{"id":25385,"date":"2026-02-16T15:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T04:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/?p=25385"},"modified":"2026-02-18T14:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T03:11:14","slug":"active-learning-anywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/active-learning-anywhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Active Learning Anywhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

Practical techniques for effective engagement in flat\u2011floor, tiered, online, and hybrid classes<\/h1>\n

The start of the academic year is always an exciting time for students and their educators, with everybody eager to learn together and build lasting relationships. It\u2019s an ideal time to introduce active learning activities into classes to encourage this social, relationship-rich learning<\/a>, known to promote deeper learning and belonging, and reduce achievement gaps<\/a> (Felten & Lambert, 2020<\/a>, \u00a0Freeman et al., 2014<\/a>, Theobald et al. 2020<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Active learning approaches have been defined as \u201cinstructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing\u201d (Bonwell and Eison, 1991, p. 2)<\/a>. The approaches described below have been consistently shown to work effectively in many disciplines across STEMM, social sciences, arts, and the humanities.<\/p>\n

This semester, you may find yourself with a very full class and you may be teaching in a venue that is less than ideal for active learning \u2013 for example, a tutorial in a tiered venue. You may also be teaching in online or in a hybrid\/hyflex mode with students in front of you and online simultaneously. We\u2019ve included strategies for these scenarios. My (Adam\u2019s) favourite venue for active learning is actually the Chemistry lecture theatres, which are quite steeply tiered. My experience was that groups worked well with students on adjacent rows and the physical effort of keeping in contact with the groups kept me on my toes and intellectually active.<\/p>\n

If you already use active learning techniques in your classes, we hope there may be some new ideas in our list. If this will be your first time, perhaps try one or two in the first few weeks. Our experience is that students engage well and really don\u2019t mind if things don\u2019t go perfectly. We have ordered these from less in-class time to more, but the timings given are very approximate.
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\nActive Learning Approaches That Take Less In-Class Time<\/a>\r\n\t \t\t
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Minute Papers<\/h3>\n

What it is:<\/strong> Brief written reflections on key ideas or uncertainties; excellent to allow students to formulate their ideas before verbal participation. These can also be turned in at the beginning of class as an \u201centry ticket\u201d or done at the end as an “exit ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flat\u2011floor:<\/strong> Collect on paper or Padlet<\/a>; skim quickly and address 1\u20132 themes immediately; park the rest for the next class opener.<\/p>\n

Tiered:<\/strong> Use a digital form to avoid aisle congestion; project anonymised responses to validate concerns and clarify quickly.<\/p>\n

Online:<\/strong> Collect via chat, Zoom polls<\/a>, or a form; display three representative, anonymised responses; close with a concise \u201chere\u2019s what we\u2019ll fix next\u201d statement.<\/p>\n

Hybrid:<\/strong> Use Padlet<\/a> for everyone or a single digital form. If you are keen to understand different experiences of the two cohorts, be sure give students a chance to identify their group – read out a mix of in\u2011room and online examples to make both cohorts visible.<\/p>\n

Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n