Educational Strategies.

Active learning is a term used to describe instructional strategies that promote students’ active participation in knowledge construction processes. Such strategies may include hands-on activities, brief writing and discussion assignments, problem solving tasks, information gathering and synthesis, question generation, and reflection-based activities, among others. Together, these approaches seek to engage learners’ higher order thinking skills through the production and articulation of knowledge, as opposed to through the passive transmission of facts and ideas. Access the guide.

Blended learning is the strategic combination of face-to-face and online learning experiences and when properly implemented, the popular teaching method can result in improved student success, satisfaction, and retention. Learn more about the benefits of blended courses, get tips to enhance in-class learning, and access the tools you need for implementation.

Case studies are stories that are used as a teaching tool to show the application of a theory or concept to real situations. Connect with the Center for Teaching & Learning and explore ways to create a case study.

Slides frequently serve as the foundation for lectures and lesson plans. They can either complement or confuse an instructor’s verbal message, so taking some time to think about the design and structure of your slide presentations can really pay off. Read more.

Discussions challenge students to develop critical thinking skills: to weigh evidence, test propositions, and reach their own conclusions. While being knowledgeable about the topic under discussion is important for leading meaningful discussions, creating an environment in which students feel comfortable engaging with ideas is even more so. Read more.

It can be beneficial to consider assessment more broadly as “an ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student learning.” In this view, assessment covers any learning activity, both graded and ungraded, that instructors use as evidence for students’ progress toward the stated learning outcomes. Learn more about BU’s assessment technology tools and review CTL’s assessment teaching guides.

Experiential learning is an engaged learning process whereby students “learn by doing” and by reflecting on the experience. Experiential learning activities can include, but are not limited to, hands-on laboratory experiments, internships, practicums, field exercises, study abroad, undergraduate research and studio performances. Learn more.

This evidence-based teaching guide presents research studies and resources related to group work. Links to key articles are accompanied by condensed summaries organized by teaching challenges, and actionable advice is provided in an instructor checklist.

Practical strategies for breaking up lectures with activities that help keep students engaged and foster active learning.

This evidence-based teaching guide presents research studies and resources related to peer instruction, a pedagogy commonly associated with personal response devices in which students answer questions, engage in peer discussion, and discuss responses with the whole class. Links to key articles are accompanied by condensed summaries organized by teaching challenges, and actionable advice is provided in an instructor checklist.

Project-based learning (PBL) involves students designing, developing, and constructing hands-on solutions to a problem. The educational value of PBL is that it aims to build students’ creative capacity to work through difficult or ill-structured problems, commonly in small teams. Learn more about this approach.

Grading according to an explicit and descriptive set of criteria that is designed to reflect the weighted importance of the objectives of the assignment helps ensure that the instructor’s grading standards don’t change over time. Learn more.

Team teaching (also often called “collaborative teaching”) is an opportunity to expose students to more perspectives and content knowledge than a single instructor may be able to provide. Collaborative teaching can take a variety of forms, ranging from inviting a colleague to give a one-time guest lecture, to dividing responsibilities according to content areas, to working together on every aspect of the course. Learn more about this approach.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a teaching framework based on research about how we learn. Through this approach, faculty anticipate the variability of learners and proactively design to eliminate unnecessary barriers.