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Hi, I’m Lyndsey, AN EDUCATOR from PENNSYLVANIA.

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I am committed to creating spaces where LGBTQ+ people feel seen, respected, and fully affirmed. For me, being LGBTQ+ inclusive means recognizing the dignity and complexity of every person’s identity and honoring the ways gender, sexuality, and expression shape lived experience. Inclusion is not a passive stance; it is an active practice of learning, unlearning, and showing up with intention.

My allyship is grounded in ongoing education. I have completed training in LGBTQ+ cultural competency, gender‑inclusive language, and trauma‑informed practices. I continue to seek out resources, scholarship, and community voices that deepen my understanding of the histories, challenges, and brilliance within LGBTQ+ communities. This learning helps me interrupt assumptions, challenge bias, and create environments where people do not have to explain or defend who they are.

I have also made concrete changes to my daily practice. I use gender‑inclusive language, share my pronouns, and invite others to do the same without pressure. I ensure that the materials, examples, and stories I use reflect diverse identities and families. I avoid heteronormative or cisnormative assumptions in conversation and decision‑making. When I make mistakes, I correct myself, apologize without centering my own discomfort, and commit to doing better.

Most importantly, I strive to be someone LGBTQ+ people can trust—someone who listens, advocates, and stands alongside them. Allyship is not a label I claim; it is a responsibility I practice. My goal is to contribute to communities where everyone can live, learn, and lead with safety, authenticity, and pride.

thesafezoneproject.com

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I provide templates, examples, and bundles of my work so that others in higher education may benefit.

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Browse over 10 educational resources created by Lyndsey Stratton in the official Teachers Pay Teachers store.

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Scholars discuss the nuances between scholarly teaching and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Experts explore the differences between consuming versus producing scholarship in higher education.

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Scholarship of Teaching and Learning vs. Scholarly Teaching

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ERIC - Education Resources Information Center

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ERIC - Education Resources Information Center

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Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, ERIC is an online library of education research, including journals, reports, and studies to support evidence-based teaching.

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ERIC - Education Resources Information Center

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ERIC is an online library of education research and information, sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education.

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OER Commons is a dynamic digital library and network that provides open education resources for educators and learners. It includes lesson plans, activities, and courses across various subjects.

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Open Author helps you build and publish Open Educational Resources for you and for the benefit of educators and learners everywhere.

Learn more about creating OER

Groups provides a flexible environment to organize, create, share, and discuss resources with others in your network. Collaborate with group members, tag and add resources to shared folders, create your own collections, all within a public or private group.

Groups

Search through collections curated by our digital librarians

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Projects, districts, states, and initiatives make use of Hubs to bring groups of educators together to create, organize, and share OER collections that meet their common goals. Explore Hubs

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Microsites are custom, flexible sites that include all the features available on OER Commons. Microsites allow your users to search resource collections using a custom taxonomy at a unique URL. Contact Us

Our award-winning OER Professional Learning programs support instructors and curriculum specialists to gain the necessary skills required to find, adapt, and evaluate high quality open materials.

In-person and virtual OER workshops help focus instructors to develop a "commons" mindset, to experience the benefits of open processes using the platform's tools, collaborative features, and workflows. This can include using Open Author for creating, remixing, and publishing shared curriculum.

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How to Search OER Commons

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OER Commons is a dynamic digital library and network. Explore open education resources and join our network of educators dedicated to curriculum improvement.

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Sweetland’s Teaching Support hub offers a rich array of resources for instructors—from assignment design and peer review strategies to consultations and workshops. Whether you're refining a syllabus or rethinking feedback, this site is a go-to for pedagogical inspiration and practical tools.

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This interactive site breaks down the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework into practical, research-based strategies for inclusive teaching. Explore principles like Engagement, Representation, and Action & Expression—each with checkpoints to help you design flexible learning environments that support all students.

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This resource is a goldmine for instructors looking to energize their classrooms. From Think-Pair-Share to gamified simulations, Skillshub breaks down 15 active learning strategies with practical examples and implementation tips. Perfect for designing learner-centered experiences that boost engagement, retention, and critical thinking.

