Designing Active Learning Environments

Environments are the spaces—physical, digital, and social—where teaching and learning take place. They shape what kinds of active learning methods and materials are possible, and they influence how students experience collaboration, communication, and engagement.

An environment is more than the physical space or the learning management system—it also includes how people interact within that space. Small changes to the environment can significantly affect how students participate.

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Affordances: A Useful Lens

When we talk about environments, it helps to think in terms of affordances—the features of a space or tool that enable certain kinds of teaching and learning.

In a classroom with movable chairs, the affordance is flexibility for group work.
In a Quercus course site with a clear weekly structure, the affordance is predictability and navigation support.
In a group project where roles are assigned, the affordance is structured participation.

By identifying affordances—and also noticing constraints—you can adapt methods and materials to work more effectively in your teaching context.

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Why Situational Factors Matter

The same activity may work differently depending on the environment:

A case study in a seminar room with movable chairs encourages small group collaboration; in a fixed-seat lecture hall, it might require digital tools (e.g., polling or shared documents).
A collaborative annotation exercise may be easy to manage in an online asynchronous course but more difficult in a fast-paced lecture.

When considering environments, think about:

Physical space (room layout, furniture, writing surfaces, technology)
Digital tools (LMS design, collaborative platforms, polling, multimedia tools)
Social dynamics (group structures, participation norms, instructor presence)

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Pause for Workbook Activity: Situational Factors for Environments

In your ALDF Workbook docx, record the situational factors that shape how your environments support or constrain active learning. Use the table provided to note your context for each factor.

My Situational Factors for Environments
Situational Factors	My Context
Physical space layout and affordances	[My notes]
Digital platforms and tools	[My notes]
Social dynamics (group structures, norms)	[My notes]
Instructor presence and role	[My notes]
Student preparation and expectations	[My notes]

Use the situational factors identified for methods, materials, and environments to shape your design.

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Looking Ahead

In the following two pages, we will look more closely at:

2.5 Physical Environments: Classroom Affordances with examples from U of T classrooms
2.6 Digital and Social Environments with examples of online tools, course site design, and participation norms

After reviewing those examples, you will return to your workbook to add design notes about how you can adapt environments to support active learning in your own courses.

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University of Toronto, Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation