Active Learning
Teaching Assistants: Onboarding and Beyond
Teaching Assistants (TAs) are an effective way to manage large classes while ensuring students receive one-on-one support throughout the course. This QRG provides insights into the TA experience, along with practical strategies for faculty to onboard, support, and effectively utilize TAs in their courses.
Think-Pair-Share (Active Learning Strategy)
Think-Pair-Share is an active learning strategy where students think critically about a challenging concept, partner with another student to discuss, and then report out their ideas to the larger group/rest of the class. This QRG includes ideas for implementing this strategy and modifications for hybrid, online, and/or large courses.
Undergraduate Teaching Assistants
UGTAs are successful engineering students that faculty may request to assist with active learning techniques in the in-person or online class. This QRG includes guidelines of the program, qualifications of the students, and how faculty can request UGTAs for a course.
Think-Jot-Pair-Share (Active Learning Strategy)
Think-Jot-Pair-Share is an active learning strategy that incorporates writing into the activity. The writing portion (jot), assists learners in capturing their thinking prior to pairing up and sharing with a peer or a group. This QRG includes strategy description, tips based on class modality, implementation suggestions and supporting research.
Small Group Discussions (Active Learning Strategy)
Small group discussions are an active learning strategy designed to encourage learner discourse and aid in understanding the course content. This QRG includes the description of the strategy, where and when the strategy is most effective, implementation based on class modality, tips, tricks, and supporting research.
Pose A Question (Active Learning Strategy)
Posing a question is an effective active learning strategy that can be used to re-engage students during a class session. This QRG includes ideas for successful implementation of this strategy and a range of sample questions to pose, including Socratic, probing, and real-world questions.
Muddiest Points (Active Learning Strategy)
Muddiest Points is a low-impact method for gathering informal feedback from students on their own understanding of course content, then quickly addressing any conceptual issues that are exposed. This QRG includes steps to consider for successful implementation and suggested student question prompts.
Minute Papers (Active Learning Strategy)
Minute Papers are a classroom assessment technique that allows instructors the opportunity to collect written student feedback about student learning. This QRG includes background information, example questions to use, and practical steps for implementation.
Metacognition
Metacognition is thinking about one’s thinking. Metacognitive activities can help engineering students navigate the engineering design process, identify and define problems, and evaluate the final solution. This QRG includes planning, monitoring, and assessing activities and assignment ideas to support the metacognitive process in your courses.
Jigsaw (Active Learning Strategy)
Jigsaw is an active learning strategy that has students work in cooperative groups to become experts on one assigned topic before teaching other classmates about their assigned topic. This QRG describes the strategy in detail and provides practical implementation and planning suggestions across class modalities.