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Active learning has taken modern education and corporate learning and development (L&D) by storm. It is a learner-centred approach that emphasises engagement, interaction, and reflection.

This paradigm shift from traditional teaching to active learning underscores the learner's role in constructing knowledge. Rather than being just a recipient of information, the learner becomes an active participant in a two-way process, whereby learning is imprinted through memorable, interactive activities and challenges.

With today's dynamic global environment, active learning has become more critical in L&D than ever before. This teaching approach encourages employees to play an active role in their own education, fostering a culture of continuous learning and adaptability, vital in the ever-evolving world of work.

What is Active Learning and How Does it Work?

First defined in 1991 by educational theorists Charles C. Bonwell and James A. Eison, the method includes "anything that involves students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing." It's a reciprocal process where cognition and demonstration combine to reinforce key learning points.

A recent study conducted at Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute concluded that "active learning can put students in the driver's seat of their lessons. Active learning techniques encourage students to produce thoughts and get feedback through interactive settings rather than passively receiving information as is common in pervasive approaches to education like lectures and readings."

Active learning allows students to analyse, synthesise and apply knowledge rather than passively receive information. It fosters learner engagement, interaction, and deeper understanding, moving beyond the memorization of facts to cultivate higher-order thinking skills.

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Key Components of Active Learning Strategies

At the heart of active learning are three fundamental components: Engagement, Reflection, and Application. Learners actively engage with the material, reflect on the content's relevance and meaning, and apply what they've learned in practical, often collaborative, situations.

Here's how those three components work in more detail:

Engagement: This aspect describes a mix of concentration and interest. Students focus on the topic in hand because it is taught in a manner that makes it intrinsically interesting.

Reflection: Students are asked to consciously reflect on the subjects they have been learning. This helps personalise and imprint the knowledge, and the repetition of key points helps fix them in memory.

Application: This aspect focuses on the practical use of key pieces of learning. By making the topic practical, students learn how useful the subject can be, motivating them to remember and focus.

Another key element of active learning is that it's frequently collaborative. Not only do learners benefit from interaction with the educator, but they join forces in team exercises, or share their opinions and experiences in group discussion.

Benefits of Active Learning

Active learning has a plethora of benefits, some of which include:

Boosting Retention

Active learning strategies help learners retain information better. When learners actively engage with content-discussing, debating, teaching, or applying it-they're more likely to remember it. Part of the reason for this is that activities help personalise the learning content, creating appreciation and some of the positive emotions that make an experience memorable. Information Processing Theory explains retention in three stages - sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Critical Thinking

Active learning cultivates critical thinking skills. Learners don't just absorb information; they analyse, evaluate, and synthesise it, fostering problem-solving and decision-making skills. Critical thinking is considered a soft skill and is essential to any modern educational programme, from social science to the humanities, hard science, and vocational subjects.

Collaboration

Active learning often involves teamwork and collaboration. Through group activities and discussions, learners develop interpersonal skills and learn to work effectively as a team. This is particularly helpful in workplace settings where learners can support one another in the shared goal of picking up new skills they can use at work.

Increasing Engagement

Active learning increases learner engagement. Interactive activities stimulate interest and motivate learners, contributing to a more enjoyable and effective learning experience. By creating engaging interactive content, you can avoid the glazed eyes or after-lunch slump of less involving courses!

15 Active Learning Examples

Now that we understand active learning and its benefits, let's delve into some practical strategies to implement this learning approach.

1. Think-Pair-Share

Think-Pair-Share encourages collaboration and peer learning. Learners think about a question or problem individually, pair up to discuss their thoughts, then share their insights with the larger group. This method combines social learning activities like collaboration and reflection in a way that draws out the strengths of both modalities.

2. Three-Step Interviews

Three-Step interviews allow learners to apply different questioning strategies and reflect on understanding. They take turns acting as the interviewer, interviewee, and observer, promoting active engagement and deep reflection. This kind of active learning works particularly well for courses emphasising social and negotiation skills, including hospitality, politics, journalism, and sales.

