Active Learning in Action

What is ‘active learning’ and what does it look like at University of Bristol?

Produced by BILT and the Distance Learning Hub, Active Learning in Action showcases excellent practices in active learning. Drawing on interviews with teachers, their students, and classroom footage from innovative learning spaces across University of Bristol, the three videos show what active learning looks like in practice. This includes how teachers design and facilitate active learning approaches, using different classroom environments and learning resources; how students interact with learning content, teachers, and their classmates, and what support they might need; and how students can develop skills through active learning that they can apply elsewhere in their programmes and in their future careers. Teachers also reflect on the potential challenges associated with active learning, and how these might be overcome, sharing practical advice to support you in designing and implementing active learning approaches in your context.

In Future Designs Auction, Dr Daniella Jenkins from the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship presents a task in which Year 1 Innovation students work in groups to develop realistic solutions for future scenarios, before proposing their products and innovations in a class auction.

In Student-Generated Revision Game, Dr Isabel Murillo Cabeza from the School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine discusses how she engages students in her Year 1 Medical Microbiology unit in co-creating and then playing a revision game, Microbial Pursuit, in which the questions are anything but trivial.

In Peer Poster Feedback, Dr Alice Robson from the School of Biochemistry shares her approach to designing and facilitating an activity in which her Year 3 students engage in peer review of draft posters they have created in groups, summarising their work in the lab.

In the words of one Year 1 Biomedical Sciences student, active learning can be ‘interactive, fun and challenging, in that it forces critical analysis,’ and is also ‘a good way of getting to meet your coursemates’. As such, it ‘should be more practised, and invested in’. For Dr Daniella Jenkins, active learning can provide students with ‘a different way of engaging with peers’, and ‘greater independence, which can deepen students’ learning’.

Whether you’re thinking about trying active learning for the first time or seeking to develop existing approaches, we hope that Active Learning in Action will inspire and support you.

Future Designs Auction