This June, Anthony King and Teri Horton attended the Teaching Professor Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. The Teaching Professor Conference, which hosts over 1000 attendees, focuses on best practices and innovation in teaching and educational technology.
Anthony and Teri were selected to present LTC’s Active Learning Framework to professors and support staff from the US and beyond. The Active Learning Framework was developed for busy instructors who might feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of resources available. Many instructors have concerns about how they will cover content, manage the class, or have time to redesign their course. The Active Learning Framework provides easy to use resources that guide instructors through the entire active learning design process.
The Framework offers a workflow with three easy to use documents: The Active Learning Planning document, LTC’s version of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy, and the Assessment Strategies and Learning Activities guide. Our guide models the “backwards design” process (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005) in which a learning outcome is identified, along with the level of critical thinking necessary to achieve that goal. Outcomes are like learning goals, but instead of just looking at what a student should know, they describe what students should be able to do with that knowledge. Next, an appropriate assessment is selected and learning activities are designed to help students achieve their goals. Our Assessment Strategies and Learning Activities document will help instructors quickly find assessments and activities that effectively support learning outcomes.
LTC received positive feedback from conference attendees, and hopefully LSA faculty will find the Active Learning Framework valuable as well.
