This document discusses strategies for enhancing active learning communities. It provides examples of active learning techniques that can be used in both in-person and online courses. These include short writing exercises, clicker questions, and discussion forums to encourage collaboration and engagement with course material. The goals are to develop students' analytical skills, improve class participation and preparation, and make assessment more comprehensive with these interactive teaching methods.

1. Strategies for Enhancing Active Learning Communities Matt Russell, Ph.D. & Gerald Bergtrom, Ph.D. Learning Technology Consultants Learning Technology Center University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

2. Solving Pedagogic problems and Achieving Instructional Goals

4. The Reality Blended Learning is a path to addressing misperceptions, solving these problems and strengthening classroom and online communities of learning… Misperception Solutions to these problems take too much instructor time.

15. Short in-class collaborative writing exercise (group or individual)

16. An Index Card Exercise… A beautiful piece of driftwood picked up from the shore of Lake Michigan is art. Discuss this statement in groups of 3-5 & then individually defend or dispute this statement on a 4X5” index card. Record your arguments in 100-150 words on the index card. Sign and hand in the card. For this exercise students may have viewed different kinds of 2D and 3D art (painting, sculpture) and have discussed what made a piece a work of art. Maybe notions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ art would also have been discussed.

19. Here, students would have already read about the role of biological evolution in creating the diversity of life on earth… Yet Another Index Card Exercise A ship’s captain visiting a far away paradise island saw much livestock and produce. Years of breeding had yielded a variety of maize with more and larger kernels on the cob. Island farmers stopped growing the other varieties of maize. Some years later, the captain returned with her ship to find the island desolate, strewn with animal and human remains. Why? Work in groups of 3-5 (no more, no less); write your response on a 4X5” index card signed by your group members.

22. Classroom Exercises like these are easy to grade (automatic for clickers, 15 minutes for 15-25 minutes for two index card exercises per class) and they engage students in enable peer instruction and collaboration i.e., Active Learning

24. Some Asynchronous Active Learning Strategies for small groups

25. Example of a small group online Discussion Forum http://uwm.edu ou=242556 (migrating cells - Disc. D)

26. A Biology Semester Project Discussion topics and DropBox folders in the service of active Learning ou= 91234 (Group Project Instructions)

31. Active Learning Strategies Breakout In small groups, pick one of your courses and collaborate to design an active learning module.

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33. An Index Card Exercise You are one of 3 clients that your home healthcare agency has assigned to an elderly client. You arrive a few minutes early for your shift and witness your co-worker ask the client if they can borrow $10.00 until payday (the next day). The client agrees. What if anything should you do? Work in groups of 3-5 (no more, no less); write your response on a 4X5” index card signed by your group members.

34. Another Index Card Exercise You work for an eldercare agency in town and have developed a close relationship with a client you have been caring for. It is clear that the client, who is alone with no living relatives, has come to enjoy your company and appreciate your services. One day the client confides to you that she has put you into her will and that she is going to leave you everything she owns. What if anything should you tell your supervisor? Work in groups of 3-5 (no more, no less); write your response on a 4X5” index card signed by your group members.