Think Outside the Lecture: Strategies for Active Learning

Date: August 13, 2014 - 9:15am to 1:30pm

Location: Edmonton Clinic Health Academy (ECHA) L1-490

On August 13, 2014, the Centre for Teaching and Learning will host a symposium on strategies for active learning in the classroom. We invite all members of the university community to attend and to find out more about the various approaches to active learning in undergraduate classes. This symposium would be of interest to anyone looking for ways to increase student engagement in their course, but is particularly important for instructors considering blending (flipping) their course instructional-resources/blended-learning,

The day will feature:

• A keynote address from Dr. Simon Bates, Academic Director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology at UBC and an instructor who has successfully flipped his large physics course - read more here: http://flexible.learning.ubc.ca/showcase/flipped-blended/;
• Concurrent sessions delivered by instructors who have applied various active learning techniques in their classroom; and
• "Active Lunch," sample bites of food and ideas by visiting tables for short presentations of other examples of active learning strategies.

Schedule of Events

Keynote Speaker

Simon Bates, Ph.D.

"Heads on, hands on: Active learning inside the classroom"
Time spent with students in class is a valuable and limited commodity. Enabled by the affordances of technology to now provide easier access to course content, communication, collaboration and assessment activities, many instructors are (re)designing courses that seek to make the best possible use of class time for learning. Discussions around instructional strategies for blended and online learning, flipped classrooms and active learning are becoming more and more widespread across campuses.

But, as one of my colleagues has put it, 'if you don't lecture, what do you do?' And how do you fit all the pieces of a course together? What about workload, for both faculty and students? What about student engagement with, or resistance to, such approaches? And where is the research evidence for the effectiveness of these strategies? This keynote will attempt to provide answers to these questions, drawing on experience from my own teaching of large introductory science courses at UBC and previously in the UK, together with instructional methodologies that have become widely adopted.

Dr. Simon Bates
Simon Bates joined UBC in the summer of 2012, and was previously Dean of Learning and Teaching and Professor of Physics Education at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland where he also established and led the Edinburgh Physics Education Research Group (EdPER).

As Academic Director of UBC's Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, he is responsible for the provision of academic support services to the teaching and learning community, and part of the leadership team of the Flexible Learning Initiative, a major teaching and learning transformation program at UBC.

He has published extensively in the areas of physics education research and the role of technology in enhancing learning. A recent paper presenting a study of nearly 1000 students (Int. J. Sci. Educ. 2014 doi:10.1080/09500693.2014.916831) showed consistent and significant correlation for students across 5 introductory science courses at three different institution between degree of use of an online system to support student‐developed assessment content and end-of‐course performance.

He is a tenured Professor of Teaching in the Physics and Astronomy department and teaches on the Physics 101 course, a first year course on energy and waves delivered to 1700 non‐majors annually. In the most recent iteration of this course, he led a project in which students created their own learning content and authored portions of the course midterms and final exam.

https://sites.google.com/site/simonpbates/

Watch the livestream: http://new.livestream.com/ualberta/ThinkOutside

Concurrent Sessions

Gamifying Political Science
Mikael Hellstrom, Political Science

As a sessional instructor at the University of Alberta, I used to teach political science for undergraduates at the 100-300 level according to classic lecture-and-exam-based learning platform. However, after finding the webtool 3dgamelab, I transferred my curriculum to this model of gamification in educaton. It incentivizes participatory learning and allows student to choose their own path through the curriculum at their own pace. They will thus be engaging in the material when they are prepared for absorbing it. It also means that the students will always have the course material readily available to them. I can give students feedback until they have mastered the material and applied it successfully to complete the assignment. I can thus focus entirely on my role as a tutor. The tool also allows me to see how individual students advance through the curriculum on a highly granular level and I can respond very precisely to their needs, both individually and as a group. My classroom will thus alternate between individual work and group work, according to the current needs.

