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11 Transforming Student Learning with Effective Study Techniques

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Effective study techniques can significantly enhance student learning and academic performance. In today’s fast-paced educational environment, students face numerous challenges, from managing multiple assignments and homework to balancing extracurricular activities. Developing strong study habits is essential for success in both school and college.

Understanding how to study efficiently can make a significant difference in a student’s academic journey. By implementing the right techniques, students can improve their comprehension, retention, and overall performance. This article explores various study methods and provides valuable tips for students looking to transform their learning experiences with paperwriter .

The Importance of Effective Study Techniques

Effective study techniques are crucial for students aiming to achieve their academic goals. These techniques help in better time management, reducing stress, and improving understanding of complex subjects. With the right approach, students can make their study sessions more productive and less overwhelming.

One of the biggest challenges students face is the sheer volume of information they need to learn and retain. Effective study techniques can help break down this information into manageable chunks, making it easier to digest and remember. Moreover, students who develop good study habits early on are more likely to succeed in their future academic and professional endeavors.

Creating a Conducive Study Environment

A conducive study environment is essential for effective learning. Students should choose a quiet, comfortable place with minimal distractions to focus on their studies. A well-organized study space can significantly enhance concentration and productivity.

Tips for Creating a Conducive Study Environment:

• Choose a quiet location: Find a place free from noise and interruptions.
• Ensure good lighting: Proper lighting reduces eye strain and improves focus.
• Organize your materials: Keep all necessary supplies within reach to avoid unnecessary distractions.
• Comfortable seating: Choose a chair and desk that provide good support to maintain good posture.

Time Management and Scheduling

Time management is a critical skill for students. Balancing school, college, assignments, and homework can be challenging. Effective scheduling ensures that students allocate sufficient time for each subject and activity.

Strategies for Better Time Management:

• Create a study schedule: Plan your study sessions and stick to the schedule.
• Set priorities: Focus on the most important tasks first.
• Break tasks into smaller steps: Divide large assignments into manageable parts.
• Use a planner: Keep track of deadlines, assignments, and exams.

Active Learning Techniques

Active learning involves engaging with the material actively rather than passively reading or listening. This approach enhances understanding and retention.

Effective Active Learning Techniques:

• Summarization: Summarize key points in your own words.
• Questioning: Ask questions about the material and seek answers.
• Discussion: Discuss topics with classmates to gain different perspectives.
• Application: Apply what you have learned to real-world scenarios.

The Role of Technology in Studying

Technology can be a powerful tool for enhancing learning. Various apps and online resources can help students manage their study time, organize notes, and access educational materials.

Useful Technological Tools for Students:

• Note-taking apps: Apps like Evernote and OneNote help organize and store notes efficiently.
• Study apps: Apps like Quizlet and Anki offer flashcards and quizzes for effective revision.
• Time management apps: Tools like Trello and Todoist help students plan and track their tasks.( or visit https://do-my-math.com/ )
• Online resources: Websites like Khan Academy and Coursera provide additional learning materials.

Enhancing Memory and Retention

Improving memory and retention is vital for academic success. Students can employ various techniques to boost their ability to remember and recall information.

Techniques to Enhance Memory and Retention:

• Mnemonics: Use mnemonic devices to remember complex information.
• Visualization: Create mental images to associate with the material.
• Repetition: Review material regularly to reinforce learning.
• Teaching others: Explaining concepts to others helps solidify understanding.

Staying Motivated and Managing Stress

Maintaining motivation and managing stress are essential components of effective studying. Students need to find ways to stay motivated and cope with academic pressures.

Tips for Staying Motivated and Managing Stress:

• Set realistic goals: Set achievable short-term and long-term goals.
• Take breaks: Regular breaks prevent burnout and improve focus.
• Stay positive: Maintain a positive attitude towards learning.
• Seek support: Reach out to teachers, peers, or counselors for help when needed.

Incorporating effective study techniques can transform the learning experience for students. By creating a conducive study environment, managing time efficiently, engaging in active learning, utilizing technology, enhancing memory, and staying motivated, students can achieve academic success. Remember, the key to effective studying lies in consistency and dedication. With the right approach, every student can improve their learning outcomes and reach their full potential.

Effective study habits not only help students excel in their current studies but also prepare them for future challenges. By implementing these strategies, students can turn studying into a more enjoyable and rewarding experience, ultimately leading to better academic performance and personal growth. Investing time in developing good study habits today will pay off in the long run, making the journey through school and college a successful one.

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Learning Activities and Assignments: How to Maximize Their Effectiveness

Clearly communicate to students your goals for any assignment or learning activity . Don't assume that students will know what the pedagogical purpose of the assignment is. Have a discussion about your goals and desired learning outcomes, and help students understand how specific aspects of the assignment fit these goals. Be open to making some changes if students have ideas to offer. After the discussion has taken place, summarize it and post it in the learning management system for students to revisit as they work on their assignments. 

Inform your students of assignments as early as possible  in a semester, and help them schedule and plan for them.

Give your students examples of "typical" exemplary assignments from past students, but also of submissions that were both exemplary and unique , so that students can see what you are looking for, but also so that they realize a range of possibilities.

Scaffold smaller activities and assignments towards large assignments so that students understand the trajectory of their work.  This helps students build on their growing knowledge, but also helps them move forward: it's easier for them to continue a learning process than to start a new one. It also combats procrastination and plagiarism, and encourages time on task.

Consider creating flexible intermediate deadlines.  That is, provide deadlines for when particular stages or parts of the assignment should be completed, so that students can understand the ideal pace of their work flow.

If possible, allow students to share draft work with you and with their peers.  They can then use your feedback, and their peer's feedback, to revise and improve their work. 

Offer students performative options.  In other words, allow students to demonstrate their understanding or skill acquisition in alternative or diverse ways. For example, rather than a traditional essay, could a student create a podcast or screencast? Instead of submitting a written assignment, could a student do an in-class poster presentation? 

Meet with students one-on-one as much as possible  to assist with every step in the process, from clarifying the assignment, to brainstorming, to polishing.

Help your students appreciate the importance of formative feedback . Many students are interested only in the grade that an assignment receives (the summative assessment), and will spend little time on the formative feedback that you also provide on their assignments. Help them understand that carefully reviewing the formative feedback will improve their performance in the future. 

Discuss your own working process : the ideal scene for your work, the personal supports you have or try to create, your own blocks and difficulties. Students can benefit from seeing how their instructors work. At the same time, recognize that there are many different learning styles, and that most students won't work the same way that their teachers do, and that this is a good thing.

Use the learning management system to support students as they work on their assignments.  For example, create on online discussion forum where students can ask questions about their assignments, or where they can post drafts of their work in order to receive feedback from peers. 

Be sensitive to cultural differences  that might impact student learning processes and the "products" they create.

Ask students to help you revise assignment prompts for the next time you teach the class , and/or to write down some advice they would give to future students for succeeding at an assignment.

Consider having your program, department, or faculty implement an ePortfolio program for students . Students can use the ePortfolio to archive drafts of their assignments, to reflect on specific assignments or their overall progress, to showcase their best assignments, and more. 

Consider providing verbal feedback on student assignments using new technologies.  For example, the latest (free) version of Adobe Acrobat makes it easy to add audio comments to specific parts of a document. Narrating your comments might be easier than typing them, and you can also be more nuanced with verbal comments than with written comments. 

Make large-print copies of all materials available.  These are beneficial not only for visually impaired students who are registered with  AccessAbility Services , but for any student who is experiencing some degree of vision impairment. 

If you would like support applying these tips to your own teaching, CTE staff members are here to help.  View the  CTE Support  page to find the most relevant staff member to contact. 

This Creative Commons license  lets others remix, tweak, and build upon our work non-commercially, as long as they credit us and indicate if changes were made. Use this citation format:  Learning Activities and Assignments: How to Maximize Their Effectiveness. Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo .

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17 Learning Strategies to Implement In Your Classroom

Learning strategies are a critical element in ensuring students grasp course concepts and are especially important in blended and online learning environments

Danielle Leboff

Learning strategies are methods used by instructors to initiate students into effective learning by using a variety of engaging learning techniques, activities and practices. These methods are all derived from years of meticulous research into how people learn best.

In any lesson plan, instructors can incorporate multiple learning strategies. By catering to different learning styles and varying your approach, you can better engage students while helping them master new concepts.

Top Hat’s 2021 Online Teaching Toolkit gives you easy-to-use teaching templates, active learning strategies and more to engage your students in an online or hybrid learning environment. Get free access today.

Why are learning strategies important?

Learning strategies are an essential component of creating an effective learning experience. They can help learners develop proficiency in various subject matter areas and develop new skill sets. They also help learners develop confidence in their own knowledge, proficiency and learning abilities.

The following describes some common strategies for achieving various learning outcomes, along with practical examples you can incorporate directly into your learning environment.

Think-pair-share

This active learning exercise is designed to activate any prior knowledge a student may have on a subject by having them share their thoughts and beliefs with their fellow learners.

A think-pair-share exercise is structured to help students first organize their thoughts, then share these with a partner followed by the broader class.

• Think : Students take a moment to contemplate the new concept or idea on their own. They can also write down their thoughts to help develop their note-taking skills.
• Pair : Students break off into pairs to share their thoughts and beliefs on the topic with another learner.
• Share : Students then share their takeaways from this conversation with one or more successively larger groups, up to and including the whole class.

Putting think-pair-share into action

To execute think-pair-share in your class, define the exercise for the group and display the prompts you’d like to pose for discussion. Once students have completed the exercise, you can then facilitate a larger class discussion.

Make a point of listening to student responses before offering your own ideas. You can also pose probing questions while encouraging other students to offer their own responses and reactions to each other’s ideas.

Tests and quizzes

There are several ways instructors can use tests and quizzes as effective strategies for learning.

Individual plus group quizzes : Have learners complete independent quizzes for grading. Following this, place learners into small groups and give them the same quiz as a form of cooperative learning. This time, allow the groups to discuss their answers and come up with an answer for each question. Then, grade the group as a whole on their collective performance.

Not every student likes group assignments, since this may raise concerns about their individual grades. To avoid penalizing more diligent learners, take an average of each student’s two scores if the group score is higher than their individual score. If the student’s individual score is higher than the group score, let that individual score stand as the average. This process encourages students to be accountable for their own learning while helping develop their test-taking and collaboration skills.

Tests and quizzes with distractors : Distractors are common preconceptions or misconceptions about a topic. Have students answer various questions and, then, discuss their answers with a fellow student. After this discussion, have each student answer the same question again and see if their answers are any different. To close off the activity, initiate a group discussion about why the correct answer is actually the correct one. This acts as a form of metacognition by encouraging students to think about their own learning.

Retrieval practice

The process of bringing information to mind, or retrieval practice, is an effective strategy in boosting learning. In these exercises, students put away all learning materials and answer questions or discuss a topic purely based on their own recall of the information. Students can then refer to learning to evaluate how accurately they conveyed the information. Retrieval practice exercises also work well using the think-pair-share format.

Elaboration

In elaboration, students demonstrate the depth of their knowledge of a given topic by describing and explaining as much as they know about it, including as many relevant details as they can call to mind. This strategy extends the concept of rote memorization by encouraging students to draw connections within the content and between the content and other knowledge they already possess.

Interleaving

Interleaving is the process by which students mix multiple subjects or topics while they study. This allows students the opportunity to practice different modes of thinking and problem-solving as opposed to ‘blocked practice,’ which involves studying one topic thoroughly before moving on to the next.

Interleaving has been shown to improve test scores in a number of studies. As a best practice, it is important to use interleaving for related topics. For example, interleaving works well when switching between different algebra problems but is not nearly as effective when switching between radically different subject matter areas, such as literature and math equations.

Muddiest point

This form of assessment helps educators understand which elements of their course pose difficulties that may impede student progress and performance.

In this exercise, instructors ask students to note the “muddiest points” of the lesson, or the most confusing or difficult to grasp. Have students rate their degree of understanding and capture where the difficulty lies.

While the exercise shouldn’t take more than a few minutes, it has additional benefits beyond helping the instructor understand where the obstacles are for students. It also helps students more effectively analyze their own learning and to zero in on the exact issue that may be holding them back.

Peer instruction

Also known as ‘reciprocal teaching,’ this structured teaching practice asks students to reflect on new concepts they may be confused about and then share their responses to those prompts with a small group. Each group then derives a consensus response to share collectively with the rest of the class.

Peer instruction offers a number of benefits, including:

• Increasing a student’s problem-solving skills and conceptual understanding abilities
• Deepening student understanding of a topic and encouraging greater knowledge retention
• Bolstering student engagement and raising student course satisfaction

Not only does this exercise call upon students to explain their thinking, it asks them to defend it against alternative arguments and modes. This helps reveal for students as much about how they think and process information as it does about the information itself.

Differentiated instruction

Not all students learn the same way. Differentiated instruction recognizes and accommodates for this by tailoring the learning process to individual needs. This is accomplished by altering the content, process, product or the learning environment itself.

With differentiated instruction, instructors consider the different learning styles of their students before devising their teaching strategies. That way, they can incorporate multiple modalities to allow all students to succeed equally in learning the material.

Some other ways to implement differentiated learning include:

• Grouping students together for assignments by shared topics, interests, learning abilities or styles
• Using formative assessment tools to assess individual student learning styles and progress and then adjusting lesson plans accordingly
• Using classroom management tools to create safe and supportive learning environments for all students

Gamification

Sometimes turning a lesson into a game can better engage students in learning and comprehending the material. Gamification essentially incorporates reward-based activities and teaching tools into the lesson plan. Examples of gamification include:

• Earning points for finishing tasks
• Competing against peers toward a goal
• Playing games that teach particular academic skills

Project-based learning

Through project-based learning, students work together on a project over an extended period, generally between one week and an entire semester. The project ideally involves solving a real-world problem or addressing a complex question. The finished product is a public presentation or product they can present to a live audience.

Problem-based learning

Problem-based learning involves incorporating real-world situations as a vehicle to help students apply course concepts in a practical application. This helps make learning more relevant by connecting concepts to the world outside the classroom and can add variety to the learning process itself.

Formative assessments

Formative assessments are designed to monitor learning and provide feedback on each student’s progress on an ongoing basis. The steady stream of feedback allows instructors to refine and improve their teaching strategies to keep the class on track. At the same time, students can practice their test-taking skills, improve information recall while honing in on their areas of strength and weakness.

Formative assessments are typically considered “low stakes.” The primary goal is not a letter grade but generating feedback for the instructor and the student. Examples of formative assessments include:

• Self-assessments
• Entry and exit slips
• Low-stakes polls and quizzes
• Exercises incorporating art or other visual representations of learning content
• Misconception and errors
• Interview assessments

Summative assessments

Instructors use summative assessments to evaluate how thoroughly students learned an area of study. Summative assessments usually come upon the completion of an instructional unit and compare student knowledge and achievement against a previously determined set of benchmarks.

Considered “high stakes,” summative assessments are commonly used to determine a student’s subsequent course work and educational progress. Examples of summative assessments include:

• Final projects
• Term papers
• Midterm, final or standardized exams
• Performance or recital

Educators may sometimes use summative assessments in a formative manner to guide student activities and efforts throughout their coursework.

Quick write

In this exercise, pose a prompt to the group to respond to in writing. Only allow five minutes for this exercise, so students can quickly reflect on their initial thoughts on a subject.

Uses and benefits of a quick write include helping to:

• Determine whether students completed their assigned homework
• Prime students to think about topics to be introduced or developed in the upcoming lesson
• Give students the chance to access previous knowledge they may have on a subject
• Instructors can opt to grade the quick write or simply collect it as a means of confirming attendance.

Pose a question to be answered or explained, and then take an anonymous poll to see how many students favor particular answers or explanations to the question.

Afterward, initiate a group discussion of the question and the poll’s results to see why students voted the way they did. Following the discussion, take the same poll again to gauge whether any students changed their answers and, if so, to what extent and why.

Hearing why students chose a particular explanation or answer helps the instructor understand how students think about that topic. It also helps them determine if additional explanation or clarification may be required before moving on in the lesson plan.

Turn and talk

In this exercise, instructors pose a question to the group, then instruct students to choose a partner to discuss their thoughts on the question with. This can create a comfortable atmosphere for sharing ideas before bringing ideas before the whole group.

Make sure the questions students are asked to discuss are clear and that the understanding of each participant is there in order to contribute to the conversation both as a speaker and listener.

This exercise is performed in small groups in which students read a preselected passage of course material. Students in each group divide up the material so that each member reads a portion of it silently and then shares what they’ve learned with the rest of the group.

Some questions participants can use as points of focus include:

• What’s the big idea here?
• What do you believe it means, and why does it matter?
• How can someone apply this idea to help understand a larger topic?
• What part(s) of the reading do you agree and/or disagree with?
• What questions does the reading raise for you?

Instructors can implement jigsaws in a number of ways. In an ‘expert and cooperative group’ format, assign different groups different pieces of the material to read individually and discuss. Each group then becomes the expert group on that portion of the material. Following this, groups are redivided so that each new cooperative group contains one or two representatives from each of the previous expert groups. Each cooperative group then reviews the material with the expert representative. The jigsaw method is a great way to get students up to speed quickly on material while honing their critical thinking and communication skills.

Learning strategies help you better engage students in active learning by using a variety of activities such as reading, writing, discussion or problem-solving. Easy to execute, these activities promote analysis, synthesis, and the evaluation of class content. Equally important, they provide students with opportunities for feedback on how well they understand course material, ensuring they are making meaningful progress toward achieving course objectives.

Recommended Readings

The Ultimate Guide to Metacognition for Post-Secondary Courses

25 Effective Instructional Strategies For Educators

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How to Study Effectively: 12 Secrets For Success

Being properly organized and prepared for tests and exams can make all the difference to school performance. Effective studying starts with the right attitude—a positive outlook can shift studying from a punishment to an opportunity to learn.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach when learning how to effectively study. Studying methods should be tailored to each student. Everyone has different abilities, so it is important to determine what works for you and what doesn’t. (Find out what type of learner you are and which study techniques will work best for you!)

For some students, studying and staying motivated comes easily — others may have to work a little bit harder.

What Is The Most Effective Way To Study?

Finding the best way to study is an ongoing process. It isn’t something that can be left to the night before the test. You should be constantly improving your study skills to better understand what works (and what doesn’t).

Learning how to study better helps avoid panic and frustration the next time a big test is coming up. After all, you are more likely to do well and be less stressed before a test when you have had time to properly review and practice the material!

Mastering effective study habits not only makes it easier to learn but will also help you get better grades in high school and post-secondary.

Discover the 12 secrets to studying effectively that will help you ace your next test.

How to study effectively, get organized, pay attention in class, steer clear of distractions, make sure notes are complete, ask questions if you don’t understand, make a study schedule/plan.

Start Studying More Effectively

Get more out of your study sessions with the complete study toolkit including note taking templates, tips, and more.

Review notes from class every evening

Talk to teachers, designate a study area, study in short bursts, simplify study notes, study with a group, study smart, not hard.

Knowing how to study effectively is a skill that will benefit you for life. Developing effective study skills requires lots of time and patience. If you follow these tips you’ll be on your way to discovering which type of studying works best for you—so you can knock your next test out of the park!

Need some extra help? Oxford Learning is here for you. Get more study tips and learning resources to help you succeed in school:

How To Take Study Notes: 5 Effective Note Taking Methods

How to be more organized in middle school (for students & parents), related studying resources.

Checklists, Studying

Crunch time: don't study without these 8 tips.

The Feynman Technique: Study Skills' Secret Weapon

Homework, Organization, Studying

Homework procrastination: why do students procrastinate.

Can You Enhance Study Sessions With Background Music?

Find an oxford learning ® location near you, we have over 100 centres across canada.

Active Learning

What is active learning.

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.

Active learning strategies are built upon constructivist theories of learning, which emphasize the importance of building connections between one’s prior knowledge and new experiences and concepts. As such, active learning tasks are designed to tease out learners’ current understanding, make that understanding explicit, and then create opportunities for learners to integrate new knowledge into their understanding.

Typically, active learning strategies involve a mixture of individual and collaborative tasks, giving students the chance to reflect or predict outcomes, and then to share and discuss their ideas with peers. Activities can last anywhere from mere minutes to large segments of a class period; the point is simply to activate learners’ cognitive processes while they are in class. The information below will help you design and implement strategies that support this decidedly broad category of instructional methods.

What are the benefits?

Active learning helps students reflect on their understanding by encouraging them to make connections between their prior knowledge and new concepts. Often, active learning tasks ask students to make their thinking explicit, which also allows instructors to gauge student learning. Although most of the literature on active learning has focused on STEM disciplines, research suggests that active learning may benefit students in any field, particularly students who have had fewer educational opportunities, or encounters with active learning in high school. Several studies have shown that students in active learning classrooms have a lower rate of failure, and perform better on assessments than students in a traditional lecture.

Best practices

Because active learning encompasses so many different varieties of classroom activity, it is important to keep in mind a few core principles when designing active learning tasks:

• Active learning tasks should help your students meet their learning objectives
• Active learning tasks should create a low bar for student participation
• Active learning tasks should provide students with feedback on their learning

Help students meet their learning objectives

Above all, active learning tasks should target specific learning objectives. That is, they should help students develop the knowledge and skills that they are expected to acquire in your course. Identifying an argument, using evidence to support a claim, organizing information, and defining a given problem are all skills that support complex learning objectives, such as writing and problem solving. Active learning tasks should aim to provide students with opportunities to practice and gain proficiency in such skills.

Encourage student participation

Active learning tasks should provide a low barrier-to-entry, and invite involvement among all students. Therefore, tasks should be simple or discrete. For more complex tasks, instructors should provide clear instructions that outline (and model) how students will participate in the activity. How will students engage with each other in the activity? What are the ground rules or guidelines for group interaction? Answering these questions explicitly will help students understand what is expected of their participation.

Provide opportunities for feedback and reflection

Ideally, feedback should not only target the skills and knowledge students are expected to acquire from the course learning objectives, it should clearly indicate how students can improve their performance or enhance their understanding of the topic at hand. While providing detailed, individual feedback is often time consuming for individual instructors, and therefore difficult to achieve in a single class period, feedback from an active learning task can come from a variety of sources. Personal Response Systems (e.g., “clickers”), for instance, can collect input on student thinking at large scale. Instructors can, in turn, compare this information with experimental data or examples of expert thinking to reveal “gaps” or discrepancies in student knowledge.

Peer-based discussions or review sessions in which students receive a rubric with which to assess their classmates’ learning also provide opportunities for students to both make their thinking explicit, and to obtain informal feedback. The purpose of feedback in such cases is to provide students with information on their understanding or performance that can guide them towards a desired learning goal. Whether it come from a digital tool such as a clicker, or from a classmate, active learning tasks should give students a sense of their learning progress, and help them hone further practice.

Examples of active learning

To be sure, there are many examples of classroom tasks that might be classified as “active learning.” Some of the most common examples include think-pair-share exercises, jigsaw discussions, and even simply pausing for clarification during a lecture. Members of the University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching have created a useful list of active learning techniques , which they have sorted according to a “continuum” of complexity and time commitment. These techniques include:

• Minute Papers: at some point during lecture, students are asked to for one or two minutes on a given topic.
• Self-Assessment: similar to concept inventories and diagnostic assessments, these ungraded exercises, typically delivered at the beginning of a term or new unit, are used to help identify gaps in student understanding.
• Interactive Lectures: often in the form of brief polls, these activities take place during lectures, giving students a chance to make predictions, solve short problems, etc.
• Inquiry Learning: larger in scope, these exercises commonly involve having students conduct different aspects of scientific inquiry, such as observing phenomena, analyzing data, predicting outcomes, etc.
• Video demonstrating active learning techniques in a large enrollment STEM course here at BU: https://mymedia.bu.edu/media/Active+Learning+in+Large+Classrooms/1_645lb6rt

For a full list of techniques, download the UMich CRLT’s handout on active learning .

Quick tips for getting started with active learning

• What topics or ideas do students struggle with most in your course?
• What data or information will help you understand what students are learning?
• Which active learning strategies will provide this data, and ultimately help your students meet their learning objectives?
• Prepare a timeline to help you manage the activity. Will it take place in the classroom? How long will it last? What instructions will students need to participate in the activity?
• Establish ground rules for the activity. How should students interact with each other? What are they expected to do during the activity?
• Consider any roadblocks or challenges that you and your students experienced in carrying out the activity. How might these be overcome?
• Elicit feedback from students on whether or not the activity assisted in their learning. Did they find the activity helpful?
• Assess the usefulness of the information the activity provided you. Did the students improve their understanding of the topic or concept? Can you use data from the activity to make further improvements to future activities or instruction in general?

Additional Resources

Overview and Examples of Active Learning (Harvard Bok Center for Teaching and Learning)

Steps to Creating an Active Learning Environment (NYU Center for the Advancement of Teaching)

Active Learning Resources and Research (UMich Center for Research on Learning and Teaching

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Designing experiential learning projects, assessing learning, student engagement part 2: ensuring deep learning, experiential learning, service learning, reflection for experiential learning, teamwork and experiential learning, assessment for experiential learning.

Learning Strategies That Work

Dr. Mark A. McDaniel shares effective, evidence-based strategies about learning to replace less effective but widely accepted practices.

How do we learn and absorb new information? Which learning strategies actually work and which are mere myths?

Such questions are at the center of the work of Mark McDaniel , professor of psychology and the director of the Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education at Washington University in St. Louis. McDaniel coauthored the book Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning .

In this Q&A adapted from a Career & Academic Resource Center podcast episode , McDaniel discusses his research on human learning and memory, including the most effective strategies for learning throughout a lifetime.

Harvard Extension: In your book, you talk about strategies to help students be better learners in and outside of the classroom. You write, “We harbor deep convictions that we learn better through single-minded focus and dogged repetition. And these beliefs are validated time and again by the visible improvement that comes during practice, practice, practice.”

McDaniel: This judgment that repetition is effective is hard to shake. There are cues present that your brain picks up when you’re rereading, when you’re repeating something that give you the metacognitive, that is your judgment about your own cognition, give you the misimpression that you really have learned this stuff well.

Older learners shouldn’t feel that they’re at a definitive disadvantage, because they’re not. Older learners really want to try to leverage their prior knowledge and use that as a basis to structure and frame and understand new information coming in.

And two of the primary cues are familiarity. So as you keep rereading, the material becomes more familiar to you. And we mistakenly judge familiarity as meaning robust learning.

And the second cue is fluency. It’s very clear from much work in reading and cognitive processes during reading that when you reread something at every level, the processes are more fluent. Word identification is more fluent. Parsing the structure of the sentence is more fluent. Extracting the ideas is more fluent. Everything is more fluent. And we misinterpret these fluency cues that the brain is getting. And these are accurate cues. It is more fluent. But we misinterpret that as meaning, I’ve really got this. I’ve really learned this. I’m not going to forget this. And that’s really misleading.

So let me give you another example. It’s not just rereading. It’s situations in, say, the STEM fields or any place where you’ve got to learn how to solve certain kinds of problems. One of the standard ways that instructors present homework is to present the same kind of problem in block fashion. You may have encountered this in your own math courses, your own physics courses.

So for example, in a physics course, you might get a particular type of work problem. And the parameters on it, the numbers might change, but in your homework, you’re trying to solve two or three or four of these work problems in a row. Well, it gets more and more fluid because exactly what formula you have to use. You know exactly what the problem is about. And as you get more fluid, and as we say in the book, it looks like you’re getting better. You are getting better at these problems.

But the issue is that can you remember how to identify which kinds of problems go with which kinds of solutions a week later when you’re asked to do a test where you have all different kinds of problems? And the answer is no, you cannot when you’ve done this block practice. So even though instructors who feel like their students are doing great with block practice and students will feel like they’re doing great, they are doing great on that kind of block practice, but they’re not at all good now at retaining information about what distinguishing features or problems are signaling certain kinds of approaches.

What you want to do is interleave practice in these problems. You want to randomly have a problem of one type and then solve a problem of another type and then a problem of another type. And in doing that, it feels difficult and it doesn’t feel fluent. And the signals to your brain are, I’m not getting this. I’m not doing very well. But in fact, that effort to try to figure out what kinds of approaches do I need for each problem as I encounter a different kind of problem, that’s producing learning. That’s producing robust skills that stick with you.

So this is a seductive thing that we have to, instructors and students alike, have to understand and have to move beyond those initial judgments, I haven’t learned very much, and trust that the more difficult practice schedule really is the better learning.

And I’ve written more on this since Make It Stick . And one of my strong theoretical tenets now is that in order for students to really embrace these techniques, they have to believe that they work for them. Each student has to believe it works for them. So I prepare demonstrations to show students these techniques work for them.

The net result of adopting these strategies is that students aren’t spending more time. Instead they’re spending more effective time. They’re working better. They’re working smarter.

When students take an exam after doing lots of retrieval practice, they see how well they’ve done. The classroom becomes very exciting. There’s lots of buy-in from the students. There’s lots of energy. There’s lots of stimulation to want to do more of this retrieval practice, more of this difficulty. Because trying to retrieve information is a lot more difficult than rereading it. But it produces robust learning for a number of reasons.

I think students have to trust that these techniques, and I think they also have to observe that these techniques work for them. It’s creating better learning. And then as a learner, you are more motivated to replace these ineffective techniques with more effective techniques.

Harvard Extension: You talk about tips for learners , how to make it stick. And there are several methods or tips that you share: elaboration, generation, reflection, calibration, among others. Which of these techniques is best?

McDaniel: It depends on the learning challenges that are faced. So retrieval practice, which is practicing trying to recall information from memory is really super effective if the requirements of your course require you to reproduce factual information.

For other things, it may be that you want to try something like generating understanding, creating mental models. So if your exams require you to draw inferences and work with new kinds of problems that are illustrative of the principles, but they’re new problems you haven’t seen before, a good technique is to try to connect the information into what I would call mental models. This is your representation of how the parts and the aspects fit together, relate together.

It’s not that one technique is better than the other. It’s that different techniques produce certain kinds of outcomes. And depending on the outcome you want, you might select one technique or the other.