3. Case Studies

Using case studies enables learners to apply concepts to real-world scenarios. This strategy fosters critical thinking and problem-solving skills, linking theoretical learning to practical application. Case studies should be designed to chime with course participants' lives and experiences, allowing them to offer their own personal insights. This allows them to become emotionally and intellectually involved in the subject under discussion, and the learning is likely to stick.

4. Role-Play

Role-play enhances empathy and problem-solving skills. By acting out scenarios, learners gain insights into different perspectives and learn to navigate complex situations. It can be particularly instructive to ask learners to inhabit both sides of an interaction, for instance, a police officer and suspect, or sales professional and buyer. Not all students will be comfortable in such a performative exercise, however.

5. Flipped Classroom

In a flipped classroom, learners explore content independently before class, freeing up classroom time for active discussions and problem-solving activities. This method works best in a highly motivated educational setting, such as vocational training resulting in professional qualifications. An obvious drawback is that, if students don't prepare, they'll get very little out of the class-based content. It's also important for participants to reflect on in-class discussions after each session.

6. The Muddiest Point

The Muddiest Point requires learners to reflect on challenging areas, providing invaluable feedback for the educator. The educator will typically ask "what didn't you understand?" or "what point did you find most complex?" and then follow up with a focused session exploring that concept. This technique helps identify misconceptions and knowledge gaps, as well as improving future iterations of course content.

7. Problem-Based Learning

Problem-Based Learning cultivates critical thinking and decision-making skills. Learners tackle real-world problems, applying knowledge and skills in a practical context. Rather than the theoretical situations covered in a typical case study, problem-based learning might take a story from the news or social media and explore it under the lens of the topic in hand. This makes the subject feel more relevant to the students, and more useful.

8. Simulations and Gamification

Simulations and gamification create immersive learning experiences. These methods engage learners in an interactive, competitive environment, enhancing motivation and learning outcomes. Such games could involve anything from quizzes to physical games or puzzles to be solved by teams. Some subjects will lend themselves to this better than others, and competitive workplaces, such as sales teams, may prove more comfortable with such challenges.

9. Peer Teaching

Peer teaching reinforces understanding and builds confidence in knowledge. By teaching their peers, learners gain a deeper understanding and consolidate their learning. The classic American "show and tell" in junior school is an example of this, but adult learners can also benefit from sharing their experiences or explaining a point with reference to an example from their own working lives.

10. Debates and Discussions

Debates and discussions encourage active participation and analysis. They foster critical thinking and the ability to articulate and defend viewpoints. Although a little out of favour in modern schools, nevertheless this classic strategy serves to imprint key issues in social, cultural, and political thinking. It's possible to reduce the antagonistic elements of debates by imposing strict discourse rules (such as addressing the chair or avoiding ad hominem attacks).

11. Interactive Quizzes and Polls

Interactive quizzes and polls engage learners and assess knowledge. They make learning fun, while also serving as valuable tools for instant feedback. These can work just as well in-person as they might online, or in blended learning settings. They are essential as part of any eLearning Platform that offers online courses - as both a measurement tool and a method of monitoring progress and content effectiveness.

12. Experiential Learning

Experiential learning involves hands-on activities for practical skill development. Learners gain practical experience, increasing the transfer of learning to real-world situations. For situations in which site visits are impossible, bringing pieces of the subject into the classroom can be highly instructive. First aid lessons require this aspect, and children love this aspect of learning. It's worth not neglecting this for adult learners of any subject, however.

13. Brainstorming Sessions

Brainstorming sessions stimulate creativity and idea generation. They foster open-mindedness, encouraging learners to consider various possibilities and solutions. When brainstorming, it's vital not to make any value judgments on suggestions, but simply to group and list student ideas. Once everyone has had their say, the educator and class can begin to identify common themes and recurring ideas.

14. Field Trips and Site Visits

Field trips and site visits connect learning to real-world situations. They enhance understanding and contextualization of knowledge. Site visits are fun and instructive and add much-needed variety to an in-person course. They often introduce students to hands-on skills they might pursue in greater depth, or to potential workplaces or causes they can become invested in.

15. Learning Circles and Communities

Learning circles and communities help foster collaboration and knowledge sharing. They create a supportive learning environment where learners can learn from one another, share insights, and collaboratively solve problems. With digital courses, it's often important to create a forum for learners where mutual encouragement and support can occur. When classes are held in-person, students can be encouraged to help one another with coursework and collaborative projects.

Implementing Active Learning Strategies

Key Considerations

When incorporating active learning strategies, consider the learning objectives, the learners' characteristics and needs, and the available resources. It's also important to ask what students want to get out of the course (rather than any objective need for certification or qualification).

The right blend of active learning strategies can enhance the learning experience, making it more engaging, meaningful, and effective.

For instance, you'll need a very different approach with a community of language learners from different countries, with varying levels of proficiency, than you would teaching an established workplace group where the main variable is seniority.

Let's break these variables down a little:

Student Objectives: What would each student like to get out of the class, in terms of educational purpose and enhancement of their working or home life?

Student Characteristics: What proficiency and understanding level are your students at? If it's a workplace course, what level of seniority do they have (how easily can the effect change)? If you have shy students, how can you involve them in activities without undue pressure?

Student Needs: What is the practical outcome supposed to be? It could be a qualification, a certificate, or simply a better understanding of a topic. It's also worth asking, going into a class, if anyone has any additional needs, since you may have students with dyslexia, ADHD, or other learning challenges.

Available Resources: Do you provide paper and pens, devices, calculators? Do you invite guest speakers? Are their physical challenges and hands-on experiences? Do you provide meals? All these ingredients could affect the success of your course.

Challenges of Active Learning Strategies

Active learning strategies, while beneficial, pose certain challenges. They require time, resources, and planning. They also require students to buy into a style of learning that some may not be familiar with.

Let's unpack three more common challenges of active learning in a little more detail:

Student Hesitancy: To make active learning inviting, it's best to design courses so that students come to expect and are prepared for this style of education from day one. Begin with simple exercises like a current knowledge quiz or simple pair exercises, and then progress to more involved exercises.

It's also important to be clear with instructions and allow time for students to get used to being active rather than passive participants. Explain why you're using these methods, rather than more rote methods of learning. If students believe it's in their best interests to participate, they will.

Lack of Collaboration: Before you can expect a group of disparate individuals to work together, they must feel comfortable together. Begin with simple introductory exercises, so students get to know one another before being asked to share more personal experiences. Where students are too shy to choose partners, it's okay to assign partners for them, so long as you attend to any obvious signs of discomfort.

Running out of Time: This is very common. When students are engaged, they can lose track of time. It's often a good sign!

However, to avoid your course running out of control, make sure you do time trials of collaborative exercises, and be very upfront with any timescales you impose. You can even use a bell or whistle to warn students when they have five or two minutes left to finish up an exercise.

All these challenges can be overcome through careful design, strategic planning, scene setting, and the use of technology to streamline and support the learning process.

Remember that active learning is often a process of trial and error. What works well with one group may not prove so successful with another. It's worth having alternative exercises to hand in case it becomes obvious that you need to pivot to a different approach.

Measuring the Impact of Active Learning Strategies

Methods to measure the effectiveness of active learning include surveys, assessments, observation, and feedback. Make sure you incorporate a bit of time for learners to complete satisfaction surveys or training feedback forms and make it as easy as possible to do so anonymously. Don't make these too lengthy but do allow space for comments.

It's essential to evaluate not only engagement and knowledge acquisition but also the development of skills and attitudes and the transfer of learning to real-world scenarios. Ideally, whoever has commissioned the course will have some method for following up and measuring KPIs after some weeks or months have passed. Ask if you can receive a copy of this information too.

Final Insights

Active learning, with its focus on engagement, reflection, and application, offers numerous benefits. It boosts retention, enhances critical thinking, fosters collaboration, and increases engagement.

At Skillshub, we fully commit to active learning, and incorporate many of its strategies into our learning solutions, creating eLearning content which is engaging, active and involving.

Our offerings are designed to facilitate active learning, equipping learners with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to thrive in today's dynamic world.