In this presentation I share the experiences I made in doing so. These cover a range of areas:

• How the changed dynamics in the classroom affected learning outcomes
• The changed role for both instructor and teaching assistant
• How gamification allowed me to identify more effective teaching tools, with educational live-action role-plays as the most potent example.

Watch the Adobe Connect session

Use of the Socrative Response System to Engage Students in Basic Science Content in the Pharmacy Program
Fatima Mraiche, Pharmacy, Qatar University

Active-learning techniques are recommended by the Canadian Council for Accreditation of Pharmacy Programs, one which has provided the Pharmacy Program in Doha, Qatar full accreditation, being the only College to receive accreditation outside of Canada. Active learning is incorporated throughout the program and in specific in the pathophysiology course series, a basic science course offered in the Pharmacy program. To better deliver the content addressed in the pathophysiology series and engage students, the Socrative Response System was used to administer two quizzes, one at the beginning of the lecture and one at the end of the lecture. In the second and third year of the Pharmacy BSc Program at Qatar University, pharmacy students are enrolled in a pathophysiology course, which is designed to provide students with a theoretical foundation of alterations in human physiologic function that result in a disease state. The course content prepares pharmacy students for subsequent pharmacology and pharmacotherapy courses related to diagnosis and management of the disease. Students will have completed the necessary physiology lectures prior to coming to the pathophysiology class. To promote and encourage student participation and ensure that students have the necessary physiology foundation for the lecture, a pre quiz is administered using the Socrative Student Response system, which allows students to use smartphones or laptops to answer a set of questions and receive immediate feedback and allow for follow up class discussions. To further engage students in the lecture, a quiz is administered at the end of the lecture addressing the content covered throughout the lecture. Students have reported to be better prepared for upcoming lectures, to have a greater retention of information and to be better prepared for subsequent courses.

Watch the Adobe Connect session

Creating Safe Zones for Student Engagement: Lessons from the Law School
Bruce Ziff, Law

This presentation will focus on 5 sure-fire techniques for encouraging class participation in mid-size classes (of 30 to 70 students). The focus will be on techniques that are amenable to adoption in a non-law school setting. Low and high-tech methodologies will be described and employed. Audience participation will form a central feature of this presentation. Come prepared to be highly reluctant to take part (at first).

Bruce Ziff's presentation (PPT)

Supporting and Assessing Team Skills
Paula Marentette, Augustana Campus

An active learning technique that changed the way I teach is Team-Based Learning. In this talk/lecture/workshop (pick the right word) I'll review the basic of TBL, a team approach to flipped classes, focussing on how to support and assess the development of team skills in the classroom. I will present the Team Skills Framework that I use with students and share how the framework has been useful for self assessment.

Watch the Adobe Connect session

Paula Marentette's presentation (PPT)

Role Plays in Political Science
Mikael Hellstrom, Political Science

Case-based learning and problem-based learning have long been used to increase student engagement and participation in the classroom. Role-plays is a way to integrate both of these tools while providing students with authenticity, simulating the environment in which the skills they learn in the course will be put to practice in the field. As such, it is a powerful method for experiential learning. One classic example from political science is the Model United Nations, employed by that body of international governance to stimulate interest among youth for international relations, development and human rights. In my classroom, I employ role-plays to simulate political systems across the globe. That includes a Model US Congress, a Model German parliament and a model Japanese ministry. Students take the role of actors within the organization being simulated and have to achieve a goal, for instance passing a budget, within an alloted time frame. Each role gets vested with certain powers and incentives, simulating the institution in question. After the play is concluded, a de-briefing session is conducted to allow the students to reflect on the exercise and how the theories of the scholarly literature was reflected in the scenario.

In this presentation, I conduct a demonstration of how a role-play can be used in the classroom. Participants will have the opportunity to play a model House of Commons debate, and then reflect on the exercise and how it can be used to enhance learning in their respective field.