I really firmly believe that to the extent that you can make learning fun and to the extent that one technique really seems more fun to you, that may be your go to technique. I teach a learning strategy course and I make it very clear to students. You don’t need to use all of these techniques. Find a couple that really work for you and then put those in your toolbox and replace rereading with these techniques.

Harvard Extension: You reference lifelong learning and lifelong learners. You talk about the brain being plastic, mutability of the brain in some ways, and give examples of how some lifelong learners approach their learning.

McDaniel: In some sense, more mature learners, older learners, have an advantage because they have more knowledge. And part of learning involves relating new information that’s coming into your prior knowledge, relating it to your knowledge structures, relating it to your schemas for how you think about certain kinds of content.

And so older adults have the advantage of having this richer knowledge base with which they can try to integrate new material. So older learners shouldn’t feel that they’re at a definitive disadvantage, because they’re not. Older learners really want to try to leverage their prior knowledge and use that as a basis to structure and frame and understand new information coming in.

Our challenges as older learners is that we do have these habits of learning that are not very effective. We turn to these habits. And if these aren’t such effective habits, we maybe attribute our failures to learn to age or a lack of native ability or so on and so forth. And in fact, that’s not it at all. In fact, if you adopt more effective strategies at any age, you’re going to find that your learning is more robust, it’s more successful, it falls into place.

You can learn these strategies at any age. Successful lifelong learning is getting these effective strategies in place, trusting them, and having them become a habit for how you’re going to approach your learning challenges.

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Designing Assessments of Student Learning

Image Hollie Nyseth Brehm, ​​​​​Associate Professor, Department of Sociology  Professor Hollie Nyseth Brehm was a graduate student the first time she taught a class, “I didn’t have any training on how to teach, so I assigned a final paper and gave them instructions: ‘Turn it in at the end of course.’ That was sort of it.” Brehm didn’t have a rubric or a process to check in with students along the way. Needless to say, the assignment didn’t lead to any major breakthroughs for her students. But it was a learning experience for Brehm. As she grew her teaching skills, she began to carefully craft assignments to align to course goals, make tasks realistic and meaningful, and break down large assignments into manageable steps. "Now I always have rubrics. … I always scaffold the assignment such that they’ll start by giving me their paper topic and a couple of sources and then turn in a smaller portion of it, and we write it in pieces. And that leads to a much better learning experience for them—and also for me, frankly, when I turn to grade it .”

Reflect  

Have you ever planned a big assignment that didn’t turn out as you’d hoped? What did you learn, and how would you design that assignment differently now? 

What are students learning in your class? Are they meeting your learning outcomes? You simply cannot answer these questions without assessment of some kind.

As educators, we measure student learning through many means, including assignments, quizzes, and tests. These assessments can be formal or informal, graded or ungraded. But assessment is not simply about awarding points and assigning grades. Learning is a process, not a product, and that process takes place during activities such as recall and practice. Assessing skills in varied ways helps you adjust your teaching throughout your course to support student learning

Research tells us that our methods of assessment don’t only measure how much students have learned. They also play an important role in the learning process. A phenomenon known as the “testing effect” suggests students learn more from repeated testing than from repeated exposure to the material they are trying to learn (Karpicke & Roediger, 2008). While exposure to material, such as during lecture or study, helps students store new information, it’s crucial that students actively practice retrieving that information and putting it to use. Frequent assessment throughout a course provides students with the practice opportunities that are essential to learning.

In addition we can’t assume students can transfer what they have practiced in one context to a different context. Successful transfer of learning requires understanding of deep, structural features and patterns that novices to a subject are still developing (Barnett & Ceci, 2002; Bransford & Schwartz, 1999). If we want students to be able to apply their learning in a wide variety of contexts, they must practice what they’re learning in a wide variety of contexts .

Providing a variety of assessment types gives students multiple opportunities to practice and demonstrate learning. One way to categorize the range of assessment options is as formative or summative.

Formative and Summative Assessment

Opportunities not simply to practice, but to receive feedback on that practice, are crucial to learning (Ambrose et al., 2010). Formative assessment facilitates student learning by providing frequent low-stakes practice coupled with immediate and focused feedback. Whether graded or ungraded, formative assessment helps you monitor student progress and guide students to understand which outcomes they’ve mastered, which they need to focus on, and what strategies can support their learning. Formative assessment also informs how you modify your teaching to better meet student needs throughout your course.

Technology Tip

Design quizzes in CarmenCanvas to provide immediate and useful feedback to students based on their answers. Learn more about setting up quizzes in Carmen. 

Summative assessment measures student learning by comparing it to a standard. Usually these types of assessments evaluate a range of skills or overall performance at the end of a unit, module, or course. Unlike formative assessment, they tend to focus more on product than process. These high-stakes experiences are typically graded and should be less frequent (Ambrose et al., 2010).

Using Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a common framework for thinking about how students can demonstrate their learning on assessments, as well as for articulating course and lesson learning outcomes .

Benjamin Bloom (alongside collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl) published Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in 1956.   The taxonomy provided a system for categorizing educational goals with the intent of aiding educators with assessment. Commonly known as Bloom’s Taxonomy, the framework has been widely used to guide and define instruction in both K-12 and university settings. The original taxonomy from 1956 included a cognitive domain made up of six categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. The categories after Knowledge were presented as “skills and abilities,” with the understanding that knowledge was the necessary precondition for putting these skills and abilities into practice. 

A revised Bloom's Taxonomy from 2001 updated these six categories to reflect how learners interact with knowledge. In the revised version, students can:  Remember content, Understand ideas, Apply information to new situations, Analyze relationships between ideas, Evaluate information to justify perspectives or decisions, and Create new ideas or original work. In the graphic pictured here, the categories from the revised taxonomy are imagined as the layers of a cake.

Assessing students on a variety of Bloom's categories will give you a better sense of how well they understand your course content. The taxonomy can be a helpful guide to predicting which tasks will be most difficult for students so you can provide extra support where it is needed. It can also be used to craft more transparent assignments and test questions by honing in on the specific skills you want to assess and finding the right language to communicate exactly what you want students to do.  See the Sample Bloom's Verbs in the Examples section below.

Diving deeper into Bloom's Taxonomy

Like most aspects of our lives, activities and assessments in today’s classroom are inextricably linked with technology. In 2008, Andrew Churches extended Bloom’s Taxonomy to address the emerging changes in learning behaviors and opportunities as “technology advances and becomes more ubiquitous.” Consult Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy for ideas on using digital tools to facilitate and assess learning across the six categories of learning.

Did you know that the cognitive domain (commonly referred to simply as Bloom's Taxonomy) was only one of three domains in the original Bloom's Taxonomy (1956)? While it is certainly the most well-known and widely used, the other two domains— psychomotor and affective —may be of interest to some educators. The psychomotor domain relates to physical movement, coordination, and motor skills—it might apply to the performing arts or other courses that involve movement, manipulation of objects, and non-discursive communication like body language. The affective domain pertains to feelings, values, motivations, and attitudes and is used more often in disciplines like medicine, social work, and education, where emotions and values are integral aspects of learning. Explore the full taxonomy in  Three Domains of Learning: Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor (Hoque, 2017).

In Practice

Consider the following to make your assessments of student learning effective and meaningful.

Align assignments, quizzes, and tests closely to learning outcomes.

It goes without saying that you want students to achieve the learning outcomes for your course. The testing effect implies, then, that your assessments must help them retrieve the knowledge and practice the skills that are relevant to those outcomes.

Plan assessments that measure specific outcomes for your course. Instead of choosing quizzes and tests that are easy to grade or assignment types common to your discipline, carefully consider what assessments will best help students practice important skills. When assignments and feedback are aligned to learning outcomes, and you share this alignment with students, they have a greater appreciation for your course and develop more effective strategies for study and practice targeted at achieving those outcomes (Wang, et al., 2013).

Provide authentic learning experiences.

Consider how far removed from “the real world” traditional assessments like academic essays, standard textbook problems, and multiple-choice exams feel to students. In contrast, assignments that are authentic resemble real-world tasks. They feel relevant and purposeful, which can increase student motivation and engagement (Fink, 2013). Authentic assignments also help you assess whether students will be able to transfer what they learn into realistic contexts beyond your course.

Integrate assessment opportunities that prepare students to be effective and successful once they graduate, whether as professionals, as global citizens, or in their personal lives.

To design authentic assignments:

• Choose real-world content . If you want students to be able to apply disciplinary methods, frameworks, and terminology to solve real-world problems after your course, you must have them engage with real-world examples, procedures, and tools during your course. Include actual case studies, documents, data sets, and problems from your field in your assessments.
• Target a real-world audience . Ask students to direct their work to a tangible reader, listener or viewer, rather than to you. For example, they could write a blog for their peers or create a presentation for a future employer.
• Use real-world formats . Have students develop content in formats used in professional or real-life discourse. For example, instead of a conventional paper, students could write an email to a colleague or a letter to a government official, develop a project proposal or product pitch for a community-based company, post a how-to video on YouTube, or create an infographic to share on social media.

Simulations, role plays, case studies, portfolios, project-based learning, and service learning are all great avenues to bring authentic assessment into your course.

Make sure assignments are achievable.

Your students juggle coursework from several classes, so it’s important to be conscious of workload. Assign tasks they can realistically handle at a given point in the term. If it takes you three hours to do something, it will likely take your students six hours or more. Choose assignments that assess multiple learning outcomes from your course to keep your grading manageable and your feedback useful (Rayner et al., 2016).

Scaffold assignments so students can develop knowledge and skills over time.

For large assignments, use scaffolding to integrate multiple opportunities for feedback, reflection, and improvement. Scaffolding means breaking a complex assignment down into component parts or smaller progressive tasks over time. Practicing these smaller tasks individually before attempting to integrate them into a completed assignment supports student learning by reducing the amount of information they need to process at a given time (Salden et al., 2006).

Scaffolding ensures students will start earlier and spend more time on big assignments. And it provides you more opportunities to give feedback and guidance to support their ultimate success. Additionally, scaffolding can draw students’ attention to important steps in a process that are often overlooked, such as planning and revision, leading them to be more independent and thoughtful about future work.

A familiar example of scaffolding is a research paper. You might ask students to submit a topic or thesis in Week 3 of the semester, an annotated bibliography of sources in Week 6, a detailed outline in Week 9, a first draft on which they can get peer feedback in Week 11, and the final draft in the last week of the semester.

Your course journey is decided in part by how you sequence assignments. Consider where students are in their learning and place assignments at strategic points throughout the term. Scaffold across the course journey by explaining how each assignment builds upon the learning achieved in previous ones (Walvoord & Anderson, 2011). 

Be transparent about assignment instructions and expectations. 

Communicate clearly to students about the purpose of each assignment, the process for completing the task, and the criteria you will use to evaluate it before they begin the work. Studies have shown that transparent assignments support students to meet learning goals and result in especially large increases in success and confidence for underserved students (Winkelmes et al., 2016).

To increase assignment transparency:

• Explain how the assignment links to one or more course learning outcomes . Understanding why the assignment matters and how it supports their learning can increase student motivation and investment in the work.
• Outline steps of the task in the assignment prompt . Clear directions help students structure their time and effort. This is also a chance to call out disciplinary standards with which students are not yet familiar or guide them to focus on steps of the process they often neglect, such as initial research.
• Provide a rubric with straightforward evaluation criteria . Rubrics make transparent which parts of an assignment you care most about. Sharing clear criteria sets students up for success by giving them the tools to self-evaluate and revise their work before submitting it. Be sure to explain your rubric, and particularly to unpack new or vague terms; for example, language like "argue," “close reading,” "list significant findings," and "document" can mean different things in different disciplines. It is helpful to show exemplars and non-exemplars along with your rubric to highlight differences in unacceptable, acceptable, and exceptional work.

Engage students in reflection or discussion to increase assignment transparency. Have them consider how the assessed outcomes connect to their personal lives or future careers. In-class activities that ask them to grade sample assignments and discuss the criteria they used, compare exemplars and non-exemplars, engage in self- or peer-evaluation, or complete steps of the assignment when you are present to give feedback can all support student success.

Technology Tip   

Enter all  assignments and due dates  in your Carmen course to increase transparency. When assignments are entered in Carmen, they also populate to Calendar, Syllabus, and Grades areas so students can easily track their upcoming work. Carmen also allows you to  develop rubrics  for every assignment in your course. 

Sample Bloom’s Verbs

Building a question bank, using the transparent assignment template, sample assignment: ai-generated lesson plan.

Include frequent low-stakes assignments and assessments throughout your course to provide the opportunities for practice and feedback that are essential to learning. Consider a variety of formative and summative assessment types so students can demonstrate learning in multiple ways. Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to determine—and communicate—the specific skills you want to assess.

Remember that effective assessments of student learning are:

• Aligned to course learning outcomes
• Authentic, or resembling real-world tasks
• Achievable and realistic
• Scaffolded so students can develop knowledge and skills over time
• Transparent in purpose, tasks, and criteria for evaluation
• Collaborative learning techniques: A handbook for college faculty (book)
• Cheating Lessons (book)
• Minds online: Teaching effectively with technology (book)
• Assessment: The Silent Killer of Learning (video)
• TILT Higher Ed Examples and Resource (website)
• Writing to Learn: Critical Thinking Activities for Any Classroom (guide)

Ambrose, S.A., Bridges, M.W., Lovett, M.C., DiPietro, M., & Norman, M.K. (2010).  How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching . John Wiley & Sons. 

Barnett, S.M., & Ceci, S.J. (2002). When and where do we apply what we learn? A taxonomy for far transfer.  Psychological Bulletin , 128 (4). 612–637.  doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.128.4.612  

Bransford, J.D, & Schwartz, D.L. (1999). Rethinking transfer: A simple proposal with multiple implications.  Review of Research in Education , 24 . 61–100.  doi.org/10.3102/0091732X024001061  

Fink, L. D. (2013).  Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses . John Wiley & Sons. 

Karpicke, J.D., & Roediger, H.L., III. (2008). The critical importance of retrieval for learning.  Science ,  319 . 966–968.  doi.org/10.1126/science.1152408  

Rayner, K., Schotter, E. R., Masson, M. E., Potter, M. C., & Treiman, R. (2016). So much to read, so little time: How do we read, and can speed reading help?.  Psychological Science in the Public Interest ,  17 (1), 4-34.  doi.org/10.1177/1529100615623267     

Salden, R.J.C.M., Paas, F., van Merriënboer, J.J.G. (2006). A comparison of approaches to learning task selection in the training of complex cognitive skills.  Computers in Human Behavior , 22 (3). 321–333.  doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2004.06.003  

Walvoord, B. E., & Anderson, V. J. (2010).  Effective grading: A tool for learning and assessment in college . John Wiley & Sons. 

Wang, X., Su, Y., Cheung, S., Wong, E., & Kwong, T. (2013). An exploration of Biggs’ constructive alignment in course design and its impact on students’ learning approaches.  Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education , 38 (4). 477–491.  doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2004.06.003  

Winkelmes, M., Bernacki, M., Butler, J., Zochowski, M., Golanics, J., & Weavil, K.H. (2016). A teaching intervention that increases underserved college students’ success.  Peer Review , 18 (1/2). 31–36. Retrieved from  https://www.aacu.org/peerreview/2016/winter-spring/Winkelmes

Related Teaching Topics

A positive approach to academic integrity, creating and adapting assignments for online courses, ai teaching strategies: transparent assignment design, designing research or inquiry-based assignments, using backward design to plan your course, universal design for learning: planning with all students in mind, search for resources.

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How Do I Create Meaningful and Effective Assignments?

Prepared by allison boye, ph.d. teaching, learning, and professional development center.

Assessment is a necessary part of the teaching and learning process, helping us measure whether our students have really learned what we want them to learn. While exams and quizzes are certainly favorite and useful methods of assessment, out of class assignments (written or otherwise) can offer similar insights into our students' learning.  And just as creating a reliable test takes thoughtfulness and skill, so does creating meaningful and effective assignments. Undoubtedly, many instructors have been on the receiving end of disappointing student work, left wondering what went wrong… and often, those problems can be remedied in the future by some simple fine-tuning of the original assignment.  This paper will take a look at some important elements to consider when developing assignments, and offer some easy approaches to creating a valuable assessment experience for all involved.

First Things First…

Before assigning any major tasks to students, it is imperative that you first define a few things for yourself as the instructor:

• Your goals for the assignment . Why are you assigning this project, and what do you hope your students will gain from completing it? What knowledge, skills, and abilities do you aim to measure with this assignment?  Creating assignments is a major part of overall course design, and every project you assign should clearly align with your goals for the course in general.  For instance, if you want your students to demonstrate critical thinking, perhaps asking them to simply summarize an article is not the best match for that goal; a more appropriate option might be to ask for an analysis of a controversial issue in the discipline. Ultimately, the connection between the assignment and its purpose should be clear to both you and your students to ensure that it is fulfilling the desired goals and doesn't seem like “busy work.” For some ideas about what kinds of assignments match certain learning goals, take a look at this page from DePaul University's Teaching Commons.
• Have they experienced “socialization” in the culture of your discipline (Flaxman, 2005)? Are they familiar with any conventions you might want them to know? In other words, do they know the “language” of your discipline, generally accepted style guidelines, or research protocols?
• Do they know how to conduct research?  Do they know the proper style format, documentation style, acceptable resources, etc.? Do they know how to use the library (Fitzpatrick, 1989) or evaluate resources?
• What kinds of writing or work have they previously engaged in?  For instance, have they completed long, formal writing assignments or research projects before? Have they ever engaged in analysis, reflection, or argumentation? Have they completed group assignments before?  Do they know how to write a literature review or scientific report?

In his book Engaging Ideas (1996), John Bean provides a great list of questions to help instructors focus on their main teaching goals when creating an assignment (p.78):

1. What are the main units/modules in my course?

2. What are my main learning objectives for each module and for the course?

3. What thinking skills am I trying to develop within each unit and throughout the course?

4. What are the most difficult aspects of my course for students?

5. If I could change my students' study habits, what would I most like to change?

6. What difference do I want my course to make in my students' lives?

What your students need to know

Once you have determined your own goals for the assignment and the levels of your students, you can begin creating your assignment.  However, when introducing your assignment to your students, there are several things you will need to clearly outline for them in order to ensure the most successful assignments possible.

• First, you will need to articulate the purpose of the assignment . Even though you know why the assignment is important and what it is meant to accomplish, you cannot assume that your students will intuit that purpose. Your students will appreciate an understanding of how the assignment fits into the larger goals of the course and what they will learn from the process (Hass & Osborn, 2007). Being transparent with your students and explaining why you are asking them to complete a given assignment can ultimately help motivate them to complete the assignment more thoughtfully.
• If you are asking your students to complete a writing assignment, you should define for them the “rhetorical or cognitive mode/s” you want them to employ in their writing (Flaxman, 2005). In other words, use precise verbs that communicate whether you are asking them to analyze, argue, describe, inform, etc.  (Verbs like “explore” or “comment on” can be too vague and cause confusion.) Provide them with a specific task to complete, such as a problem to solve, a question to answer, or an argument to support.  For those who want assignments to lead to top-down, thesis-driven writing, John Bean (1996) suggests presenting a proposition that students must defend or refute, or a problem that demands a thesis answer.
• It is also a good idea to define the audience you want your students to address with their assignment, if possible – especially with writing assignments.  Otherwise, students will address only the instructor, often assuming little requires explanation or development (Hedengren, 2004; MIT, 1999). Further, asking students to address the instructor, who typically knows more about the topic than the student, places the student in an unnatural rhetorical position.  Instead, you might consider asking your students to prepare their assignments for alternative audiences such as other students who missed last week's classes, a group that opposes their position, or people reading a popular magazine or newspaper.  In fact, a study by Bean (1996) indicated the students often appreciate and enjoy assignments that vary elements such as audience or rhetorical context, so don't be afraid to get creative!
• Obviously, you will also need to articulate clearly the logistics or “business aspects” of the assignment . In other words, be explicit with your students about required elements such as the format, length, documentation style, writing style (formal or informal?), and deadlines.  One caveat, however: do not allow the logistics of the paper take precedence over the content in your assignment description; if you spend all of your time describing these things, students might suspect that is all you care about in their execution of the assignment.
• Finally, you should clarify your evaluation criteria for the assignment. What elements of content are most important? Will you grade holistically or weight features separately? How much weight will be given to individual elements, etc?  Another precaution to take when defining requirements for your students is to take care that your instructions and rubric also do not overshadow the content; prescribing too rigidly each element of an assignment can limit students' freedom to explore and discover. According to Beth Finch Hedengren, “A good assignment provides the purpose and guidelines… without dictating exactly what to say” (2004, p. 27).  If you decide to utilize a grading rubric, be sure to provide that to the students along with the assignment description, prior to their completion of the assignment.

A great way to get students engaged with an assignment and build buy-in is to encourage their collaboration on its design and/or on the grading criteria (Hudd, 2003). In his article “Conducting Writing Assignments,” Richard Leahy (2002) offers a few ideas for building in said collaboration:

• Ask the students to develop the grading scale themselves from scratch, starting with choosing the categories.

• Set the grading categories yourself, but ask the students to help write the descriptions.

• Draft the complete grading scale yourself, then give it to your students for review and suggestions.

A Few Do's and Don'ts…

Determining your goals for the assignment and its essential logistics is a good start to creating an effective assignment. However, there are a few more simple factors to consider in your final design. First, here are a few things you should do :

• Do provide detail in your assignment description . Research has shown that students frequently prefer some guiding constraints when completing assignments (Bean, 1996), and that more detail (within reason) can lead to more successful student responses.  One idea is to provide students with physical assignment handouts , in addition to or instead of a simple description in a syllabus.  This can meet the needs of concrete learners and give them something tangible to refer to.  Likewise, it is often beneficial to make explicit for students the process or steps necessary to complete an assignment, given that students – especially younger ones – might need guidance in planning and time management (MIT, 1999).
• Do use open-ended questions.  The most effective and challenging assignments focus on questions that lead students to thinking and explaining, rather than simple yes or no answers, whether explicitly part of the assignment description or in the  brainstorming heuristics (Gardner, 2005).
• Do direct students to appropriate available resources . Giving students pointers about other venues for assistance can help them get started on the right track independently. These kinds of suggestions might include information about campus resources such as the University Writing Center or discipline-specific librarians, suggesting specific journals or books, or even sections of their textbook, or providing them with lists of research ideas or links to acceptable websites.
• Do consider providing models – both successful and unsuccessful models (Miller, 2007). These models could be provided by past students, or models you have created yourself.  You could even ask students to evaluate the models themselves using the determined evaluation criteria, helping them to visualize the final product, think critically about how to complete the assignment, and ideally, recognize success in their own work.
• Do consider including a way for students to make the assignment their own. In their study, Hass and Osborn (2007) confirmed the importance of personal engagement for students when completing an assignment.  Indeed, students will be more engaged in an assignment if it is personally meaningful, practical, or purposeful beyond the classroom.  You might think of ways to encourage students to tap into their own experiences or curiosities, to solve or explore a real problem, or connect to the larger community.  Offering variety in assignment selection can also help students feel more individualized, creative, and in control.
• If your assignment is substantial or long, do consider sequencing it. Far too often, assignments are given as one-shot final products that receive grades at the end of the semester, eternally abandoned by the student.  By sequencing a large assignment, or essentially breaking it down into a systematic approach consisting of interconnected smaller elements (such as a project proposal, an annotated bibliography, or a rough draft, or a series of mini-assignments related to the longer assignment), you can encourage thoughtfulness, complexity, and thoroughness in your students, as well as emphasize process over final product.

Next are a few elements to avoid in your assignments:

• Do not ask too many questions in your assignment.  In an effort to challenge students, instructors often err in the other direction, asking more questions than students can reasonably address in a single assignment without losing focus. Offering an overly specific “checklist” prompt often leads to externally organized papers, in which inexperienced students “slavishly follow the checklist instead of integrating their ideas into more organically-discovered structure” (Flaxman, 2005).
• Do not expect or suggest that there is an “ideal” response to the assignment. A common error for instructors is to dictate content of an assignment too rigidly, or to imply that there is a single correct response or a specific conclusion to reach, either explicitly or implicitly (Flaxman, 2005). Undoubtedly, students do not appreciate feeling as if they must read an instructor's mind to complete an assignment successfully, or that their own ideas have nowhere to go, and can lose motivation as a result. Similarly, avoid assignments that simply ask for regurgitation (Miller, 2007). Again, the best assignments invite students to engage in critical thinking, not just reproduce lectures or readings.
• Do not provide vague or confusing commands . Do students know what you mean when they are asked to “examine” or “discuss” a topic? Return to what you determined about your students' experiences and levels to help you decide what directions will make the most sense to them and what will require more explanation or guidance, and avoid verbiage that might confound them.
• Do not impose impossible time restraints or require the use of insufficient resources for completion of the assignment.  For instance, if you are asking all of your students to use the same resource, ensure that there are enough copies available for all students to access – or at least put one copy on reserve in the library. Likewise, make sure that you are providing your students with ample time to locate resources and effectively complete the assignment (Fitzpatrick, 1989).

The assignments we give to students don't simply have to be research papers or reports. There are many options for effective yet creative ways to assess your students' learning! Here are just a few:

Journals, Posters, Portfolios, Letters, Brochures, Management plans, Editorials, Instruction Manuals, Imitations of a text, Case studies, Debates, News release, Dialogues, Videos, Collages, Plays, Power Point presentations

Ultimately, the success of student responses to an assignment often rests on the instructor's deliberate design of the assignment. By being purposeful and thoughtful from the beginning, you can ensure that your assignments will not only serve as effective assessment methods, but also engage and delight your students. If you would like further help in constructing or revising an assignment, the Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center is glad to offer individual consultations. In addition, look into some of the resources provided below.

Online Resources

“Creating Effective Assignments” http://www.unh.edu/teaching-excellence/resources/Assignments.htm This site, from the University of New Hampshire's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning,  provides a brief overview of effective assignment design, with a focus on determining and communicating goals and expectations.

Gardner, T.  (2005, June 12). Ten Tips for Designing Writing Assignments. Traci's Lists of Ten. http://www.tengrrl.com/tens/034.shtml This is a brief yet useful list of tips for assignment design, prepared by a writing teacher and curriculum developer for the National Council of Teachers of English .  The website will also link you to several other lists of “ten tips” related to literacy pedagogy.

“How to Create Effective Assignments for College Students.”  http:// tilt.colostate.edu/retreat/2011/zimmerman.pdf     This PDF is a simplified bulleted list, prepared by Dr. Toni Zimmerman from Colorado State University, offering some helpful ideas for coming up with creative assignments.

“Learner-Centered Assessment” http://cte.uwaterloo.ca/teaching_resources/tips/learner_centered_assessment.html From the Centre for Teaching Excellence at the University of Waterloo, this is a short list of suggestions for the process of designing an assessment with your students' interests in mind. “Matching Learning Goals to Assignment Types.” http://teachingcommons.depaul.edu/How_to/design_assignments/assignments_learning_goals.html This is a great page from DePaul University's Teaching Commons, providing a chart that helps instructors match assignments with learning goals.

Additional References Bean, J.C. (1996). Engaging ideas: The professor's guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Fitzpatrick, R. (1989). Research and writing assignments that reduce fear lead to better papers and more confident students. Writing Across the Curriculum , 3.2, pp. 15 – 24.

Flaxman, R. (2005). Creating meaningful writing assignments. The Teaching Exchange .  Retrieved Jan. 9, 2008 from http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Sheridan_Center/pubs/teachingExchange/jan2005/01_flaxman.pdf

Hass, M. & Osborn, J. (2007, August 13). An emic view of student writing and the writing process. Across the Disciplines, 4. 

Hedengren, B.F. (2004). A TA's guide to teaching writing in all disciplines . Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Hudd, S. S. (2003, April). Syllabus under construction: Involving students in the creation of class assignments.  Teaching Sociology , 31, pp. 195 – 202.

Leahy, R. (2002). Conducting writing assignments. College Teaching , 50.2, pp. 50 – 54.

Miller, H. (2007). Designing effective writing assignments.  Teaching with writing .  University of Minnesota Center for Writing. Retrieved Jan. 9, 2008, from http://writing.umn.edu/tww/assignments/designing.html

MIT Online Writing and Communication Center (1999). Creating Writing Assignments. Retrieved January 9, 2008 from http://web.mit.edu/writing/Faculty/createeffective.html .

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Studying 101: Study Smarter Not Harder

Do you ever feel like your study habits simply aren’t cutting it? Do you wonder what you could be doing to perform better in class and on exams? Many students realize that their high school study habits aren’t very effective in college. This is understandable, as college is quite different from high school. The professors are less personally involved, classes are bigger, exams are worth more, reading is more intense, and classes are much more rigorous. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you; it just means you need to learn some more effective study skills. Fortunately, there are many active, effective study strategies that are shown to be effective in college classes.

This handout offers several tips on effective studying. Implementing these tips into your regular study routine will help you to efficiently and effectively learn course material. Experiment with them and find some that work for you.

Reading is not studying

Simply reading and re-reading texts or notes is not actively engaging in the material. It is simply re-reading your notes. Only ‘doing’ the readings for class is not studying. It is simply doing the reading for class. Re-reading leads to quick forgetting.

Think of reading as an important part of pre-studying, but learning information requires actively engaging in the material (Edwards, 2014). Active engagement is the process of constructing meaning from text that involves making connections to lectures, forming examples, and regulating your own learning (Davis, 2007). Active studying does not mean highlighting or underlining text, re-reading, or rote memorization. Though these activities may help to keep you engaged in the task, they are not considered active studying techniques and are weakly related to improved learning (Mackenzie, 1994).

Ideas for active studying include:

• Create a study guide by topic. Formulate questions and problems and write complete answers. Create your own quiz.
• Become a teacher. Say the information aloud in your own words as if you are the instructor and teaching the concepts to a class.
• Derive examples that relate to your own experiences.
• Create concept maps or diagrams that explain the material.
• Develop symbols that represent concepts.
• For non-technical classes (e.g., English, History, Psychology), figure out the big ideas so you can explain, contrast, and re-evaluate them.
• For technical classes, work the problems and explain the steps and why they work.
• Study in terms of question, evidence, and conclusion: What is the question posed by the instructor/author? What is the evidence that they present? What is the conclusion?

Organization and planning will help you to actively study for your courses. When studying for a test, organize your materials first and then begin your active reviewing by topic (Newport, 2007). Often professors provide subtopics on the syllabi. Use them as a guide to help organize your materials. For example, gather all of the materials for one topic (e.g., PowerPoint notes, text book notes, articles, homework, etc.) and put them together in a pile. Label each pile with the topic and study by topics.

For more information on the principle behind active studying, check out our tipsheet on metacognition .

Understand the Study Cycle

The Study Cycle , developed by Frank Christ, breaks down the different parts of studying: previewing, attending class, reviewing, studying, and checking your understanding. Although each step may seem obvious at a glance, all too often students try to take shortcuts and miss opportunities for good learning. For example, you may skip a reading before class because the professor covers the same material in class; doing so misses a key opportunity to learn in different modes (reading and listening) and to benefit from the repetition and distributed practice (see #3 below) that you’ll get from both reading ahead and attending class. Understanding the importance of all stages of this cycle will help make sure you don’t miss opportunities to learn effectively.

Spacing out is good

One of the most impactful learning strategies is “distributed practice”—spacing out your studying over several short periods of time over several days and weeks (Newport, 2007). The most effective practice is to work a short time on each class every day. The total amount of time spent studying will be the same (or less) than one or two marathon library sessions, but you will learn the information more deeply and retain much more for the long term—which will help get you an A on the final. The important thing is how you use your study time, not how long you study. Long study sessions lead to a lack of concentration and thus a lack of learning and retention.

In order to spread out studying over short periods of time across several days and weeks, you need control over your schedule . Keeping a list of tasks to complete on a daily basis will help you to include regular active studying sessions for each class. Try to do something for each class each day. Be specific and realistic regarding how long you plan to spend on each task—you should not have more tasks on your list than you can reasonably complete during the day.

For example, you may do a few problems per day in math rather than all of them the hour before class. In history, you can spend 15-20 minutes each day actively studying your class notes. Thus, your studying time may still be the same length, but rather than only preparing for one class, you will be preparing for all of your classes in short stretches. This will help focus, stay on top of your work, and retain information.

In addition to learning the material more deeply, spacing out your work helps stave off procrastination. Rather than having to face the dreaded project for four hours on Monday, you can face the dreaded project for 30 minutes each day. The shorter, more consistent time to work on a dreaded project is likely to be more acceptable and less likely to be delayed to the last minute. Finally, if you have to memorize material for class (names, dates, formulas), it is best to make flashcards for this material and review periodically throughout the day rather than one long, memorization session (Wissman and Rawson, 2012). See our handout on memorization strategies to learn more.

It’s good to be intense

Not all studying is equal. You will accomplish more if you study intensively. Intensive study sessions are short and will allow you to get work done with minimal wasted effort. Shorter, intensive study times are more effective than drawn out studying.

In fact, one of the most impactful study strategies is distributing studying over multiple sessions (Newport, 2007). Intensive study sessions can last 30 or 45-minute sessions and include active studying strategies. For example, self-testing is an active study strategy that improves the intensity of studying and efficiency of learning. However, planning to spend hours on end self-testing is likely to cause you to become distracted and lose your attention.

On the other hand, if you plan to quiz yourself on the course material for 45 minutes and then take a break, you are much more likely to maintain your attention and retain the information. Furthermore, the shorter, more intense sessions will likely put the pressure on that is needed to prevent procrastination.

Silence isn’t golden

Know where you study best. The silence of a library may not be the best place for you. It’s important to consider what noise environment works best for you. You might find that you concentrate better with some background noise. Some people find that listening to classical music while studying helps them concentrate, while others find this highly distracting. The point is that the silence of the library may be just as distracting (or more) than the noise of a gymnasium. Thus, if silence is distracting, but you prefer to study in the library, try the first or second floors where there is more background ‘buzz.’

Keep in mind that active studying is rarely silent as it often requires saying the material aloud.

Problems are your friend

Working and re-working problems is important for technical courses (e.g., math, economics). Be able to explain the steps of the problems and why they work.

In technical courses, it is usually more important to work problems than read the text (Newport, 2007). In class, write down in detail the practice problems demonstrated by the professor. Annotate each step and ask questions if you are confused. At the very least, record the question and the answer (even if you miss the steps).

When preparing for tests, put together a large list of problems from the course materials and lectures. Work the problems and explain the steps and why they work (Carrier, 2003).

Reconsider multitasking

A significant amount of research indicates that multi-tasking does not improve efficiency and actually negatively affects results (Junco, 2012).

In order to study smarter, not harder, you will need to eliminate distractions during your study sessions. Social media, web browsing, game playing, texting, etc. will severely affect the intensity of your study sessions if you allow them! Research is clear that multi-tasking (e.g., responding to texts, while studying), increases the amount of time needed to learn material and decreases the quality of the learning (Junco, 2012).

Eliminating the distractions will allow you to fully engage during your study sessions. If you don’t need your computer for homework, then don’t use it. Use apps to help you set limits on the amount of time you can spend at certain sites during the day. Turn your phone off. Reward intensive studying with a social-media break (but make sure you time your break!) See our handout on managing technology for more tips and strategies.

Switch up your setting

Find several places to study in and around campus and change up your space if you find that it is no longer a working space for you.

Know when and where you study best. It may be that your focus at 10:00 PM. is not as sharp as at 10:00 AM. Perhaps you are more productive at a coffee shop with background noise, or in the study lounge in your residence hall. Perhaps when you study on your bed, you fall asleep.

Have a variety of places in and around campus that are good study environments for you. That way wherever you are, you can find your perfect study spot. After a while, you might find that your spot is too comfortable and no longer is a good place to study, so it’s time to hop to a new spot!

Become a teacher

Try to explain the material in your own words, as if you are the teacher. You can do this in a study group, with a study partner, or on your own. Saying the material aloud will point out where you are confused and need more information and will help you retain the information. As you are explaining the material, use examples and make connections between concepts (just as a teacher does). It is okay (even encouraged) to do this with your notes in your hands. At first you may need to rely on your notes to explain the material, but eventually you’ll be able to teach it without your notes.

Creating a quiz for yourself will help you to think like your professor. What does your professor want you to know? Quizzing yourself is a highly effective study technique. Make a study guide and carry it with you so you can review the questions and answers periodically throughout the day and across several days. Identify the questions that you don’t know and quiz yourself on only those questions. Say your answers aloud. This will help you to retain the information and make corrections where they are needed. For technical courses, do the sample problems and explain how you got from the question to the answer. Re-do the problems that give you trouble. Learning the material in this way actively engages your brain and will significantly improve your memory (Craik, 1975).

Take control of your calendar

Controlling your schedule and your distractions will help you to accomplish your goals.

If you are in control of your calendar, you will be able to complete your assignments and stay on top of your coursework. The following are steps to getting control of your calendar:

• On the same day each week, (perhaps Sunday nights or Saturday mornings) plan out your schedule for the week.
• Go through each class and write down what you’d like to get completed for each class that week.
• Look at your calendar and determine how many hours you have to complete your work.
• Determine whether your list can be completed in the amount of time that you have available. (You may want to put the amount of time expected to complete each assignment.) Make adjustments as needed. For example, if you find that it will take more hours to complete your work than you have available, you will likely need to triage your readings. Completing all of the readings is a luxury. You will need to make decisions about your readings based on what is covered in class. You should read and take notes on all of the assignments from the favored class source (the one that is used a lot in the class). This may be the textbook or a reading that directly addresses the topic for the day. You can likely skim supplemental readings.
• Pencil into your calendar when you plan to get assignments completed.
• Before going to bed each night, make your plan for the next day. Waking up with a plan will make you more productive.

See our handout on calendars and college for more tips on using calendars as time management.

Use downtime to your advantage

Beware of ‘easy’ weeks. This is the calm before the storm. Lighter work weeks are a great time to get ahead on work or to start long projects. Use the extra hours to get ahead on assignments or start big projects or papers. You should plan to work on every class every week even if you don’t have anything due. In fact, it is preferable to do some work for each of your classes every day. Spending 30 minutes per class each day will add up to three hours per week, but spreading this time out over six days is more effective than cramming it all in during one long three-hour session. If you have completed all of the work for a particular class, then use the 30 minutes to get ahead or start a longer project.

Use all your resources

Remember that you can make an appointment with an academic coach to work on implementing any of the strategies suggested in this handout.

Works consulted

Carrier, L. M. (2003). College students’ choices of study strategies. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 96 (1), 54-56.

Craik, F. I., & Tulving, E. (1975). Depth of processing and the retention of words in episodic memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 104 (3), 268.

Davis, S. G., & Gray, E. S. (2007). Going beyond test-taking strategies: Building self-regulated students and teachers. Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, 1 (1), 31-47.

Edwards, A. J., Weinstein, C. E., Goetz, E. T., & Alexander, P. A. (2014). Learning and study strategies: Issues in assessment, instruction, and evaluation. Elsevier.

Junco, R., & Cotten, S. R. (2012). No A 4 U: The relationship between multitasking and academic performance. Computers & Education, 59 (2), 505-514.

Mackenzie, A. M. (1994). Examination preparation, anxiety and examination performance in a group of adult students. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 13 (5), 373-388.

McGuire, S.Y. & McGuire, S. (2016). Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate in Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation. Stylus Publishing, LLC.

Newport, C. (2006). How to become a straight-a student: the unconventional strategies real college students use to score high while studying less. Three Rivers Press.

Paul, K. (1996). Study smarter, not harder. Self Counsel Press.

Robinson, A. (1993). What smart students know: maximum grades, optimum learning, minimum time. Crown trade paperbacks.

Wissman, K. T., Rawson, K. A., & Pyc, M. A. (2012). How and when do students use flashcards? Memory, 20, 568-579.

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7 types of learning styles and how you can to teach them

We all absorb and retain information in different ways. Some people learn faster and more efficiently when content includes visuals like charts, photos, or videos. Others prefer to read and write to retain information. Course creators that know the different types of learning styles can use them to improve student experiences and outcomes. If you know your students and the ways they learn, you can adapt your teaching styles to suit them better.

Creating courses with learning and teaching styles in mind will set you and your students up for success. We’ll go over each learning method and how to identify them. Plus, we’ll provide examples and tips on how to create courses, coaching, and other educational products for each learning style.

What are learning styles?

Learning styles are the methods that people use to understand and remember information. By identifying your students’ learning styles, you can create course materials that suit their preferences.

There is some debate over how many types of learning exist. Most agree that there are four to seven learning styles. We’ll go over each in detail below.

It’s also important to note that one person can have multiple styles. These are known as multimodal learners. They retain information and may thrive using more than one learning style.

The seven types of learning

New Zealand educator Neil Fleming developed the VARK model in 1987. It’s one of the most common methods to identify learning styles. Fleming proposed four primary learning preferences—visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic. The first letter of each spells out the acronym (VARK).

We’ll go over the VARK learning styles and three others that researchers and educators have identified below.

1. Visual learning

When you create a course curriculum , consider how many and what type of visuals to include. A 2019 study claims that around 65% of people are visual learners . In other words, visual learners make up the majority of the population. You’ll likely have several in your courses, so keep that in mind when creating materials for it.

To learn best, visual learners need graphs, illustrations, diagrams, videos, and other visuals. You can also teach visual learners better by incorporating these into your lessons.

• Infographics
• Illustrations
• Photographs
• Flashcards with images
• Virtual whiteboards

Using all of these visuals at once will overwhelm your students. Instead, identify opportunities to display information as a visual and choose the best method for it.

Video courses are the best way to help visual learners. If you’re new to recording videos, you can take a course or watch a tutorial on making high-quality videos for your courses. You can also design and voiceover slideshows.

Visual learners also read and write like other students but may add images to notes, highlight sentences, or draw graphs. It can be helpful to provide them with downloadable versions of course materials so that they can take notes. If you use Teachable, you can easily add digital downloads to your website and courses.

Teachable creator Lauren Hom’s lettering course combines visual and other types of learning styles. Course lessons include videos, live drawing practice, and printable workbooks.

2. Auditory learning

In the same study, researchers found that around 30% of people are auditory learners. Auditory learners like to listen to absorb information. Auditory learners may listen to lectures, podcasts, music, and videos.

They also tend to read their notes aloud to help them understand and retain information or listen to music to study.

You can cater to auditory learners by:

• Using music and songs to remember information
• Providing audio versions of notes
• Encouraging discussions of learning materials

In addition to adjusting your teaching methods to different types of learners, you should also consider the subject.

For example, if you teach guitar online , it will naturally have an audio element. However, you may combine the sounds of different guitar strings with images and videos of them. When you combine different teaching methods, you can cater to multiple learning styles.

3. Reading and writing

Learners who prefer reading and writing thrive with traditional textbooks, handouts, and written assignments. Reading and writing learners are similar to visual learners because they like to see the information on a page.

To teach reading and writing learners, try to present information in one of these forms:

• Written instructions
• Written assignments

You could also consider creating an ebook to supplement your course material. So if you have a video course, add transcripts to your lessons so students can read along and take notes.

4. Kinesthetic

The kinesthetic learning style is learning by doing. And people who are kinesthetic learners learn better when they’re physically moving and getting hands-on experience.

Kinesthetic learners prefer playing games or doing puzzles as part of the learning process. They tend to enjoy problem-solving and trying new activities to build skills.

Many people associate kinesthetic learning with physical activities and in-person learning environments. However, you can still cater to kinesthetic learners when you create an online course .

For example, many developer courses include coding challenges, hackathons, and other activities where students learn by doing.

Here are some ideas to help you teach kinesthetic learners:

• Schedule short breaks for live courses longer than 30 minutes.
• Add real-life assignments. For example, a course about plants may add a practical element where students transplant and care for a houseplant.
• Create project briefs based on real-life scenarios, so students can practice.
• Add physical activity. Some online courses—meditation, yoga, and fitness—will naturally be more interactive.

If you want to add a more physical element, you can also include printables and supplies. Another option is to send materials to students in the mail.

There are many ways to teach kinesthetic learners. One example is the Hands-on Kids Activities Club (HOKA), a membership club for teachers. Every month, teachers get downloadable printables and other resources to create hands-on learning experiences. In one bundle, students learn about an artist and do an art project in that artist’s style.

5. Verbal or linguistic learning

Verbal learners or linguistic learners retain information best by hearing and envisioning words. You may also hear this called verbal-linguistic learning. Similar to an auditory learner, a verbal learner speaks aloud to memorize information better. They tend to be avid readers and may be talented storytellers or poets.

Any of these can help a verbal learner:

• Presentations
• Flashcards with words
• Word games and puzzles

This type of learning is also common in language courses. If you teach students how to speak Spanish, English, French, or another language, verbal learning will come in handy. They’ll want to hear how you pronounce words and practice speaking them on their own.

6. Social or interpersonal learning

Some students learn better alone and others learn better while in groups. Social, also called interpersonal, learners thrive in group discussions and group coaching.

They enjoy speaking in front of groups and asking questions. A social learner will like to give and receive feedback from other students and bounce ideas off others.

Interpersonal learners prefer these types of activities:

• Group discussions and activities
• Public speaking—presenting their work
• Working with a partner
• Studying flashcards with a partner
• Team-building exercises

7. Solitary or intrapersonal learning

Solitary learners prefer to learn on their own rather than with groups of peers. The word intrapersonal is similar to introvert—they can feel drained from social activities.

These students don’t enjoy group work and would rather get a list of items to study and work independently. Instead of getting ideas and feedback from other students, solitary learners are more introspective. They can get lost in their work and are more hesitant to ask for feedback or ideas from others.

Here are some ideas to help teach solitary learners:

• Ask questions to build trust and learn more about them.
• Give them space to work independently.
• Explain the why behind projects. Solitary learners focus on the future and outcomes, so they like to know the importance of learning different concepts.

Solitary learners are self-starters, so they usually have the determination to complete a course. Even though they prefer learning independently, learning from others has many benefits too.

Sometimes getting a solitary learner to open up more, ask for feedback, and challenge themselves can improve their learning. You could also offer solitary learners coaching or feedback sessions with you to help them develop their learning in a one-on-one environment.

How to identify student learning styles

Most adults have a sense of their preferred learning style. You can ask students or coaching clients which methods they prefer via an intake form when they sign up for your courses or coaching.

To identify learning styles, you can:

• Include an intake form on your sign-up pages
• Ask new students about their preferred learning styles directly
• Observe your students throughout the course
• Use assessments to help students figure out the learning style they like best

You can also use an online quiz like the VARK questionnaire to understand new students better. Another option is to create your own assessment and tailor it to your teaching style and course topic. Some sample questions you can use to create a quiz or questionnaire to identify learning styles are:

• Do you prefer to work alone or in groups?
• Would diagrams and illustrations make it easier to understand a concept?
• Is it easier to remember something in words or images?
• To understand how a machine works, would you take the machine apart yourself?
• Do you remember facts and figures more by hearing them spoken or reading them?

Let students know this is the kind of quiz with no wrong answer. You’ll use the answers to understand what type of learning style they prefer and tailor your teaching to better suit them.

Note that this type of questionnaire works best with coaching or online courses that use cohorts with specific start dates. You can use it to fine-tune your course curriculum for each cohort or personalize coaching sessions.

How to teach different types of learning

As you plan your course, think about how you can accommodate each learning style. For example, auditory learners usually thrive on discussion. On the other hand, learners who prefer to read and write might struggle with group discussions or debates. Discussions can be harder for them because they like to write their thoughts down first before speaking.

To accommodate different types of learning styles, provide several options. In the example above, you could give your students a discussion prompt ahead of time. Reading and writing learners can write talking points down before and auditory learners get the benefits of learning through discussion.

The ui.dev online courses are perfect examples of how to consider different types of learning. Looking at their React coding course, you can see that they provide lessons in two forms—video and text. This way visual, auditory, and reading and writing learners can refer to the materials that they understand best. It also includes kinesthetic learning with practice coding activities and projects where students build real-world applications.

Share your knowledge online

No two students are exactly alike—a learning style that works for some students might not work for others. You can still offer your students or clients a meaningful learning experience.

Identifying how your students learn best helps you teach them in ways that will be the most successful. It also shows them that you care about their learning experience and outcomes. So by considering all the different learning styles, you’ll create an online course that appeals to a larger pool of people.

If you’re ready to share your knowledge with all types of learning styles, you can easily create a course on Teachable . And then you can create online courses, coaching services, and even digital downloads. To get started, sign up for free or choose from one of the paid plans .

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10 Effective Differentiated Instruction Strategies For Elementary Classrooms

In the diverse landscape of elementary education, a one-size-fits-all approach is a relic of the past. Differentiated instruction, a teaching philosophy that acknowledges and respects the myriad ways in which our students learn, aims to meet the individual learning needs, styles, and paces of students.

It involves implementing a variety of teaching techniques, from flexible grouping and tiered assignments to the integration of technology. This blog post will delve into 10 effective strategies for differentiated instruction , providing educators with the tools to create an engaging, inclusive, and dynamic learning environment.

What is Differentiated Instruction?

Differentiated instruction is a method of adjusting your teaching to address the unique needs of the students in your classroom. It involves adjusting the content, processes, products, and learning environment based on ongoing formal and informal assessments, including observations.

Through differentiation, teachers strive to provide the most suitable learning experience for each student, considering their specific strengths and areas for growth. This ensures an effective educational experience for everyone in the classroom.

Why Should Teachers Differentiate Instruction?

Teachers should differentiate instruction because students learn at different paces and in different ways. Differentiated instruction allows for tailored educational experiences that help all students succeed.

Here are several reasons why teachers should differentiate instruction in their classrooms.

• It fosters an inclusive classroom environment .
• Students feel valued and understood.
• Students become more engaged and motivated.
• Students learn in a manner that resonates with them.
• It encourages a love for learning.
• It encourages critical thinking.
• It prepares students for real-world situations where adaptability and problem-solving are essential.

10 Ways to Differentiate Instruction in the Elementary Classroom

Here are 10 strategies to differentiate instruction in grades K-5. Some of these ideas will require more planning to implement and some will require some smaller changes to the way you teach. They all aim to create a dynamic, inclusive learning environment that supports each student’s unique needs and abilities.

1. Flexible Grouping to Meet the Needs of All Learners

Flexible grouping provides a dynamic and responsive learning environment. By grouping students based on their learning styles, academic ability within a subject, or interests, teachers can tailor their teaching approach to suit the group’s unique needs. This not only maximizes student engagement but also fosters a sense of community among learners who share similar interests or learning preferences.

Group by Learning Style

Grouping students according to learning style takes into account the varied ways students internalize and process information. Some students may be visual learners, preferring to see information in charts or diagrams, while others are auditory learners who benefit from listening to lectures or discussions.

Kinesthetic learners, on the other hand, learn best through physical activities or hands-on experiences. Teachers can create groups that cater to these different learning styles , allowing for instruction, activities, and assignments that align with each group’s preferred learning mode.

Our second through fifth-grade science stations are a great example of activities that target different learning styles. Each science station set has 8 activities that range from watching a video, playing a video game, and investigating or exploring a science concept. Diagraming and sorting activities are also included as are reading passages and comprehension questions.

Group by Academic Ability

Grouping by academic ability can also be a practical approach in differentiated instruction. This method involves creating groups based on students’ proficiency or skill level in a particular subject.

For example, you might group students into reading groups based on their phonics skills . The teacher can tailor instruction and reading texts to the appropriate difficulty level for each group. In doing so, students can work at an appropriate pace that matches their understanding and skill level, ensuring that they are neither bored nor overwhelmed.

Group by Interest in a Topic

Lastly, grouping by interest involves creating student groups based on shared interests or passions. This can be particularly effective in project-based learning or when exploring broader topics that can be approached from different angles.

For instance, in a science class studying ecosystems , one group of students interested in animals could focus on animal species within the ecosystem , another group interested in plants could study the flora, and a third group interested in climate could investigate the impact of weather patterns on the ecosystem. This approach engages students by tapping into their passions and curiosity, making learning more enjoyable and meaningful.

2. Tiered Assignments that Allow Students to Think Deeper

Tiered assignments are an effective strategy for accommodating different skill levels within the same class. These assignments, aligned with the same learning objectives, vary in complexity to match students’ proficiency levels. This enables all students to engage in meaningful learning, promoting individual growth and achievement.

Examples of Tiered Assessments

Tiered assessments can be implemented in a variety of ways across subjects and skills. For instance, in a math lesson on multiplication, students at a beginner level might be tasked with simple multiplication problems, such as multiplying single-digit numbers. At an intermediate level, students could tackle illustrating the problem in two or more ways. Students at an advanced level could be challenged by being asked to solve, illustrate, and explain multiplication word problems with different problem types .

Similarly, in a reading comprehension exercise, students at different proficiency levels could be assigned the same story but given different sets of questions. Beginners might answer questions about the basic plot and characters, intermediate students could discuss the themes and conflicts, and advanced learners might analyze the author’s use of language and literary devices. The aim is to ensure that each student is engaged, challenged, and making progress at their own pace.

While teachers can create three separate assessments, one per tier, all of these tiers can also be included in one assessment. Students can start out with the easier level and move through to the more difficult tired response, demonstrating the complexity of their thinking and depth of knowledge.

3. Independent Learning Centers for Early Finishers

Learning centers are dedicated areas within a classroom where students can focus on specific subjects or skills. This promotes student autonomy and engagement, as learners can explore and learn at their own pace, while also catering to their individual learning preferences.

Examples of these learning centers include science engineering tasks with supplies , mathematical logic puzzles , creative activities to help students start and write stories , and more!

4. Choice Boards to Create Student Buy-in

Choice boards offer students a menu of tasks from which they can choose , allowing them to engage with the material in a way that suits their learning style. This fosters student agency and enthusiasm for learning, as students take an active role in shaping their learning experience.

Choice boards address both learning styles and the complexity of assignments. For instance, a choice board for a language arts task might include options such as writing a creative story using the week’s vocabulary words, creating a comic strip to summarize a novel, or recording an audio retelling of a historical event. This allows students to choose the task that best suits their interests and strengths while still demonstrating their understanding of the material.

5. Manipulatives to Meet the Needs of Kinesthetic Learners

Manipulatives are hands-on tools used in teaching and learning. They offer an engaging and interactive way to explore concepts, catering especially to kinesthetic learners. Manipulatives can range from physical objects, such as blocks or beads, to digital tools, like interactive simulations.

Manipulatives are especially helpful in math , but they can be used in any subject. For example, in a science class, students could use physical models to understand the structure of atoms or images of plants and animals in a sorting activity about food webs. This hands-on approach allows kinesthetic learners to engage with and grasp abstract concepts more easily.

6. Scaffolded Instruction

Offer step-by-step guidance and support to students who need it while allowing more independent learning for those who can handle it. Scaffolding can take many different forms, such as graphic organizers , sentence stems , or guided practice activities .

For example, when teaching a writing lesson, students who struggle with organizing their thoughts could benefit from using a graphic organizer to map out their ideas before beginning to write . At the same time, advanced writers might only need a list of sentence starters to guide them in developing their stories. Still, other students will need highly structured sentence frames and writing models to successfully complete the writing task.

7. Compacting Curriculum by Using Pre-Assessments and Exit Tickets

Compacting curriculum involves pre-assessing students’ understanding of a particular topic and then allowing proficient students to skip materials they already know. This frees up time for these students to engage with more challenging materials or explore topics of interest, thus preventing boredom and disengagement.

Teachers can use pre-assessments to group students for instruction. If only a few students need to work on a specific skill, teachers can pull the small group to target instruction on that one area. Preassessment and exit tickets also help teachers identify misconceptions students might have about a topic. All of our 5E units come with lists of common misconceptions about the scientific concepts related to that topic.

8. Parallel Tasks to Support Learners Who Are at Different Places in Their Journies

Parallel tasks involve assigning different tasks to students that aim to achieve the same learning objectives but at varying complexity levels. This strategy ensures that all students are working towards the same goal, yet allows for differentiation based on student proficiency.

A great example of this is my numberless word problems . As a class, we all complete the same word problem. I teach students how to identify the parts of the word problem and how to solve it all without numbers. When it comes time for students to do the computation part of the problem, I provide different students with different numbers based on their ability level. Some students get single-digit numbers, some add tens, and some add across tens.

9. Technology Integration

Technology integration involves utilizing various technological tools that cater to different learning styles and paces. In this post, we discussed grouping for instruction and choice boards, both of which can utilize a technology component.

Technology integration in subject areas could include multimedia presentations for visual learners, podcasts for auditory learners , or interactive software for kinesthetic learners. Technology not only enhances the learning experience but also prepares students for the digital world.

Teachers can use technology for instruction, but students can also demonstrate their understanding through the use of technology.

10. Personalized Learning Plans Along with Continuous Feedback – Goal Setting in the Classroom

When we think of individualized learning plans, we think of IEPs for students with specific learning needs who require individualized instruction. However personalized learning plans also have a place in the general ed classroom with on-level and advanced students.

They can be used for students who are gifted and talented and would like to extend their learning about a topic. They can also be used for on-level students who want to work through a process of learning something different than the rest of the class. In fact, some schools are built around each student having a yearlong project or focus. Some classrooms even have a genius hour where students brainstorm and work on a special project for a period each week.

In addition to personalized learning plans, continuously providing feedback and adjusting instruction based on student’s progress and needs is a powerful approach to informing teachers’ instruction and help students make progress. This can involve regular check-ins, formative assessments, and one-on-one conferences.

Student Goal Setting

This is a great opportunity for student goal setting and creating action plans . Students can be a part of their learning and feedback process to analyze what they can do to reach their goals. Teachers can provide support and guidance as students set realistic goals and create a plan to achieve them. This not only helps students take ownership of their learning but also promotes self-reflection and goal-setting skills that are valuable in any subject.

Differentiated instruction is a powerful and versatile approach that empowers students and fosters a love for learning. By using strategies like flexible grouping, tiered assignments, choice boards, manipulatives, compacting curriculum, parallel tasks, goal setting, technology integration, and more, educators can create a dynamic and inclusive learning environment that caters to the diverse needs, interests, and capabilities of their students.

These strategies not only enhance academic achievement but also boost students’ motivation , engagement, and lifelong learning skills. Differentiated instruction is, indeed, a cornerstone of effective elementary education.

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Active Learning Techniques for the Classroom

Active learning techniques to try.

• Try a Think-Pair-Share activity to encourage all students to interact with the material. In this activity, the instructor states an open-ended question. Ask students to spend a minute or two thinking about and writing a response. Then ask students to pair with a partner to discuss their responses. Reconvene the class after a few minutes, and call on individual students to share the pair’s responses.
• Use a One Minute Paper or Muddiest Point Paper in your class as a formative assessment. At the end of class or just before a break, ask either: “What are the two most important points from today’s session?” or “What was the muddiest (least clear) point from today’s session?” Give students 1-2 minutes to write brief responses to turn in anonymously as they leave the classroom. Address student responses either during the next class or online.
• With Peer Instruction , you pause during class and ask students a conceptual question. Give students a few minutes to think about the question, and then have them provide answers, possibly using clickers. Then, have students spend a few minutes talking about their answers, usually in pairs, and try to convince each other that their answer is correct. Then have students answer again.
• Asking students to work together in groups is a very effective way to actively engage them with your course. For example, Gallery Walk is a cooperative activity during which groups move between stations to build on solutions or discussions begun by others. The Jigsaw is a structured cooperative learning activity that relies on individual accountability to reach group goals.
• Student groups can discuss  case studies  to apply course content to solve real world problems. Cases for the sciences can be found at the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science.  The Case Consortium at Columbia University  provides a collection of case studies for the fields of journalism, public policy, public health, and other disciplines.

Additional Resources

Classroom Assessment Techniques –   Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching Information on Classroom Assessment Techniques, which are in-class activities that give useful feedback on the teaching-learning process as it is happening.

National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science – National Science Foundation A collection of case studies for classroom use in the sciences.

Case Consortium –  Columbia University A collection of case studies for the fields of journalism, public policy, public health, and other disciplines

Confessions of a Converted Lecturer  – Eric Mazur, Harvard University Active learning advocate Eric Mazur, a physics professor at Harvard, shares why and how he decided to change the way he teaches.

