Higher education blog

For educators, one of the most common challenges with remote teaching is creating impactful active learning experiences online. When students are actively learning, they are making connections to their own lives, questioning, and collaborating, which leads to more significant, durable learning outcomes.

With the right strategies and tools, you can create a dynamic and engaging classroom that uses active learning to boost understanding.

Here, we walk you through four active learning strategies and offer ideas on to employ them with an engagement tool created by three Harvard professors:

You've gotten a lot of study tips from teachers, your parents, your friends. But what advice actually works? Find out what science-based study hacks is best suited for you based on your current study habits and preferences.

Award-winning student, Aidan Eglin, reflects on his greatest achievements and looks ahead to a bright future of learning.

Rose Caruso, Professor, Seneca College, Toronto, Canada, interviewed by Caroline Miller, Managing Editor, Pearson

Student engagement is a problem most professors seem to grapple with. No matter what the discipline, often students are distracted, disinterested, or downright disengaged. In her developmental English courses at Seneca College in Ontario, Canada, Rose Caruso faced apathetic and reluctant students semester after semester. In this interview, Caruso shares her insights for motivating students, interested in improving their skills, and how she used an online learning program to benefit students. She provides great insights in the interview, and you can find more details and results in her educator study.

Q: How did you get involved teaching developmental English?

Caruso: My career at Seneca began in Continuing Education in 2008 where I taught many students whose first language was not English. I found a knack for guiding ESL students in the acquisition of knowledge and language skills that would prepare them for full-time college programs. Students would often contact or meet with me to report back how much they learned from my teaching.

I took pride in the success of these students and wanted to continue making an impact on students and nurturing the value of lifelong learning in a full-time capacity. It was my students in Continuing Education who cemented my direction to teach in the developmental English program and my love of learning and teaching that motivated me to teach at Seneca in 2005 for the School of English and Liberal Studies. I have since secured a full-time faculty position in 2013 and feel so fortunate to be living my dream.

Q: Why do you think students are reluctant to engage in developmental English? Is it the same type of disengagement professors see in other courses?

Caruso: Students often enter developmental English apathetic and reluctant to engage in the course content since it is a non-credit course for which they need to pay. The course meets for four hours a week and focuses on writing paragraphs and essays. Having students that are disengaged and unmotivated is a concern since it negatively affects teaching and learning.

Students in this course are often:

• late or have high absenteeism, attrition
• don’t participate in class or complete their assignments
• have low self-esteem or confidence to be critical thinkers
• have learning disabilities and/or accommodations for learning disabilities
• feel resentment and frustration since they passed grade 12 English and/or received a high grade
• unprepared to learn since they do not have the skill sets to be successful
• bottom line—they just don’t want to be in the course since they feel it is “remedial” and that translates to being “not smart” enough to be in college English.
  

Q: Why do you think your students like the online learning resource, MyWritingLab?

Caruso:

1. Students have reported saying how much they enjoyed playing an active role in their learning and receiving frequent personalized feedback. Before starting the online grammar program, students must complete a diagnostic assessment and individual Skills Checks in MyWritingLab. Students critically analyzed and actively became involved with their writing assignments with Pearson Tutor Services and Pearson Writer’s Automatic Writer Review feature.
2. Students also liked the fact that the learning was personalized to create a Learning Path, or study plan, according to the results from the built-in assessment tools.
3. Students love technology—they are visual and tactile learners. Students get excited knowing that learning is not traditional and passive, but rather creative and hands-on.
4. They enjoy the face-to-face interaction with faculty when they don’t understand the concept. I use the lab to provide one-on-one consultation to help students with difficult grammar and writing concepts. Students feel as though someone cares about them, and they don’t have to wait for an email or meeting with a professor to answer a question they don’t know. Immediate feedback is key to motivating students. They feel important and that someone is giving them the attention they need.
5. Students remain engaged and challenged both in and out of the classroom by the creative and dynamic learning environment that MyWritingLab offers. They are never bored or uninterested in grammar. They look forward to each class to find out what they can learn.