If you're ready to incorporate active learning into your L&D strategy with the help of an eLearning company, get in touch with us today!

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15 Active Learning Strategies (with Examples) | Skillshub

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Uncover what active learning is, the benefits of incorporating it into your training and 15 active learning strategies to consider and implement.

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This video introduces UDL, explaining both principles and origins. It draws parallels between design and accessibility, illustrating how to reduce barriers for diverse students. The video explores various needs and proposes solutions without compromising academic rigor.

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Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at OU

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Universal Design for Learning (Part 1): Definition and Explanation

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This second video explains the three UDL principles promoted by CAST: engagement (how students are motivated to learn), representation (how instructors communicate course concepts), and action and expression (how students demonstrate what they have learned).

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Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at OU

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Universal Design for Learning (Part 2): UDL Guidelines

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This third video focuses and offers strategies for engagement, one of the three UDL principles promoted by CAST. Engagement considers how students are motivated to learn the content by connecting course concepts to their academic, professional and personal lives

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Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at OU

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Universal Design for Learning (Part 2): UDL Guidelines

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This video focuses and offers strategies for representation, the second of the three UDL principles promoted by CAST. Representation considers how instructors communicate course concepts through a variety of class modes and media.

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Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at OU

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Universal Design for Learning (Part 4): Representation Strategies

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This video focuses and offers strategies for action and expression, the final of the three UDL principles promoted by CAST. Action and Expression considers how students demonstrate what they have learned through a variety of assessment types and modes.

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Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at OU

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Universal Design for Learning (Part 5): Action and Expression Strategies

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This video demonstrates how UDL principles support culturally diverse students, including international students and English language learners.

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Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at OU

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Universal Design for Learning (Part 6): Culturally Diverse Learners

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Each expert in the video offers a unique perspective on SoTL's key characteristics, exploring its core principles and practices.

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Key Characteristics of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

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The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: An Evidence Based Perspective (PDF) 

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The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: An Evidence Based Perspective (PDF) 

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This resource dives into the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, offering frameworks, case studies, and practical strategies for educators who want to turn classroom inquiry into transformative practice. Perfect for instructors exploring reflective pedagogy, evidence-based innovation, and collaborative learning design.

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New to H5P? This guide walks students through how to interact with H5P activities—like quizzes, videos, and drag-and-drop exercises—used in many online courses. It’s a quick, clear resource for navigating interactive content and making the most of active learning tools.

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H5P is short for HTML5 Package and is a simple way to create and share rich and interactive web content. H5P is modular and consists of several content types and applications, specially designed for use in e-learning.

H5P can be integrated with learning platforms and content management systems and allows teachers to create rich interactive content and students to experience it on laptops, tablets, or smartphones.

There are many content types useful for learning in H5P. Below are some of them.

Record a video from a lecture and add quizzes and in-depth information along the way. Students get a more engaging video experience. It's super easy to add interactive tasks and no technical skills are required, you only need a browser.

By adding extra explanations that students may choose to see in the videos you create differentiated learning. The top students may choose to see in-depth information about the subject, weaker students may choose to display extra explanations that the top students don't need. Students who learn best by solving problems may choose to solve problems as they move along through the videos.

The presentation content type is useful for presenting a topic by using keywords, images, video clips, and audio. You can combine all of these elements into a rich multimedia learning experience, and you can also add various quiz questions along the way.

By combining images, visualizations notes, and sounds you engage the student in a way that makes many students learn more effectively. The notes help the student remember and friendly explanations using sound help the student to understand.

Question sets are good for evaluating students and self-tests. Teachers can create a sequence of various quiz types such as Multiple Choice, Drag and Drop, and Fill in the Blanks.

All the question types will allow the student to check their answer, try again, or see the solution. Question creators may also add feedback that is displayed depending on what answers the student gave.

Flashcards are useful in many cases, for instance in learning new words and expressions. In language learning, flashcards can be used to display an image and the user is encouraged to type in the corresponding piece of text.

H5P has been developed in close collaboration with ndla.no, Norway's biggest e-learning site. ndla.no is aimed at providing teachers and students on the secondary school level (ages 15-18) with a complete digital learning framework with tailored learning content for courses such as maths, natural science, biology, English, physical education, social studies, and many more.

