Typical teaching and learning activities in an Active Learning include active individual and/or collaborative learning, visualization and simulation of essential course content delivered via laptops and the Internet, desktop or hands-on experiments, and the use of personal response systems.

Benefits of Active Learning

The educational procedure of implementing a wide range of activities that involve students in meaningful things and thinking about the things that they are doing is referred to as the use of active learning strategies (Bonwell & Eison, 1991; Prince, 2004). Active learning strategies are essential for enhancing student learning.

While the success of all learning environments depends upon a number of variables, inside and outside of the instructor’s control, researchers on student learning in an ALC report the following benefits:

Increased class attendance (typically > 90%)
Improved student performance when instructors move to active, student-centered teaching methods
Increased conceptual understanding when compared to lecture/laboratory classes
Drastically reduced failure rates, especially for women and minorities
Provided opportunities to strengthen student-faculty relationships
Provided opportunities that strengthen student-to-student relationships, which benefits collaborative project outcomes
Were found by students to be effective for teamwork and collaborative projects
Encouraged discussion by helping students feel active and engaged
Perceived positively by both students and instructors (Beichner, et al., 2007)

In a meta-analysis of research on active learning strategies, Prince (2004) reported the following benefits:

Significantly improves short-term and long-term recall of information
Significantly improves student academic performance
Increases conceptual understandings (twice as much as compared to a traditional course)
Improves retention in academic programs
Increases student attention
Promotes student engagement
Addresses students’ misconceptions
Develops enhanced critical thinking skills
Improves students’ self-esteem
Improves interpersonal relationships
Improves teamwork skills

Sources:

University of Minnesota: Active Learning Classroom

Facit (Higher Impact Learning by Design): "Teaching and Learning in Active Learning Classrooms". Recommendations, Research and Resources

Considerations

Teaching in an Active Learning classroom will likely be a very different experience from what you're used to. In order to prepare yourself for teaching in these spaces, the following steps are recommended:

Start with learning objectives:

Let your learning objective lead the process
Define what you need to achieve so you can plan how the space can help
Move from the traditional instructor led methods to a more Student-centered method that empower the learner to be more engaged and involved in the learning process

Use multiple pedagogies:
- Lecture presentation mode may continue to be the kick start of your lessons, then followed by directing students to move to a different learning mode to access content, their peers and the instructor to support learning.
- Implementing activities that you’ve done before: centers, team-based learning, PBL, collaborative groups. And now consider the possibilities your new classroom can adapt to those activities.
- Make sure you use clear and well develop expectations to avoid wasting time.

Leverage digital and analog tools to support these lessons
- Fostering higher order thinking skills is far more successful when students are given multiples ways to process information.
- These tools allows you and the students to share critical information and to foster teachable moments as they occur.
- These tools aid collaboration and make it much easier for all students to express their ideas as by removing that anxiety of being in the front of the room

Increase access between instructor and students
- No matter the set up or mode, everyone needs the kind of access required to foster trust and confidence in sharing ideas
- The ALC allows you to shift your role from the transmission of information to that of helping create and nurture a learning environment that guides your students to construct their own knowledge and learning
- You are now free to move around to classroom supporting a much closer and deeper connection to your students.
- These activities range from one-on-one tutoring
- Join alongside a group to facilitate the learning
- Or focus on the entire classroom to you when an opportunity for sharing information present itself
- Shifting in roles, allowing students to have easy access to you and you to them.
- Release control of the classroom
- As you start to implement these strategies it won’t just unleash the potential of your classroom, it will unleash a deeper and more rewarding teaching experience for you
- Use your professional network

Observe others using the room.
Visit the room before you meet your class for the first time and familiarize yourself with the technology in the room.
If you specifically requested to teach in an ALC, make students aware of the reasons why you selected this space for your course. The rationale for an instructor's decision and pedagogy choices should be shared with students to help them become informed, empowered partners in the learning process. Be persuasive when describing the benefits of active and collaborative learning.
If you were assigned to an ALC, you should still talk to students about how you plan to use the room and how that use will benefit their learning. Some suggestions:

Share with students about your teaching philosophy and how this space fits into that philosophy
Help students understand the evidence that shows that collaborative, problem-based approaches may help them acquire more skills and knowledge in this course and beyond.

Let students know that you realize the ALC may be a big change for them as well.
Build in several opportunities to get feedback from students regarding the course.
Be flexible. An advantage of an ALC space is that you get constant feedback on what the students understand and what they don't. If you feel that many students are confused, work to clear up the problem. Either find a student or group that understands things and can explain it to everyone, or explain it yourself with a mini-lecture.
Note that ALC spaces don't work as well as lecture halls for delivering lectures. If you find yourself talking for long periods at a time, find an activity for the students to do.
Address frequently identified problems immediately with the whole class. Feel free to stop an activity session to resume lecturing if you need to clear up a misconception.
Remain flexible about student learning and be aware of difficulties students may be having. If many students do not understand a concept, this problem may need to be addressed in a lecture format and may require you to modify the scheduled activities during the class.

Specific Challenges

The following sections address common challenges and solutions of ALCs as identified by instructors: Please click on each category to get more information.

Room Issues

Aspects of the room design can pose problems for students and instructors new to them; this section discusses strategies for dealing with commonly identified issues.

Noise and Distractions

Read about strategies for coping with noise and some of the most common distractions instructors and students encounter in ALCs, including student socializing and inappropriate use of computers.

Group Work

This section provides tips to encourage productive group work in the ALCs, including the use of cooperative learning strategies.

Student Engagement

Student engagement is one of the keys to fostering a dynamic, productive learning environment; this section collects tips from experienced ALC instructors about ways to engage students.

Using the Technology

One of the features that makes ALCs so special is the technology integration in the rooms; this section discusses strategies for making the best of these high-tech spaces.

What does learning in an ALC look like?

Here are some videos from different Universities that have implemented Active Learning in their classrooms:

USF-COPH

McGill University:

North Carolina State University:

University of Iowa:

University of Minnesota:

Virginia Technological University: