities to real community needs through service learning or community-based research:
- Partner with local organizations on authentic projects
- Have students conduct community-based research addressing real issues
- Design solutions for community partners’ challenges
- Engage community members as co-educators or guest experts
- Include structured reflection on the experience and learning
Designing Equitable Community Partnerships
Ensure community-engaged learning benefits all stakeholders:
- Work with communities, not on them—center community voices and needs
- Build sustained partnerships rather than one-off projects
- Ensure projects provide genuine value to community partners
- Address power dynamics and avoid “savior” narratives
- Include structured reflection on social justice and systemic issues
3. Build self-awareness: Metacognitive Activities
Build in activities that help students develop awareness of their own learning:
- Think-alouds: Model your expert thinking process when solving problems
- Exam wrappers: After receiving graded work, students analyze what strategies worked or didn’t
- Learning logs: Regular reflection on what’s clear, what’s confusing, and study strategies
- Strategy instruction: Explicitly teach study strategies, note-taking, problem-solving approaches
- Self-explanation: Students explain their reasoning and decision-making processes
4. Designing for Transfer
Help students apply learning beyond your course through activities that promote transfer:
- Varied contexts: Practice applying concepts in multiple different scenarios
- Abstract and apply: Explicitly identify underlying principles and practice applying them
- Compare cases: Analyze similarities and differences across examples
- Bridge activities: Connect course concepts to students’ majors, careers, or lives
- Reflection on transfer: Ask students where else they might apply what they’ve learned
Want to join a course design cohort?
The Centre for Teaching Learning and Technology (CTLT) hosts annual course design programming.
Consider joining the Journey into Course Design (a two-day workshop where you will explore the four stages of course design: reflecting on situational factors, writing learning outcomes, considering assessment options, and exploring instructional strategies to support learners), or the Course Design Intensive for faculty (a multiday course design program where you will will work in an a supportive atmosphere, both individually and collaboratively, to design or redesign a UBC credit course that you teach or are planning to teach.)