Some other benefits of H5P in relation to e-learning:

Mobile friendly. More and more students are using phones and tablets to access learning content anywhere, anytime.

Content can be edited directly in a browser. No technical skills or downloads are necessary.

Streamlined for the use of openly licensed content, such as Creative Commons.

Content can be reused, adapted, and shared.

End users do not need any plugins to use H5P. H5P can be integrated with most LMS platforms.

Hope you find H5P useful, and any feedback is greatly appreciated.

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H5P is short for HTML5 Package and is a simple way to create and share rich and interactive web content. H5P is modular and consists of several content types and applications, specially designed fo...

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The Necessity of Formal Education for Higher Education Faculty: A Qualitative Study

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The Necessity of Formal Education for Higher Education Faculty: A Qualitative Study

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This study investigates the perceived necessity of a formal educational background for professors in higher education and its impact on student learning experiences and outcomes. With a focus on adjunct faculty, who often lack formal training in effective teaching, this research explores how a formal background in education influences teaching quality, classroom management, and the ability to meet diverse learning needs. By examining faculty perceptions through a series of research questions, this study aims to contribute to higher education by highlighting the benefits of hiring faculty with formal educational training, ultimately enhancing both institutional and student learning outcomes.

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This link will bring you to the Mud & Ink Blog post, where Amanda Cardenas walks through the Gallery Walk: Instructional Strategy as a kinesthetic learning opportunity for students in every discipline.

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Using the Gallery Walk instructional strategy to teach important classroom routines & structures
Teaching Duration: 1-3 class periods
What is a GALLERY WALK?

A gallery walk is a kinesthetic strategy that help students learn information. It closely resembles the idea of a jigsaw, but with more movement.

To set up a gallery walk, you will need content - something that needs to be learned by the students.

For a simple example, you might be teaching students about primary elections. In that case, the students would need to know information about each of the candidates, so you would provide a "station" for each candidate and place an object or a reading for each around the room.

Next, create a system/handout for collecting information. This is something the students will bring with them to each station to record the pertinent information from each place that the student visits.

Divide your students into the same number of groups as you have stations (eight stations, eight groups).

Now, send each group to start at one of the gallery items. Students should spend time at each station collecting information, then moving around the room to collect the rest of what they need for each station.

What are the CURRICULUM OPPORTUNITIES?

English: introducing characters in a novel, collecting definitions then creating an example, literary elements definitions then finding examples in a passage

Science: exploring the parts of a cell, breaking down characteristics of a species, exploring elements on the periodic table, introducing lab procedures/equipment

Math: solving problems, classifying shapes, solving equations around the room to then solve a puzzle

Social Studies: election candidates, important years of a particular period, different types of government

What are the INSTRUCTIONAL BENEFITS?

Kinesthetic learning opportunity

Highly versatile in terms of rigor - what you ask the students to DO with the information you've placed around the room can be at any level of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Students can classify, illustrate, synthesize, defend, and more.

Strategy can be used at any point in the learning process: introducing, during, or reviewing

Easy to incorporate technology. Students can scan QR codes at each station, students can use laptops/Chromebooks to complete activity based on each gallery station, etc.

What are the CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT concerns?

If not done properly, this strategy can be a disaster as far as classroom management goes. You know your class the best, so take whatever advice I have to share and adapt it. These are my strict expectations (they change as the year goes on, but this is what I recommend for your first one)

Students should have a set amount of time at each station and there should be a visible timer running a countdown. This ensures students are aware of how much time they have to complete the task at that station and to stay focused. *Note: always give them LESS time than they need! Keep the energy moving. We can always fill in gaps later!

When students are at a station on the gallery walk, they are allowed to chat and confer with one another. When the timer goes off, I have eyes on me, a hand in the air, and conversations stopped. **DO NOT move to the next station until everyone has stopped talking, has their eyes on you and their hand in the air.

Give students 10 seconds to transition to the next station. The movement to the next station should be silent.