Q: What insights can you share to help other educators engage with students?

Caruso:

1. Understand your student audience, and don’t assume that ALL students in a course are familiar with grammar or concepts of writing. Take time to ask your students what they know, what they don’t know, and what they would like to know or expect from the course. As educators we should be more open to what our students want to learn and how to learn with a variety of tools instead of slide presentations and lectures. As educators we become the best at our craft by learning from our students.
2. Make learning fun. Students love technology, so why not use technology to enhance learning? Students are active learners rather than passive learners. They want immediate feedback and want to know the answers NOW.
3. Provide student flexibility and the option to rewrite or re-submit online work. Redundancy and repetitiveness helps students master the concept. Students also feel that they are treated fair and you. Today’s students are driven achievers who depend on technology. At the same time, I find that they lack the learning skills to succeed in and out of the classroom—particularly their critical thinking and decision making skills. This new evolution of society, media, technology, and communication has been my catalyst to provide a more productive learning environment that is student-centered, collaborative, and self-directed.
4. In the classroom or lab, interact with students, and be involved in the learning process. Students become more confident and active learners when you do this.
5. It’s important to look for additional ways to grow as an instructor and to prevent teaching from getting stale. Fine-tune and update course materials with current, innovative teaching techniques, and present students the most up-to-date instructional materials or tech tools.

Q: How has the online learning resource changed how you teach?

Caruso: In my 20 years of teaching, I have learned that each generation comes to college with varying characteristics and that some of the teaching methods of just ten years ago, no longer work as well with this generation of digital learners.

I have found the best teaching style that works with digital learners is one of balance where I become a facilitator of learning within the didactic model.

The greatest teaching reward is transforming non-believers of MyWritingLab into believers. In the first week of classes when I introduce the online product, students often give me attitude since they have to spend more money on course materials that they probably have already dismissed or deemed useless. Using MyWritingLab has made me successful in the classroom since students believe and are convinced with the efficacy of the product. The pre- and post-assessments (Path Builder and Mastery Check) and Skills Checks are vital to the program since personalized Path Builder scores keep students motivated, as well as the immediate feedback they receive once exercises are submitted.

Q: What are some of the biggest changes you have seen in your students who use MyWritingLab?

Caruso: Students are more confident writers. They now understand the English jargon that prompts them to revise and edit their work. For example, if an instructor marks up a student paper and writes “comma splice”—without prior knowledge of the definition and strategies to correct it, students will not be able to make appropriate edits). MyWritingLab provides students with an animation, grammar and writing chapters to read, and online practice exercises to learn the concept. MyWritingLab gives students the tools and strategies they need to identify grammar and writing errors in order to revise and edit their own work.

Students become more critical learners as they reflect, revise, and edit their own writing.
They now enjoy learning about grammar. MyWritingLab makes learning fun since it’s interactive and topics are current.

By the end of the course, students are proud of their achievements and success in the course. I have students with teary eyes telling me that no one has ever taught English the way they I did in my course; and how the skills, knowledge, and confidence gained allows them to be successful in other courses that require good writing skills. I have received so many emails after students complete the college English course (EAC150) telling me with so much pride that they passed the course with honors As and Bs because of what they learned in my class. I take such pride knowing this and share the emails with new students in the first week of class when I introduce MyWritingLab. Their eyes light up when I show them the success they will have by the end of the semester, and they look forward to each class. I hardly have any absenteeism since students are motivated to be successful.

Although it’s difficult to find out the success rate for each student in my developmental course, I am reminded by the overwhelming number of emails after students pass the college English EAC150 course with high honors. This is testament of how MyWritingLab and Pearson Writer has helped my students become more confident writers and prepared for the real world.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Caruso: Education is and always has been a very important aspect of my life. Education is about teaching students, not subjects. It’s about engaging students in their learning and providing them with opportunities to be challenged and yet giving them a toolbox to be successful.

I like to share a quote that is attributed to Confucius and how I model my teaching in class:

“Tell me and I’ll forget,
Show me, and I may not remember.
Involve me, and I’ll understand.”

