Strategies for enhancing student understanding through active engagement (LB113)

Abstract

When teaching undergraduate students, especially in large classes, one of the most challenging aspects is providing students with an engaging experience that will foster their learning and increase their understanding of complex material. There are numerous studies in the literature which document the advantages for students of participating in “active learning” where interacting with other people (students, academic staff) in real or virtual worlds maintains their interest and hence enhances their learning, especially when they receive immediate feedback on their performance. However, it is not easy to design learning tasks that encourage student interaction, are academically rigorous and also able to engage the current generation of digitally native students. Three strategies for enhancing student understanding using active learning will be presented: the formative assessment lecture using mobile response devices; virtual laboratory activities using an adaptive feedback platform and student‐led game design. The value of each these strategies, apart from increasing student engagement, is that student misconceptions are frequently revealed allowing direct remediation, which further enhances student learning and provides instructors with feedback on troublesome areas of the curriculum.