Element 8: Interactive content

What is this element about?

The UNE online learning environment provides many opportunities for active learning. This element encourages unit coordinators to consider how they can, with support, create activities and tasks which encourage the learner to actively engage with their learning in a meaningful and purposeful way without leaving the learning management system.

Why is it important?

Active learning as opposed to passivity is the focus of this element. Active learning brings attention to learning as an embodied experience and not just a cognitive activity (Rodríguez-Jiménez & García-Merino, 2017). For example, making notes whilst reading helps stay focused and aware of when our attention is slipping. Online learning can both help support active learning or can give an impression of activity – watching a video – whilst also maintaining a degree of passivity.

Developments in digital technologies provide us with many opportunities to harness learner activity in a variety of ways. The activity still needs to be purposeful, meaningful and relevant. We are not aiming just for busy clicking but for opportunities for further thinking, knowledge checking and collaboration amongst other things.

Research shows that active learning prompts agency, autonomy and motivation.

When students are agents in their learning they are more likely to have “learned how to learn” – an invaluable skills that they can use throughout their lives. (OECD, 2019, p. 2)

Active learning encourages learner self-efficacy and confidence through the ability to self-check learning. Social connection and the relational aspect of learning can also be fostered through utilising digital collaboration opportunities.

Active learning strategies are rooted in constructivist theories of learning that position the learner in control of their own knowledge acquisition, compared to the traditional teacher-student transmission of knowledge referred to as “teaching by telling” (Ivancic and Hesketh, 1995; Smith et al., 1997). Instead of placing the responsibility for learning-based decisions on an external source, typically the teacher, the learner oversees choosing information to process while monitoring physiological arousal including regulating one’s stress response during the learning process (Iran-Nejad, 1990). Active learning requires exploration and experimentation with a goal to develop domain specific skills (Ishiyama, 2013). Though active learning entails a wide breadth of potential activities that can be incorporated inside or outside of traditional classrooms, the central goal is for the learner to be in control of the learning process to create flexible and adaptive thinking. (Kuchynka et al., 2020, p.2) 

This element relates to the following research and practice informed guidelines/ frameworks:

TELAS Guidelines

• 7.1. Learning resources are available and functional.

UNE Learning Standards

• 3. Demonstrate relevance and alignment:
  Our learning experiences are designed have a clear purpose and relevance achieved by aligning content, learning activities, feedback and assessment with learning outcomes. Our students are provided with opportunities to link what they learn to their own experiences, the workplace and the wider world.

• 5. Promote active engagement:
  Our learning experiences are designed to nurture student engagement and challenge in their learning. Learning experiences encourage in students both intellectual and emotional engagement in their studies. By taking an active role in their learning, students are rewarded with a sense of achievement and growth.

• 7. Use technology to enrich and enable learning:
  Our learning experiences are designed to utilise existing and emerging technologies to enrich learning and provide opportunities to engage in new and meaningful ways. Technology should be used purposefully and must add value to the learning experience.

What can I do?

Some things you can do include:

• Utilise activity tools such as H5P within the LMS to develop interactive resources.
• Explore ways to use interactive activities to provide opportunity for students to check their learning – drag and drop, matching, multiple choice questions are just some of many available within H5P.
• Embed interactive opportunities within slideshows and eBooks on the LMS
• Convert PDF documents into eBooks if appropriate.
• If PDFs need to be used, explore ways that students can annotate them and share as part of the learning process.
• Convert student download and completed word documents into digital formats – this might be through using digital forms (Teams), workbooks in PebblePad, even embedding text responses to activities within a Moodle Book.
• Encourage social connection and interaction through collaborative means such as embedded white/post boards – examples include Zoom whiteboards, embedded Padlets which can be used to engage students as co-creators of knowledge.
• Polls, games and other options can even be used to encourage learner engage during synchronous learning such as lectures/tutorials.
• Explore the value of LMS based interactives to help track student engagement.

Hints and tips

It’s here:H5P.com Digital Education @ UNE Blog

Help and Support

Support will be provided as part of Project Uplift implementation process.

You can also contact the Learning Design team, learningdesign@une.edu.au for in person advice and guidance.

Teaching Online @ UNE also contains information on how to get started with H5P and other useful information.

Supporting resources

Kuchynka, S., Reifsteck, T. V., Gates, A. E., & Rivera, L. M. (2020). Developing Self-Efficacy and Behavioral Intentions Among Underrepresented Students in STEM: The Role of Active Learning. Frontiers in Education, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.668239

OECD. (2019). OECD Future of Education and Skills 2023 conceptual learning framework: Student agency for 2030. OECD. https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/teaching-and-learning/learning/student-agency/Student_Agency_for_2030_concept_note.pdf

Rodríguez-Jiménez, R., & García-Merino, S. (2017). Enactive and embodied learning in higher education. Functional Neurology, Rehabilitation and Ergonomics, 7(4), 5–9.

TELAS Framework https://www.telas.edu.au/framework/

UNE Online Learning Standards: https://myune.sharepoint.com/sites/academic-transformation/SitePages/Principals-for-Designing-Learning-Experiences-Online.aspx