This is a useful way to remember the importance of adopting active learning and student-centered pedagogies where students gain experience and achieve all that they can. Students create a social network by working together, and they learn to better work together and accept diverse views. By working together, students become more open and tolerant of different views or opinions of others.

I understand that my students today are pluralistic and bring multiple perspectives to the classroom such as diverse backgrounds, learning styles, experiences, and aspirations. Each time I teach a course, it is essentially a new ballgame. Each semester I modify my lessons to accommodate the diversity of my students’ needs and use Pearson online tools to supplement my teaching.

The content changes over time, our students change, and our teaching must change. Therefore, I believe that teaching is at its best only when it is vital and ever changing. I continually strive to improve the effectiveness of my teaching by rethinking and revising my methods for the benefit of students in all areas, from diversity to technology. I have taken every teaching opportunity as a way of developing and experimenting with new methods of teaching and rectifying my approaches through student feedback. This way, I continue to learn and to grow: by taking risks and questioning my assumptions when I apply technology, new ideas, or methods.

Adhering to this teaching style has been incredibly rewarding!

What do you think is the most common way students study?

For years, Maximillian Soltysiak has been putting himself in uncomfortable situations to endure the growing pains of learning.

When teaching a science class, we often use experiences in the lab to foster critical thinking skills and reinforce the concepts we introduce in lectures. But with campuses closed, students cannot access the lab.

So what do you do? Is it better to forget about labs at all, or is there value in online or hands-on at home methods? This is what one study published by the Journal of Formative Design in Learning tells us.

Don’t ditch labs

Students who take lecture and laboratory concurrently outperform their lecture-only peers, regardless of whether that lab is face-to-face or non-traditional.

Non-traditional labs can be as effective as face-to-face labs

• A good non-traditional lab tool can increase test scores, improve students’ attitudes and preparedness for the hands-on lab, and strengthen conceptual knowledge.
• In one particular study, the students said the online laboratory experience was the same as or better than their prior experiences in the traditional setting.
• Students can access the lab whenever and wherever suits them. Flexibility will be important at the moment, particularly for those suddenly having to care for children.
• In an online lab, students can reflect on what went right and what did not go as planned, and then can repeat the experiment as many times as they need.
• Virtual chemistry labs can help students visualize structures and processes at the molecular level and allow types of experiments not possible in a standard undergraduate laboratory—e.g., quantum chemistry.

A good tool should have

• Software that is easy to install, user-friendly, and intuitive, yet challenging.
• Experiences similar to the traditional laboratory.
• Useful sequences for learners that scaffold their use of the system.
• Some form of feedback (even if it is just immediate results of labs and simulations).
• Help for visualizing and demonstrating concepts and constructs that might otherwise be difficult to observe (depending on exactly what domain it is).
• Alignment with the learning objectives across all learning activities.
• Clear instructions (even if the task is more open-ended in the lab) and criteria so students know what to focus on.
• The ability for students to “experiment” in the environment without penalty.
• Digital laboratory manuals that accompany hands-on lab kits must also be user-friendly and intuitive.

Examples of online labs

Online labs can range from simple videos and games, to graphing and 2D simulations, to interactive 3D virtual reality experiences. Simulations, as mathematical models of processes in the physical world, allow users to manipulate parameters and can be used by faculty to customize laboratories in various disciplines. Some examples include:

• Virtual dissections (see Practice Anatomy Lab in Mastering A&P)
• Chemical reactions (see Chemistry simulations in Mastering Chemistry)
• Laws of motion experiments (see PhET simulations in Mastering Physics)

Source:
Rowe et al., Efficacy of Online Laboratory Science Courses (2017) Journal of Formative Design in Learning

This award-winning student’s lifetime of loving learning has led him to fighting COVID-19 and other healthcare problems alongside Canada’s leading figures.

Diane Hollister, Faculty Advisor, Pearson 
Cheating isn’t new. Many students do it, and in many different ways. As courses move to online environments, we might wonder if the lack of the instructor in the classroom makes it more likely cheating will happen. Technology certainly changes how students cheat.