Armbruster, P., Patel, M., Johnson, E., & Weiss, M. (2009). Active Learning and Student-centered Pedagogy Improve Student Attitudes and Performance in Introductory Biology. CBELife Sciences Education, 8(3), 203–213. 

Bransford J., Brown A., & Cocking RR. (Eds.) (1999) How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington (DC): National Academy Press.

Cooper, James L., Robinson, Pamela & Ball, David. The Interactive Lecture: Reconciling Group and Active Learning Strategies with Traditional Instructional Formats. Exchanges: The Online Journal of Teaching and Learning in the CSU (PDF).

Prince, M. (2004) Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research . Journal of Engineering Education, 93(3), 223-231.

Eberly Center

Teaching excellence & educational innovation, creating assignments.

Here are some general suggestions and questions to consider when creating assignments. There are also many other resources in print and on the web that provide examples of interesting, discipline-specific assignment ideas.

Consider your learning objectives.

What do you want students to learn in your course? What could they do that would show you that they have learned it? To determine assignments that truly serve your course objectives, it is useful to write out your objectives in this form: I want my students to be able to ____. Use active, measurable verbs as you complete that sentence (e.g., compare theories, discuss ramifications, recommend strategies), and your learning objectives will point you towards suitable assignments.

Design assignments that are interesting and challenging.

This is the fun side of assignment design. Consider how to focus students’ thinking in ways that are creative, challenging, and motivating. Think beyond the conventional assignment type! For example, one American historian requires students to write diary entries for a hypothetical Nebraska farmwoman in the 1890s. By specifying that students’ diary entries must demonstrate the breadth of their historical knowledge (e.g., gender, economics, technology, diet, family structure), the instructor gets students to exercise their imaginations while also accomplishing the learning objectives of the course (Walvoord & Anderson, 1989, p. 25).

Double-check alignment.

After creating your assignments, go back to your learning objectives and make sure there is still a good match between what you want students to learn and what you are asking them to do. If you find a mismatch, you will need to adjust either the assignments or the learning objectives. For instance, if your goal is for students to be able to analyze and evaluate texts, but your assignments only ask them to summarize texts, you would need to add an analytical and evaluative dimension to some assignments or rethink your learning objectives.

Name assignments accurately.

Students can be misled by assignments that are named inappropriately. For example, if you want students to analyze a product’s strengths and weaknesses but you call the assignment a “product description,” students may focus all their energies on the descriptive, not the critical, elements of the task. Thus, it is important to ensure that the titles of your assignments communicate their intention accurately to students.

Consider sequencing.

Think about how to order your assignments so that they build skills in a logical sequence. Ideally, assignments that require the most synthesis of skills and knowledge should come later in the semester, preceded by smaller assignments that build these skills incrementally. For example, if an instructor’s final assignment is a research project that requires students to evaluate a technological solution to an environmental problem, earlier assignments should reinforce component skills, including the ability to identify and discuss key environmental issues, apply evaluative criteria, and find appropriate research sources.

Think about scheduling.

Consider your intended assignments in relation to the academic calendar and decide how they can be reasonably spaced throughout the semester, taking into account holidays and key campus events. Consider how long it will take students to complete all parts of the assignment (e.g., planning, library research, reading, coordinating groups, writing, integrating the contributions of team members, developing a presentation), and be sure to allow sufficient time between assignments.

Check feasibility.

Is the workload you have in mind reasonable for your students? Is the grading burden manageable for you? Sometimes there are ways to reduce workload (whether for you or for students) without compromising learning objectives. For example, if a primary objective in assigning a project is for students to identify an interesting engineering problem and do some preliminary research on it, it might be reasonable to require students to submit a project proposal and annotated bibliography rather than a fully developed report. If your learning objectives are clear, you will see where corners can be cut without sacrificing educational quality.

Articulate the task description clearly.

If an assignment is vague, students may interpret it any number of ways – and not necessarily how you intended. Thus, it is critical to clearly and unambiguously identify the task students are to do (e.g., design a website to help high school students locate environmental resources, create an annotated bibliography of readings on apartheid). It can be helpful to differentiate the central task (what students are supposed to produce) from other advice and information you provide in your assignment description.

Establish clear performance criteria.

Different instructors apply different criteria when grading student work, so it’s important that you clearly articulate to students what your criteria are. To do so, think about the best student work you have seen on similar tasks and try to identify the specific characteristics that made it excellent, such as clarity of thought, originality, logical organization, or use of a wide range of sources. Then identify the characteristics of the worst student work you have seen, such as shaky evidence, weak organizational structure, or lack of focus. Identifying these characteristics can help you consciously articulate the criteria you already apply. It is important to communicate these criteria to students, whether in your assignment description or as a separate rubric or scoring guide . Clearly articulated performance criteria can prevent unnecessary confusion about your expectations while also setting a high standard for students to meet.

Specify the intended audience.

Students make assumptions about the audience they are addressing in papers and presentations, which influences how they pitch their message. For example, students may assume that, since the instructor is their primary audience, they do not need to define discipline-specific terms or concepts. These assumptions may not match the instructor’s expectations. Thus, it is important on assignments to specify the intended audience http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop10e.cfm (e.g., undergraduates with no biology background, a potential funder who does not know engineering).

Specify the purpose of the assignment.

If students are unclear about the goals or purpose of the assignment, they may make unnecessary mistakes. For example, if students believe an assignment is focused on summarizing research as opposed to evaluating it, they may seriously miscalculate the task and put their energies in the wrong place. The same is true they think the goal of an economics problem set is to find the correct answer, rather than demonstrate a clear chain of economic reasoning. Consequently, it is important to make your objectives for the assignment clear to students.

Specify the parameters.

If you have specific parameters in mind for the assignment (e.g., length, size, formatting, citation conventions) you should be sure to specify them in your assignment description. Otherwise, students may misapply conventions and formats they learned in other courses that are not appropriate for yours.

A Checklist for Designing Assignments

Here is a set of questions you can ask yourself when creating an assignment.

• Provided a written description of the assignment (in the syllabus or in a separate document)?
• Specified the purpose of the assignment?
• Indicated the intended audience?
• Articulated the instructions in precise and unambiguous language?
• Provided information about the appropriate format and presentation (e.g., page length, typed, cover sheet, bibliography)?  
• Indicated special instructions, such as a particular citation style or headings?  
• Specified the due date and the consequences for missing it?
• Articulated performance criteria clearly?
• Indicated the assignment’s point value or percentage of the course grade?
• Provided students (where appropriate) with models or samples?

Adapted from the WAC Clearinghouse at http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop10e.cfm .

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Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

• 50 Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATS)

by Angelo and Cross

Techniques for Assessing Course-Related Knowledge & Skills

I. Assessing Prior Knowledge, Recall, and Understanding

The CATS in this group are recommended to assess declarative learning, the content of a particular subject.

• Background Knowledge Probe: short, simple questionnaires prepared by instructors for use at the beginning of a course or at the start of new units or topics; can serve as a pretest; typically elicits more detailed information than CAT2. .
• Focused Listing: focuses students’ attention on a single important term, name, or concept from a lesson or class session and directs students to list ideas related to the “focus.”
• Misconception/Preconception Check: focus is on uncovering prior knowledge or beliefs that hinder or block new learning; can be designed to uncover incorrect or incomplete knowledge, attitudes, or values
• Empty Outlines: in a limited amount of time students complete an empty or partially completed outline of an in-class presentation or homework assignment
• Memory Matrix: students complete a table about course content in which row and column headings are complete but cells are empty
• Minute Paper: perhaps the most frequently used CAT; students answer 2 questions (What was the most important thing you learned during this class? And What important question remains unanswered?)
• Muddiest Point: considered my many as the simplest CAT; students respond to 1 question (What was the muddiest point in _________ ?); well suited to large, lower division courses but not to those which emphasize integration, synthesis and evaluation

II. Assessing Skill in analysis and Critical Thinking

The CATS in this group focus on analysis—the breaking down of information, questions, or problems to facilitate understanding and problem solving

• Categorizing Grid: student complete a grid containing 2 or 3 overarching concepts and a variety of related subordinate elements associated with the larger concepts
• Defining Features Matrix: students categorize concepts according to presence or absence of important defining features
• Pro and Con Grid: students list pros/cons, costs/benefits, advantages/disadvantages of an issue, question or value of competing claims
• Content, Form, and Function Outlines: in an outline form, students analyze the “what” (content), “how” (form), and “why” (function) of a particular message (e.g. poem, newspaper story, billboard, critical essay); also called “What, How, & Why Outlines
• Analytic Memos: students write a one- or two-page analysis of a specific problem or issue to help inform a decision-maker

III. Assessing Skill in Synthesis and Creative Thinking

The CATS in this group focus on synthesis—each stimulate the student to create, and allow the faculty to assess, original intellectual products that result from a synthesis of course content and the students’ intelligence, judgment, knowledge, and skills.

• One-Sentence Summary: students answer the questions “Who does what to whom, when, where, how, and why?” (WDWWWWHW) about a given topic and then creates a single informative, grammatical, and long summary sentence
• Word Journal : involves a 2 part response; 1 st the student summarizes a short text in a single word and 2 nd the student writes 1-2 paragraphs explaining the word choice
• Approximate Analogies: students simply complete the 2 nd half of an analogy—a is to b as x is to y; described as approximate because rigor of formal logic is not required
• Concept Maps: students draw or diagram the mental connections they make between a major concept and other concepts they have learned
• Invented Dialogues: students synthesize their knowledge of issues, personalities, and historical periods into the form of a carefully structured illustrative conversation; 2 levels of invention (select and weave quotes from primary sources or invent reasonable quotes that fit characters and context)
• Annotated Portfolios: students assemble a very limited number of examples of creative work and supplement with own commentary on significance of examples

IV. Assessing Skill in Problem Solving

The CATS in this group focus on problem solving skills of various kinds—recognition of types of problems, determining principles and techniques to solve, perceiving similarities of problem features and ability to reflect and then alter solution strategies.

• Problem Recognition Tasks: students recognize and identify particular problem types
• What’s the Principle?: students identify principle or principles to solve problems of various types
• Documented Problem Solutions: students track in a written format the steps they take to solve problems as if for a “show & tell”
• Audio- and Videotaped Protocols: students work through a problem solving process and it is captured to allow instructors to assess metacognition (learner’s awareness of and control of thinking)

V. Assessing Skill in Application and Performance

The CATS in this group focus on students’ abilities to apply important—sometimes referenced as conditional knowledge—knowing when and where to apply what know and can do. 23. Directed Paraphrasing: students paraphrase part of a lesson for a specific audience demonstrating ability to translate highly specialized information into language the clients or customers can understand

• Application Cards: students generate examples of real-work applications for important principles, generalizations, theories or procedures
• Student-Generated Test Questions: students generate test questions and model answers for critical areas of learning
• Human Tableau or Class Modeling: Students transform and apply their learning into doing by physically modeling a process or representing an image.
• Paper or Project Prospectus: Students create a brief plan for a paper or project based on your guiding questions.

Techniques for Assessing Learner Attitudes, Values, and Self-Awareness

VI. Assessing Students’ Awareness of Their Attitudes and Values

The CATS in this group are designed to assist teachers in developing students’ attitudes, opinions, values, and self-awareness within the course curriculum.

• Classroom Opinion Polls: Students indicate degree of agreement or disagreement with a statement or prompt.
• Double-entry Journals: Students record and respond to significant passages of text
• Profiles of Admiral Individuals: Students write a brief description of the characteristics of a person they admire in a field related to the course
• Everyday Ethical Dilemma: Students respond to a case study that poses a discipline-related ethical dilemma
• Course-related Self-Confidence Surveys: Students complete an anonymous survey indicating their level of confidence in mastering the course material

VII. Assessing Students’ Self-Awareness as Learners

The CATS in this group are recommended to help students express personal goals and clarify self-concept in order to make a connection between the articulated goals and those of the course.

• Focused Autobiographical Sketches: Students write a brief description of a successful learning experience they had relevant to the course material.
• Interest/Knowledge/Skills Checklists: Students complete a checklist survey to indicate their knowledge, skills and interest in various course topics.
• Goal Ranking and Matching: Students list and prioritize 3 to 5 goals they have for their own learning in the course.
• Self-Assessment Ways of Learning: Students compare themselves with several different “learning styles” profiles to find the most likely match.

VIII. Assessing Course-Related Learning and Study Skills, Strategies, and Behaviors

The CATS in this group focus both student and teacher attention on the behaviors the student actually engages in when trying to learn.

• Productive Study-Time Logs: Students complete a study log to record the quantity and quality of time spent studying for a specific course.
• Punctuated Lectures: Students briefly reflect then create a written record of their listening level of a lecture. Repeat twice in the same lecture and 2- 3 times over 2 to 3 weeks.
• Process Analysis: Students outline the process they take in completing a specified assignment.
• Diagnostic Learning Logs: Students write to learn by identifying, diagnosing, and prescribing solutions to their own learning problems.

Techniques for Assessing Learner Reactions to Instruction

IX. Assessing Learner Reactions to Teachers and Teaching

The CATS in this group are designed to provide context-specific feedback that can improve teaching within a particular course.

• Chain Notes: On an index card that is distributed in advance, each student responds to an open-ended prompt about his or her mental activity that is answered in less than a minute.
• Electronic Survey Feedback: Students respond to a question or short series of questions about the effectiveness of the course.
• Teacher-designed Feedback Forms: Students respond to specific questions through a focused feedback form about the effectiveness of a particular class session.
• Group Instructional Feedback Technique: Students respond to three questions related to the student’s learning in the course.
• Classroom Assessment Quality Circles: A group or groups of students provide the instructor with ongoing assessment of the course through structured interactions.

X. Assessing Learner Reactions to Class Activities, Assignments, and Materials

The CATS in this group are designed to give teachers information that will help them improve their course materials and assignments.

• RSQC2 (Recall, Summarize, Question, Connect and Comment): Students write brief statements that recall, summarize, question, connect and comment on meaningful points from previous class.
• Group-Work Evaluation: Students complete a brief survey about how their group is functioning and make suggestions for improving the group process.
• Reading Rating Sheets: Students complete a form that rates the effectiveness of the assigned readings.
• Assignment Assessments: Students respond to 2 or 3 open-ended questions about the value of an assignment to their learning.
• Exam Evaluations: Students provide feedback about an exam’s learning value and/or format.

Quick Links

• Teaching and Learning Assessment Overview
• Aligning to Course Objectives
• Alternative Authentic Assessment Methods
• Formative and Summative Assessment
• Developing Multiple Choice Questions
• Assessment as Feedback
• Quick Tips for Designing Assessments
• Bias and Exclusion in Assessment 
• ChatGPT AI impact on Teaching and Learning

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Center for Teaching

Assessing student learning.

Forms and Purposes of Student Assessment

Assessment is more than grading, assessment plans, methods of student assessment, generative and reflective assessment, teaching guides related to student assessment, references and additional resources.

Student assessment is, arguably, the centerpiece of the teaching and learning process and therefore the subject of much discussion in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Without some method of obtaining and analyzing evidence of student learning, we can never know whether our teaching is making a difference. That is, teaching requires some process through which we can come to know whether students are developing the desired knowledge and skills, and therefore whether our instruction is effective. Learning assessment is like a magnifying glass we hold up to students’ learning to discern whether the teaching and learning process is functioning well or is in need of change.

