Active Learning

Engaging Students in Learning: An Online Workshop

In this online workshop, you will see examples of active learning at U-M, reflect on how these techniques could be applied in your own classroom, and engage with fellow graduate students to address any obstacles to implementing the techniques. Specifically, you will:

  1. Watch a series of short video clips showing U-M instructors using a variety of teaching and learning activities to engage students in active learning. (about 35 minutes total)
  2. Write a reflective response to the videos you watched. (400-800 words)
  3. Read and comment on at least two responses written by other participants. 
  4. Complete an online survey about your experience as a participant.

It should take about 90-120 minutes to complete all of the activities.

  • Steps 1 and 2 must be completed by 11/24.
  • Step 3 must be completed between Monday, 11/25 and Thursday, 11/28.
  • Step 4 must be completed between Friday 11/29 and Monday 12/2. 

Registered participants will receive detailed instructions on how to access the online workshop. Completion of all of the activities will count as one workshop toward Requirement B for the Graduate Teacher Certificate.

Event Information
Start Date: 
Mon, 05/13/2013 - 8:00am
End Date: 
Fri, 05/31/2013 - 5:00pm
Location (Room): 
online
Presenter(s): 
Meg Bakewell
Audience: 
Graduate Students and Postdocs Only
Eligible for Certificate: 
Eligible for Graduate Teacher Certificate
Submitted by mbakewel on Thu, 04/18/2013 - 12:23am
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Using Discussion Questions Effectively

Compiled by Lauren V. Kachorek with help from Kirsten Olds, CRLT, 2009

GENERAL STRATEGIES
Start with Open-Ended Questions – these types of questions help begin a discussion because they encourage multiple viewpoints.  They also tend to invite students to share their opinions, which can generate additional topics or define crucial issues.  “What struck you as most successful / problematic about the characters in Little Women?”

Ask Questions with Multiple Answers – this is the most straightforward method of encouraging student participation because it removes the students’ fear of answering incorrectly.  Instead of asking, “Why is the ending of Little Women a good one?” ask, “What are other ways in which Louisa May Alcott might have ended Little Women?”  While this type of question does not ask students to recall details from the ending of the book, it does promote critical thinking because it forces them to put together an argument that the details of the book will support.

Utilize Follow-Up Questions – when students respond with an answer that is very brief or short, don’t miss the opportunity to ask a follow-up question: “Can you tell me more?” or “Why do you say that?” or “How did you come to that conclusion?” Read more »

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Increasing Student Interaction in a Large Course via Blogging

A short video describing this teaching strategy can be seen here.

Robin Queen, Linguistics, lectures to about 150 students in a 300-level linguistics and anthropology course on language and social conflict. To increase student interactions with peers and internet content related to the course, she instituted a blog for each discussion section of 25 students. Queen and her graduate student instructors provided a weekly discussion prompt and seeded blogs with initial posts, to model ways of meeting the desired criteria. Students were randomly assigned two dates when they had to post. Students could either use the prompt to frame their post, or they could post on a topic of their choosing. To earn a “B” grade for blogging, students also had to comment on peers’ posts twice a week. More extensive weekly commenting could earn an “A.”

GSIs monitored and graded blog posts and comments based on content, instead of assigning conventional essays. Queen’s GSIs reported that the effort of grading blogs was comparable to grading conventional essays, but that the degree of student interaction and exchange increased dramatically. GSIs also used blog discussion threads as primers for their weekly discussion section activities.

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