A 2017 study by Kessler International reported that 76 percent of surveyed students said they had copied text from someone else’s assignments. Slightly more (79 percent) admitted to plagiarism from internet sources. Around 72 percent said they’d used mobile devices to cheat.

An astonishing 42 percent of students admit to purchasing custom papers or essays online, and 28 percent have paid someone to do their online work. Sadly, many of them thought it was ok to cheat.

Colleges and universities have implemented a variety of tactics designed to minimize cheating. They include tools such as the following.

Clearly defining cheating and setting expectations

This may seem elementary, but letting students know you are aware of cheating and will take it seriously can help curb cheating. If your assignment does not require the use of their phone for apps or resources, remind them to keep devices out of reach.

Academic integrity policies

Many colleges and universities have policies about cheating in their student code of conduct, and these are perhaps the simplest methods to deter cheating. When students break the policy, they may be dismissed from the program. It is a good idea to require students to sign an honor code statement in an initial assignment or prior to each test.

Using proctored exams

Many schools require students to report to campus or to official off-site testing centers for proctored exams. Proctors are typically required to check students’ IDs, enter passwords if needed, and watch them during tests. Tools like ProctorU support digital online proctoring and record the testing session for the instructor, flagging any concerns.

Restricting IP addresses

Some software will allow you to restrict access only to certain labs on campus. This is often done in conjunction with proctoring.

Use a Lockdown Browser

Require students to use a Lockdown Browser with online quizzes and tests. This is a custom setting that literally “locks down” the browser that displays the test or quiz, preventing students from copying or printing the questions or accessing any other websites or applications.

Utilizing keystroke verification software

Keystroke verification software, such as Keystroke DNA, is perhaps one of the most common tech-based cheater prevention methods.

The approach is simple: Students type a short phrase, which is then analyzed by a software program. The software assesses the students’ typing speed, rhythm, and other personal characteristics to create a behavioral biometric data profile for each user. Before any work is submitted, it needs to be verified.

Embedding text-matching software

These are tools like Turnitin, SafeAssign, or CopyLeaks, where software is used to read an essay or paper and assess the likelihood of plagiarism.

Variable testing

Students tend to share old tests, use study material sharing sites to share answers and methods, etc. To prevent cheating, professors may find it useful to use question banks and randomize the questions so that students have a more difficult time in sharing answers.

Professors should change assessments each semester or create multiple versions of tests or quizzes for a class. Include essay or explanation questions, as it makes it more obvious if an answer was copied from somewhere else. If possible, consider pooling questions so all students get similar but slightly varied test questions.

Offer low-stakes quizzing

It reduces the incentive to cheat because the value of each quiz is lower than that of an exam, but it still provides opportunities for assessment.

Assign collaborative learning activities

Use collaborative activities liberally. Consider using social media, shared documents, discussion forums, cyber cafes, video conferencing, and other types of collaborative tools to engage students with one another.

Studies indicate collaboration in online classes increases problem-solving skills more effectively than the student who is completing all classroom activities alone. There is little motivation or ability to cheat when students are working cooperatively for a common goal.

One study at MIT in the 1990’s forbade student collaboration in a programming class. The students collaborated anyway, and became more effective programmers. MIT determined that collaboration would be the new normal in programming classes. After all, the goal is student learning!

If students learn better when collaborating, and collaborating reduces the chances of cheating, then increasing the collaborative activities in an online environment will lead to increased learning and decreased cheating, which is a win/win by any standard.

Use resources already in your arsenal

You might find it helpful to use your Learning Management System to provide links to resources like Turnitin, which can often be linked directly with assignments.

Students think of cheating as a way to avoid learning the course material. But I tell my students that as hard as they work to avoid doing any actual learning, I will work harder to find ways to encourage and guide them to do what they should.

There are resources out there to help me do that. Check your Learning Management System instructor resources, explore other available technology tools, read Chronicle of Higher Education articles or Learning Scientists posts, and talk to your campus instructional designers. These are all great places to find tools you can use to deter cheating in your online courses.