When to Use Active Learning

Active learning activities are most meaningful and impactful when they are designed to be integrated and aligned with your learning outcomes and assessments.

Learning outcomes, assessments, and learning activities are the core components of the integrated course design (module 1) (Fink, 2003 & 2013) and backward course design (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998). Both models focus on the alignment of the three core components to support students in attaining the learning outcomes.

Fink's Integrated Course Design Model (2013)

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Learning Outcomes–Assessments–Learning Activities: Starting with the End in Mind

Like an integrated course design, backward course design invites instructors to start with the end in mind (Wiggins & McTighe, 1009, pp. 17–19):

Step 1

Identifying Desired Results (Learning Outcomes)

What should students know, understand, and be able to do?

Step 2

Determining Acceptable Evidence (Assessments)

How will students demonstrate what they have learned?

Step 3

Planning Learning Experiences and Instruction (Learning Activities and Instruction)

What (active) learning activities will help students learn the knowledge and/or skills?
What (active) learning activities will help students practice using the knowledge and/or skills?
What feedback and resources will help students advance their knowledge and/or skills?

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Pause for Workbook Activity: Adding Learning Activities to Your Three-column Table

Now that you have explored the benefits of active learning, examined different active learning activities, and considered how technology enhances activities learning activities, it's time to design and capture your ideas of learning activities that align with the learning outcomes and assessments in each row of your three-column table in your Course Design Foundations Workbook docx.

Course Design Three-column Table
Learning Outcomes	Assessments	Learning Activities
Completed in module 4	Completed in module 5	To add in this module

As you develop your course design, use the three-column table as your blueprint for finalizing your learning outcomes, assessments, and learning activities and instruction.

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Sequencing Your Learning Activities: Using the Castle Top Diagram

Now that you have jotted down your learning activities design notes and considerations in the "Learning Activities" (right) column in your three-column table, when will you schedule each learning activity to promote learning and student agency throughout the course?

The castle top diagram takes a holistic approach to sequencing learning activities. The diagram, developed by Fink (2013), considers what students are doing in class and outside of class and how such activities are sequenced to support student preparation for assessments and eventual attainment of the learning outcomes.

Refer to the sample castle top diagram (Fink, 2013, p. 297) to conceptualize how in-class and out-of-class activities can be sequenced to promote student learning. In the diagram, a horizontal line separates the in-class and out-class activities. Above the horizontal line are in-class activities, such as lecture, test on reading, in-class problem solving, and exam. Below the horizontal line are out-of-class activities, such as reading homework, problem-solving homework, and review. The shape and pattern created by the in-class and out-of-class activities are reminiscent of the crenellation often found along the top of castle walls, hence the name "castle top."

A castle top diagram showing sample in-class and out-of-class activities.

The castle top diagram reinforces the alignment between learning outcomes, assessments, and learning activities and reveals the intentional instructional strategy in planning for differentiation and integration of learning (Fink, 2013, p. 154–155).

Differentiation

Differentiation refers to the variety of types of learning activities (individual, collaborative, in-class, out-of-class, no tech, low tech, high tech) that scaffold learning and help students build their knowledge and skills toward the attainment of the learning outcome. Differentiation reinforces UDL-informed practices by:

Fostering collaboration, interdependence, and collective learning (designing multiple means of engagement: options for sustaining effort and persistence)
Connecting prior knowledge to new learning (designing multiple means of representation: options for building knowledge)
Using multiple tools for construction, composition, and innovation (designing multiple means of action & expressions: options for expression and communication)
Building fluencies with graduated support for practice (designing multiple means of action & expressions: options for expression and communication)
Enhancing capacity for monitoring progress (designing multiple means of action & expressions: options for strategy development)

Integration

Integration refers to the interactive relationships and connections between various learning activities (differentiation) and between the course components—learning outcomes, assessments, and learning activities.

In the sample castle top diagram above, the lecture prepares students for the reading homework, which in turn prepares students for the test on readings, which demonstrates the attainment of knowledge and skills to be put to use in the problem-solving homework, that then prepares students for the collaborative in-class problem-solving exercise, which leads to the review, in preparation for the exam that provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate their learning and attainment of the learning outcome.

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Pause for Workbook Activity: Sequencing Your Learning Activities

How will your course begin? Use the castle top diagram template in your Course Design Foundations Workbook docx to sequence learning activities at the start of your course. Refer to your three-column table to confirm the alignment of the learning activities with your assessments and learning outcomes.

Consider the following prompts to help you determine which learning activities can be in or out of class:

When will students benefit most from working when you are with them (in class)? What will they be doing? How does the activity align with your learning outcome?
When will students benefit from working on their own (out of class) without your direct input/oversight? What will they be doing? How does the activity align with your learning outcome?
When will students benefit from working with other students (in or out of class)? Will students need real-time guidance and feedback from you (in class), or can the collaboration occur without your direct input/oversight (out of class)? What will they be doing? How does the activity align with your learning outcome?
How does the activity incorporate getting information and ideas, experiencing, and reflecting to build fluencies with graduated support for practice and enhance student capacity for monitoring their progress? How will you support student resilience (accounting for variability in conditions) while they are preparing for and completing academic work for the course?

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University of Toronto, Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation