SLIDE 1
Slide Title: Walking Through Active Learning in an Online Class: Students' Perspective. Click the right-
arrow to advance the slide. Click the audio button to listen to the slide.

SLIDE 2
Here are a few students enrolled in an online history class. In this click-through interactive, we’ll 
experience what it’s like for them during one week of their class. Click the left-arrow to return to the 
previous slide.

SLIDE 3
As they log in to the LMS and navigate to this week’s lecture content, they typically scan the week’s 
activities to see what they’ll need to do. This week, the instructor has embedded four videos on the 
page, each of them featuring the instructor, and the videos are each about 5-10 minutes long.

SLIDE 4
Taking a closer look, the students note that there are few a quick activities next to the videos: a 
multiple-choice question for the first video, a short answer question for the second video, a Muddiest 
Point link to the Discussion Forum for the third, and a link to a check-in quiz next to the fourth. 

SLIDE 5
Interspersed among the videos are a few brief readings that the students expect will expand upon the 
instructor’s video content. 

SLIDE 6
At the bottom of the page is a second link to the Discussion Forum -- with instructions letting the 
students know that this week, their groups will talk through and analyze a case study, and then submit a 
group response that includes everyone’s input and support from the week’s learning content. 

SLIDE 7
After watching the videos and reading their instructor's lecture content, the students work on their 
group case studies and submit their analyses. Within a couple of days, their instructor returns each 
group's analysis with feedback and additional questions for each group member to consider and submit on 
their own.

SLIDE 8
The following week, their instructor makes the assessment for the unit available. In the test, the 
students are presented with a new case study and they’re able to analyze it with the information they 
learned from the unit's class activities and their instructor's feedback from the previous week. 

SLIDE 9
After the test, the unit closes with a reflection. The students are asked to think through why the 
information they selected to help support their case study analyses was the best option and what 
additional information  -- if they were given time to research -- would strengthen their positions. Each 
student records a video response to post in the Discussion Forum.

SLIDE 10
What took place behind-the-scenes? In this scenario, the students’ instructor designed class activities 
for the students to engage in, which allowed them to think about what they were learning and participate 
in the learning process in various ways. Creating opportunities for students to be involved in their own 
learning is the nature of a teaching strategy known as active learning.

SLIDE 11
What Are the Class Dynamics of Active Learning? (1 of 2). In a class rich with active learning, the 
instructor serves as a facilitator and model, and students are actively involved in the learning process 
and are asked to reflect on their learning, “…building mental models of whatever is being learned, 
consciously and deliberately testing those models to determine whether they work, and then repairing 
those models that appear to be faulty” (Michael).

SLIDE 12
What Are the Class Dynamics of Active Learning? (2 of 2). On the other hand, passive learning, such as 
only watching a lecture video or only reading lecture content can be useful at promoting learning at the 
lower end of Bloom’s Taxonomy (for the Cognitive Domain), such as – to remember and understand – but is 
not as good at promoting higher-level skills, like apply, analyse and evaluate (Gifkins). In the passive 
learning framework, the instructor is the subject matter expert whose role is to lecture to students, and 
students are expected to absorb the material.

SLIDE 13
Unfamiliar with Bloom’s Taxonomy? (1 of 2). Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical ordering of six 
(cognitive) skills. The hierarchy classifies learning objectives into levels of complexity and 
specificity. In the image to the right, the six-step staircase represents the ascension from less complex 
cognitive skills (remember, understand, and apply) to more complex skills, (analyze, evaluate, and 
create). 

SLIDE 14
Unfamiliar with Bloom’s Taxonomy? (2 of 2). Bloom’s Taxonomy often lists learning outcome verbs at each 
level. Instructors find the verbs helpful when developing learning outcomes or lesson objectives. Bloom’s 
Taxonomy is also a helpful starting place when designing active learning activities. If you’d like to 
further explore Bloom’s Taxonomy, additional resources to help you get started are available below, on 
this webpage.

SLIDE 15
End of Slideshow.