When students arrive at the next station, they can resume work again, collaborating with one another as necessary. Repeat steps above!

ADAPTATION: If you have particularly rowdy students and you'd rather not have them moving around the room, you can keep the students stationery and pass the item from group to group.

Check out this product in my TpT Store:
Get your maniac high school students in lines by giving them meaningful jobs around the classroom - and better yet? Make them fill out a real-life job application!

This download includes printables for a Classroom Job Gallery Walk (a great beginning of the year opportunity for teaching routines and expectations), a lesson plan, and a job application. The documents are FULLY EDITABLE using Google Docs and Google Slides.

Read More

Teaching Duration: 1-3 class periods

Read More

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Best Practices in your ELA Classroom: Gallery Walk - AMANDA CARDENAS | MUD AND INK TEACHING

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Step into the Best Practices in your ELA Classroom: Gallery Walk. Discover a new approach to learning with hands-on activities that encourage student engagement. This gallery walk model fosters interactive learning, critical thinking, and a collaborative classroom environment. Revolutionize your tea

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"The results demonstrate that the Jigsaw and H5P interactive video methods showed promise in terms of immediate learning outcomes, particularly in student engagement and performance in short-term assessments. However, in terms of long-term knowledge retention, the control group performed better, indicating that traditional lectures might have a stronger effect on retaining knowledge over time. The active learning techniques, while effective in the short-term, did not significantly enhance academic performance in the long-term assessments."

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Inclusive, Active & AI Enhanced Workshop

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This informative video explains how tiered assignments can improve differentiated instruction in the classroom. Starting by defining what tiered assignments are and how they are designed to match different learning levels, you'll learn how this approach helps keep students engaged by providing tasks that are appropriately challenging for each child's skills and understanding.

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How Do Tiered Assignments Improve Differentiated Instruction? - Childhood Education Zone

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This brief tutorial reviews how to use Microsoft Copilot to create revision themes for student feedback.

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Using Microsoft Copilot to Create Revision Themes

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This brief tutorial demonstrates how to utilize Microsoft Copilot to create feedback banks, streamlining grading and providing consistent, meaningful responses to students.

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Using Microsoft Copilot to Build Feedback Banks

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This brief tutorial reviews how to use Microsoft Copilot to create tiered writing prompts for student writing from brainstorming to drafting.

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Using Copilot for Tiered Writing Prompts

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Want to learn more about me?

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UDL & AI: Designing for Equity, Engagement, and the Future of Learning

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UDL & AI: Designing for Equity, Engagement, and the Future of Learning

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This explores how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can work together to create teaching contexts that are not only innovative, but also equitable, engaging, and future-ready.

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Explore how inclusive design, active learning, and ethical AI integration can work together to support every learner, spark engagement, and elevate our teaching practice.

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Brown and Cream Minimalist Classroom Engagement Presentation

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AI Scaffolding in Higher Education Flowchart

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Combining UDL and AI to Support Inclusive Pedagogy

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Combining UDL and AI to Support Inclusive Pedagogy

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Combining UDL and AI to Support Inclusive Pedagogy

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By Sally HyattCompleting CEL’s Basics of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Certificate Program allowed me to build a more inclusive pedagogy for my students. Just before I completed the certificate program, ChatGPT became universally available, and this sparked a desire for me to also adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) within my classes. Being exposed to both AI and UDL for the first time allowed for a unique opportunity to introduce an assignment that adopted each within two of my Spring 2023

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Generative AI can make educational content and instruction more accessible, helping teachers meet a breadth of student needs.

Stuart Kinlough / Ikon Images

Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an essential framework for enhancing accessibility, helps teachers design inclusive instruction. The framework supports students' accessing content in varied formats, expressing understanding using multiple modalities, and engaging with high-interest content-all of which enhance equity.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an emerging technology that can help educators create a more UDL-friendly environment. Though many teachers are skeptical about students' use of generative AI, instead of viewing it as a quick answer generator, we can teach students about ethical use by helping them view it as a research assistant, brainstorming collaborator, and tutor. Student- and teacher-facing AI tools can enhance engagement, representation, and expression in the classroom. Below, I showcase two such tools and how I use them with students in my English classes, though many others are rapidly evolving.

