This active learning activity pinpoints the area(s) that students are least confident about in the course material that was just covered. Students note the most confusing part of a lecture or course content and instructors can use these insights to determine how and where to focus future teaching efforts. Consider anonymizing student responses in order to make students feel comfortable. While the goal is to encourage participation, it’s equally important to respond to student feedback during the next class or as soon as possible after. Responding to students shortly after—when their curiosity is already primed—will help them link ideas together and encourage them to critically reflect on what they do and don’t understand.

Having students defend different viewpoints is an effective way to engage the entire class. With remote learning, debates help instructors check student comprehension and help students learn from one another—despite not seeing each other face to face. This activity works well in small groups versus large classes.

Role-playing provides a safe and fun way to explore new concepts and ideas, as Tony Crider, Professor of Astrophysics at Elon University, North Carolina, argues.⁶ In his classes—which are infused with active learning techniques—students are assigned roles of historical characters. One of his classes is called the “Pluto Debates,” where leading figures of the astronomy world argue over whether or not Pluto should be considered a planet.

Every student has a character sheet, with their victory conditions. For instance, the conditions outline: “You’ll win if the vote turns out this way, or that way.” For Crider, the aim of this active learning approach is getting his students invested in how astronomers make sense of objects and how they make decisions together. The simulation aspect of this approach drew students in to the point where they’ll often prepare more for Crider’s class than others.

In this active learning strategy, students work in small groups or individually and apply knowledge gained from lectures or reading materials to a given scenario. This is more spontaneous than setting multi-week, large group projects. Provide students with a real-world contemporary case related to your curriculum and learning outcomes. It’s best to pick a case study or event that is a) relevant and timely and b) well-known to ensure all students are comfortable participating. Students respond to a set of questions prepared by you, which ask how the case study intersects with course material and the relevance of the case in comparison to another timely topic.

Large group discussions aren’t always possible—or easy to facilitate—with remote learning. Joshua Eyler, Director of Faculty Development at the University of Mississippi, suggests an alternative for small group discussions: breakout rooms. Instructors should consider breaking students into small groups with the understanding that they will need to report back and share their responses either live or via a discussion board or learning management system (LMS).