Student Engagement Strategies in LARGE First-Year Classes
Roy Jensen, Chemistry

Week one, there are 300+ keen and eager students, ready to excel in University. Week six, the mood has changed to one of survival. An active instructional environment provides all students with a reason to attend and participate in class: what they do in class mirrors what will be on the exams and/or are the practical skills they need in their careers.

Watch the Adobe Connect session

The Idea Factory: Engage Students in Self-Directed Learning
David Stuart, Biochemistry

I have implemented an exercise to engage undergraduate students in self-directed learning. In addition to didactic lectures the class to breaks into teams of four students. Each team selects a problem that can be solved by methods in proteomics that they have learned from the course material. The problem can be anything from developing a cure for a human disease to eradicating pine beetle infestation. The challenge for the students is that they must select a problem, research the topic, develop a solution and on presentation day are allowed 10 minutes to present their problem and solution to a panel of judges in a "dragons den" style competition. The teams must convince the judges that their problem is worth investigating, and they have a successful solution. The judging panel is viewed as potential funders for the project. To maximize participation in the projects the teams are told that two of them will present their idea and solution and two of them will act as critics to highlight limitations of the proposal, the critics make their presentation following the presenters. The students are not told who will present and who will critique until they arrive at the class for the presentations. This ensures that all students are familiar with all aspects of the presentation. Students report that they learned more about the concepts and applications of proteomics than they would have only through study of the lecture material. The exercise promotes creativity as well as communication and presentation skills.

David Stuart's presentation (PPT)

The New Rules of the Game: Integrating Game-based Principles to Improve Student Engagement, Satisfaction and Learning
Sandra Davidson, Nursing

A paradigm shift from the traditional classroom learning to technology enabled and online learning is underway. Faculty must seek out strategies that resonate with 21st Century learners in order to maintain student engagement, satisfaction and of course, to enable learning. Game-based principles can provide faculty with new options for engaging with learners both pragmatically and relationally that can ultimately lead to student success. Courses that utilize game-based learning mechanics and principles can provide rewarding learning experiences for both students and faculty. Game-based course design can instill a greater sense of ownership for learning among students, as well as more flexibility in terms of learning progression.

This presentation will introduce participants to game-based learning. The pedagogical and instructional design principles that enable successful integration of game elements into a course will be discussed. Caveats and potential pitfalls will also be discussed. The presenter will share her own experience of using game-based principles to re-invent an undergraduate nursing research course. Course outcome data (student engagement, satisfaction and achievement) will be shared.

Sandra Davidson's presentation (PREZI)

Watch the Adobe Connect session

Table Discussion Presenters

Online Tools for Engineering Education
Samer Adeeb, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Benjamin Bloom Meets the Digital Age: Leveraging 2.0 Technologies To Enable Learning
Sandra Davidson, Nursing Faculty

Blended Learning: Examples of F2F Class Activities
Sheree Kwong See, Psychology

Injecting Active Learning into a Textbook
Chuck Lucy, Chemistry

Low Tech Classroom Response Strategies
Geneviève Maheux-Pelletier, Centre for Teaching & Learning (CTL)

Community Service-Learning at the University of Alberta
Sue McKenzie-Robblee, Sheryle Carlson, Community Service-Learning

Active Learning in Large Classes
Al Meldrum, Physics

Using Open Ended Questions to Improve Quality of Active Learning
John Nychka, Chemical and Materials Engineering

Higher Tech Classroom Response Strategies
​Kim Peacock, Centre for Teaching & Learning (CTL)

Self-regulation Techniques to Help Students Learn How To Self Assess
Tracy Preston, Specialized Support and Disability Services

Increasing Participation Using Shared Midterm Evaluation
Amanda VanSpronsen, Laboratory Medicine and Pathology

Accessibility:
Sign language interpreting, real-time captioning or other services can be provided upon request. Contact ctl@ualberta.ca or 780-492-2826 by noon on July 30, 2014.