Using AI for UDL

SchoolAI is one such tool that enables students to access information in a variety of ways and allows teachers to customize AI chatbots (called spaces) for specific learning opportunities. For example, using the historical chatbot generator, teachers can ask students to interact with a chatbot that assumes the role of an author or historical figure available, and teachers can also create their own.

Instructionally, when students interact with a chatbot, they not only acquire information but also learn how to engage in effective conversations with AI. Asking and refining probing questions is a future-forward skill.

My students choose how they synthesize the information they learn from AI; some employ a note-taking method, others use graphic organizers. Every student's chat is unique and yields different outcomes that make for compelling collaborative conversations among peers. Post-chat, I guide students to fact-check and examine information for biases before drawing conclusions from AI interactions. This step is essential for building capacity as students learn how to utilize AI responsibly, and there are helpful frameworks for students working to evaluate the information they glean.

Enhancing Individualized Learning

Equitable, personalized learning is the ultimate goal of UDL. SchoolAI is UDL-friendly, because it has an embedded text-to-speech function that allows students to hear AI conversations read aloud. Additionally, an embedded speech-to-text tool enables students to respond verbally instead of in writing. This multimodality means every student is able to participate, even those for whom reading or writing is challenging, which facilitates inclusive learning and deepens engagement.

Though SchoolAI offers different types of chatbot-based spaces to customize, perhaps the most exciting for UDL is the Sidekick-a personalized tutor that you can tailor for specific content or processes. When my students are writing narratives, I create a Sidekick that can assist them in the writing process by offering concrete suggestions and clarifying concepts (such as figurative language or how to write dialogue correctly). I also limit the type of assistance that my Sidekick will provide, such as prohibiting it from helping students "too much." That way, the AI is not allowed to write for students and can only give them concrete examples that are unrelated to the plot of the narrative they were crafting.

Leveraging Teacher-Facing AI Tools

MagicSchool is a teacher-facing platform that includes more than 60 AI tools created specifically for educators. One essential aspect of UDL is ensuring that students can easily understand instructions and success criteria. To do this, I use MagicSchool to generate clearer, more concise directions for tasks, as well as exemplars and non-exemplars.

A UDL environment also offers more than one pathway through which students can access content. To fulfill this goal, I use MagicSchool to generate multiple explanations for concepts, to generate questions in response to YouTube videos, and to level text so I can provide students the opportunity to read "just right" material no matter their current grade level. These uses are especially beneficial for accommodating students with specialized instructional needs, as well as students for whom English is a second language.

To increase engagement, I also use AI to convert traditional content into other formats. For example, when teaching the myth of Hades and Persephone, I used MagicSchool to generate several other versions of the text, including a rap battle and breaking news brief. Students choose which representation they want to read, and everyone discusses the theme and showcases their understanding.

To help brainstorm varied modalities for student expression, I utilized the MagicSchool choice board generator to come up with ideas to populate my favorite choice board template. MagicSchool's group work generator was also useful for brainstorming collaborative activities, because some of the most effective UDL-friendly classrooms allow students to choose how they like to learn and create. Students who prefer to work with others are able to gravitate toward team tasks, while students who prefer to work alone are able to select an independent option.

Enhancing Inclusivity

An inclusive classroom is full of choice, allowing students to self-select instructional materials and options to demonstrate mastery. With so few hours in the day and so many considerations involved in planning, leveraging AI tools can optimize teacher workflows and provide focused assistance.

Whether adapting existing lessons to be more UDL-friendly or crafting an entirely new unit, AI places truly personalized learning within greater reach than ever before.

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Using AI to Enhance Universal Design for Learning

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Generative AI can make educational content and instruction more accessible, helping teachers meet a breadth of student needs.

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Universal design for learning and artificial intelligence in the 

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Universal design for learning and artificial intelligence in the 

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digital era: Fostering inclusion and autonomous learning

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This workshop explores how to write effective learning outcomes that are aligned to course learning outcomes along with institutional learning outcomes.