Abstract:

As capture technologies become commonplace internationally across higher education institutions it has contributed to a growing realisation that learners require more opportunities for engagement in class (1), more effective feedback from instructors (2), and more authentic learning activities (3). In response, educators are seeking new solutions to combine these technologies with emerging polling, discussion and note-taking tools to enhance active learning for in-class and online learners (4). Students can benefit from this new focus on their metacognitive skills to improve how they learn across different settings by learning at their own pace, using note to synthesis knowledge and engage in live discussion to check their understanding. Similarly, academics can begin to consider how they can seamlessly engage with learners both within and outside of the classroom, using digital technologies to enable peer-peer and instructor-peer communication for sequencing learning as flipped activities or offering live classes to distance learners (5).

This conversation will outline the benefits arising from adopting these active learning approaches, but also highlight how these new, exciting opportunities are presenting important challenges to education providers. Connecting learning requires a new mindset to enable learners to have consistent opportunities for capturing content, interactions and experiences from all teaching contexts. These challenges include capturing multi-user experiences from active learning settings, linking the physical and digital in our learning spaces, and support for teachers to build our teaching programmes to be suitable for the emerging demands of an increasingly globalised learning community and preparing them for future work environments.

[1] S. Freeman, S.L. Eddy, M. McDonough, M.K. Smith, N. Okorafor, H. Jordt & M.P. Wenderoth, “Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111, 23, 8410–8415, http://www.pnas.org/content/111/23/8410.full, 2013.
[2] F. Krasaze. DFW Rates Decline by More than half to 9% in Political Science Course with Video and Active Learning, https://echo360.com/dfw-rates-decline-half/, 2017.
[3] C. Harvey, K. Eshleman, K. Koo, K.G. Smith, C.J. Paradise & A.M. Campbell. Encouragement for Faculty to Implement Vision and Change. CBE Life Sciences Education, 15(4), es7. http://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-03-0127 2016.
[4] M.M. Gross, M.C. Wright. & O.S. Anderson, Effects of image‐based and text‐based active learning exercises on student examination performance in a musculoskeletal anatomy course. American Association of Anatomists, 10: 444-455. doi:10.1002/ase.1684, 2017.
[5] D. White. Coalescent spaces. Blog post, http://daveowhite.com/coalescent/, 22 January 2016

Keywords:

Active learning, learning capture, engagement, analytics, pedagogy, collaboration, learning spaces.