To provide an overview of learning assessment, this teaching guide has several goals, 1) to define student learning assessment and why it is important, 2) to discuss several approaches that may help to guide and refine student assessment, 3) to address various methods of student assessment, including the test and the essay, and 4) to offer several resources for further research. In addition, you may find helfpul this five-part video series on assessment that was part of the Center for Teaching’s Online Course Design Institute.

What is student assessment and why is it Important?

In their handbook for course-based review and assessment, Martha L. A. Stassen et al. define assessment as “the systematic collection and analysis of information to improve student learning” (2001, p. 5). An intentional and thorough assessment of student learning is vital because it provides useful feedback to both instructors and students about the extent to which students are successfully meeting learning objectives. In their book Understanding by Design , Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe offer a framework for classroom instruction — “Backward Design”— that emphasizes the critical role of assessment. For Wiggins and McTighe, assessment enables instructors to determine the metrics of measurement for student understanding of and proficiency in course goals. Assessment provides the evidence needed to document and validate that meaningful learning has occurred (2005, p. 18). Their approach “encourages teachers and curriculum planners to first ‘think like an assessor’ before designing specific units and lessons, and thus to consider up front how they will determine if students have attained the desired understandings” (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005, p. 18). [1]

Not only does effective assessment provide us with valuable information to support student growth, but it also enables critically reflective teaching. Stephen Brookfield, in Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, argues that critical reflection on one’s teaching is an essential part of developing as an educator and enhancing the learning experience of students (1995). Critical reflection on one’s teaching has a multitude of benefits for instructors, including the intentional and meaningful development of one’s teaching philosophy and practices. According to Brookfield, referencing higher education faculty, “A critically reflective teacher is much better placed to communicate to colleagues and students (as well as to herself) the rationale behind her practice. She works from a position of informed commitment” (Brookfield, 1995, p. 17). One important lens through which we may reflect on our teaching is our student evaluations and student learning assessments. This reflection allows educators to determine where their teaching has been effective in meeting learning goals and where it has not, allowing for improvements. Student assessment, then, both develop the rationale for pedagogical choices, and enables teachers to measure the effectiveness of their teaching.

The scholarship of teaching and learning discusses two general forms of assessment. The first, summative assessment , is one that is implemented at the end of the course of study, for example via comprehensive final exams or papers. Its primary purpose is to produce an evaluation that “sums up” student learning. Summative assessment is comprehensive in nature and is fundamentally concerned with learning outcomes. While summative assessment is often useful for communicating final evaluations of student achievement, it does so without providing opportunities for students to reflect on their progress, alter their learning, and demonstrate growth or improvement; nor does it allow instructors to modify their teaching strategies before student learning in a course has concluded (Maki, 2002).

The second form, formative assessment , involves the evaluation of student learning at intermediate points before any summative form. Its fundamental purpose is to help students during the learning process by enabling them to reflect on their challenges and growth so they may improve. By analyzing students’ performance through formative assessment and sharing the results with them, instructors help students to “understand their strengths and weaknesses and to reflect on how they need to improve over the course of their remaining studies” (Maki, 2002, p. 11). Pat Hutchings refers to as “assessment behind outcomes”: “the promise of assessment—mandated or otherwise—is improved student learning, and improvement requires attention not only to final results but also to how results occur. Assessment behind outcomes means looking more carefully at the process and conditions that lead to the learning we care about…” (Hutchings, 1992, p. 6, original emphasis). Formative assessment includes all manner of coursework with feedback, discussions between instructors and students, and end-of-unit examinations that provide an opportunity for students to identify important areas for necessary growth and development for themselves (Brown and Knight, 1994).

It is important to recognize that both summative and formative assessment indicate the purpose of assessment, not the method . Different methods of assessment (discussed below) can either be summative or formative depending on when and how the instructor implements them. Sally Brown and Peter Knight in Assessing Learners in Higher Education caution against a conflation of the method (e.g., an essay) with the goal (formative or summative): “Often the mistake is made of assuming that it is the method which is summative or formative, and not the purpose. This, we suggest, is a serious mistake because it turns the assessor’s attention away from the crucial issue of feedback” (1994, p. 17). If an instructor believes that a particular method is formative, but he or she does not take the requisite time or effort to provide extensive feedback to students, the assessment effectively functions as a summative assessment despite the instructor’s intentions (Brown and Knight, 1994). Indeed, feedback and discussion are critical factors that distinguish between formative and summative assessment; formative assessment is only as good as the feedback that accompanies it.

It is not uncommon to conflate assessment with grading, but this would be a mistake. Student assessment is more than just grading. Assessment links student performance to specific learning objectives in order to provide useful information to students and instructors about learning and teaching, respectively. Grading, on the other hand, according to Stassen et al. (2001) merely involves affixing a number or letter to an assignment, giving students only the most minimal indication of their performance relative to a set of criteria or to their peers: “Because grades don’t tell you about student performance on individual (or specific) learning goals or outcomes, they provide little information on the overall success of your course in helping students to attain the specific and distinct learning objectives of interest” (Stassen et al., 2001, p. 6). Grades are only the broadest of indicators of achievement or status, and as such do not provide very meaningful information about students’ learning of knowledge or skills, how they have developed, and what may yet improve. Unfortunately, despite the limited information grades provide students about their learning, grades do provide students with significant indicators of their status – their academic rank, their credits towards graduation, their post-graduation opportunities, their eligibility for grants and aid, etc. – which can distract students from the primary goal of assessment: learning. Indeed, shifting the focus of assessment away from grades and towards more meaningful understandings of intellectual growth can encourage students (as well as instructors and institutions) to attend to the primary goal of education.

Barbara Walvoord (2010) argues that assessment is more likely to be successful if there is a clear plan, whether one is assessing learning in a course or in an entire curriculum (see also Gelmon, Holland, and Spring, 2018). Without some intentional and careful plan, assessment can fall prey to unclear goals, vague criteria, limited communication of criteria or feedback, invalid or unreliable assessments, unfairness in student evaluations, or insufficient or even unmeasured learning. There are several steps in this planning process.

• Defining learning goals. An assessment plan usually begins with a clearly articulated set of learning goals.
• Defining assessment methods. Once goals are clear, an instructor must decide on what evidence – assignment(s) – will best reveal whether students are meeting the goals. We discuss several common methods below, but these need not be limited by anything but the learning goals and the teaching context.
• Developing the assessment. The next step would be to formulate clear formats, prompts, and performance criteria that ensure students can prepare effectively and provide valid, reliable evidence of their learning.
• Integrating assessment with other course elements. Then the remainder of the course design process can be completed. In both integrated (Fink 2013) and backward course design models (Wiggins & McTighe 2005), the primary assessment methods, once chosen, become the basis for other smaller reading and skill-building assignments as well as daily learning experiences such as lectures, discussions, and other activities that will prepare students for their best effort in the assessments.
• Communicate about the assessment. Once the course has begun, it is possible and necessary to communicate the assignment and its performance criteria to students. This communication may take many and preferably multiple forms to ensure student clarity and preparation, including assignment overviews in the syllabus, handouts with prompts and assessment criteria, rubrics with learning goals, model assignments (e.g., papers), in-class discussions, and collaborative decision-making about prompts or criteria, among others.
• Administer the assessment. Instructors then can implement the assessment at the appropriate time, collecting evidence of student learning – e.g., receiving papers or administering tests.
• Analyze the results. Analysis of the results can take various forms – from reading essays to computer-assisted test scoring – but always involves comparing student work to the performance criteria and the relevant scholarly research from the field(s).
• Communicate the results. Instructors then compose an assessment complete with areas of strength and improvement, and communicate it to students along with grades (if the assignment is graded), hopefully within a reasonable time frame. This also is the time to determine whether the assessment was valid and reliable, and if not, how to communicate this to students and adjust feedback and grades fairly. For instance, were the test or essay questions confusing, yielding invalid and unreliable assessments of student knowledge.
• Reflect and revise. Once the assessment is complete, instructors and students can develop learning plans for the remainder of the course so as to ensure improvements, and the assignment may be changed for future courses, as necessary.

Let’s see how this might work in practice through an example. An instructor in a Political Science course on American Environmental Policy may have a learning goal (among others) of students understanding the historical precursors of various environmental policies and how these both enabled and constrained the resulting legislation and its impacts on environmental conservation and health. The instructor therefore decides that the course will be organized around a series of short papers that will combine to make a thorough policy report, one that will also be the subject of student presentations and discussions in the last third of the course. Each student will write about an American environmental policy of their choice, with a first paper addressing its historical precursors, a second focused on the process of policy formation, and a third analyzing the extent of its impacts on environmental conservation or health. This will help students to meet the content knowledge goals of the course, in addition to its goals of improving students’ research, writing, and oral presentation skills. The instructor then develops the prompts, guidelines, and performance criteria that will be used to assess student skills, in addition to other course elements to best prepare them for this work – e.g., scaffolded units with quizzes, readings, lectures, debates, and other activities. Once the course has begun, the instructor communicates with the students about the learning goals, the assignments, and the criteria used to assess them, giving them the necessary context (goals, assessment plan) in the syllabus, handouts on the policy papers, rubrics with assessment criteria, model papers (if possible), and discussions with them as they need to prepare. The instructor then collects the papers at the appropriate due dates, assesses their conceptual and writing quality against the criteria and field’s scholarship, and then provides written feedback and grades in a manner that is reasonably prompt and sufficiently thorough for students to make improvements. Then the instructor can make determinations about whether the assessment method was effective and what changes might be necessary.

Assessment can vary widely from informal checks on understanding, to quizzes, to blogs, to essays, and to elaborate performance tasks such as written or audiovisual projects (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). Below are a few common methods of assessment identified by Brown and Knight (1994) that are important to consider.

According to Euan S. Henderson, essays make two important contributions to learning and assessment: the development of skills and the cultivation of a learning style (1980). The American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) also has found that intensive writing is a “high impact” teaching practice likely to help students in their engagement, learning, and academic attainment (Kuh 2008).

Things to Keep in Mind about Essays

• Essays are a common form of writing assignment in courses and can be either a summative or formative form of assessment depending on how the instructor utilizes them.
• Essays encompass a wide array of narrative forms and lengths, from short descriptive essays to long analytical or creative ones. Shorter essays are often best suited to assess student’s understanding of threshold concepts and discrete analytical or writing skills, while longer essays afford assessments of higher order concepts and more complex learning goals, such as rigorous analysis, synthetic writing, problem solving, or creative tasks.
• A common challenge of the essay is that students can use them simply to regurgitate rather than analyze and synthesize information to make arguments. Students need performance criteria and prompts that urge them to go beyond mere memorization and comprehension, but encourage the highest levels of learning on Bloom’s Taxonomy . This may open the possibility for essay assignments that go beyond the common summary or descriptive essay on a given topic, but demand, for example, narrative or persuasive essays or more creative projects.
• Instructors commonly assume that students know how to write essays and can encounter disappointment or frustration when they discover that this is sometimes not the case. For this reason, it is important for instructors to make their expectations clear and be prepared to assist, or provide students to resources that will enhance their writing skills. Faculty may also encourage students to attend writing workshops at university writing centers, such as Vanderbilt University’s Writing Studio .

Exams and time-constrained, individual assessment

Examinations have traditionally been a gold standard of assessment, particularly in post-secondary education. Many educators prefer them because they can be highly effective, they can be standardized, they are easily integrated into disciplines with certification standards, and they are efficient to implement since they can allow for less labor-intensive feedback and grading. They can involve multiple forms of questions, be of varying lengths, and can be used to assess multiple levels of student learning. Like essays they can be summative or formative forms of assessment.

Things to Keep in Mind about Exams

• Exams typically focus on the assessment of students’ knowledge of facts, figures, and other discrete information crucial to a course. While they can involve questioning that demands students to engage in higher order demonstrations of comprehension, problem solving, analysis, synthesis, critique, and even creativity, such exams often require more time to prepare and validate.
• Exam questions can be multiple choice, true/false, or other discrete answer formats, or they can be essay or problem-solving. For more on how to write good multiple choice questions, see this guide .
• Exams can make significant demands on students’ factual knowledge and therefore can have the side-effect of encouraging cramming and surface learning. Further, when exams are offered infrequently, or when they have high stakes by virtue of their heavy weighting in course grade schemes or in student goals, they may accompany violations of academic integrity.
• In the process of designing an exam, instructors should consider the following questions. What are the learning objectives that the exam seeks to evaluate? Have students been adequately prepared to meet exam expectations? What are the skills and abilities that students need to do well on the exam? How will this exam be utilized to enhance the student learning process?

Self-Assessment

The goal of implementing self-assessment in a course is to enable students to develop their own judgment and the capacities for critical meta-cognition – to learn how to learn. In self-assessment students are expected to assess both the processes and products of their learning. While the assessment of the product is often the task of the instructor, implementing student self-assessment in the classroom ensures students evaluate their performance and the process of learning that led to it. Self-assessment thus provides a sense of student ownership of their learning and can lead to greater investment and engagement. It also enables students to develop transferable skills in other areas of learning that involve group projects and teamwork, critical thinking and problem-solving, as well as leadership roles in the teaching and learning process with their peers.

Things to Keep in Mind about Self-Assessment

• Self-assessment is not self-grading. According to Brown and Knight, “Self-assessment involves the use of evaluative processes in which judgement is involved, where self-grading is the marking of one’s own work against a set of criteria and potential outcomes provided by a third person, usually the [instructor]” (1994, p. 52). Self-assessment can involve self-grading, but instructors of record retain the final authority to determine and assign grades.
• To accurately and thoroughly self-assess, students require clear learning goals for the assignment in question, as well as rubrics that clarify different performance criteria and levels of achievement for each. These rubrics may be instructor-designed, or they may be fashioned through a collaborative dialogue with students. Rubrics need not include any grade assignation, but merely descriptive academic standards for different criteria.
• Students may not have the expertise to assess themselves thoroughly, so it is helpful to build students’ capacities for self-evaluation, and it is important that they always be supplemented with faculty assessments.
• Students may initially resist instructor attempts to involve themselves in the assessment process. This is usually due to insecurities or lack of confidence in their ability to objectively evaluate their own work, or possibly because of habituation to more passive roles in the learning process. Brown and Knight note, however, that when students are asked to evaluate their work, frequently student-determined outcomes are very similar to those of instructors, particularly when the criteria and expectations have been made explicit in advance (1994).
• Methods of self-assessment vary widely and can be as unique as the instructor or the course. Common forms of self-assessment involve written or oral reflection on a student’s own work, including portfolio, logs, instructor-student interviews, learner diaries and dialog journals, post-test reflections, and the like.

Peer Assessment

Peer assessment is a type of collaborative learning technique where students evaluate the work of their peers and, in return, have their own work evaluated as well. This dimension of assessment is significantly grounded in theoretical approaches to active learning and adult learning . Like self-assessment, peer assessment gives learners ownership of learning and focuses on the process of learning as students are able to “share with one another the experiences that they have undertaken” (Brown and Knight, 1994, p. 52).  However, it also provides students with other models of performance (e.g., different styles or narrative forms of writing), as well as the opportunity to teach, which can enable greater preparation, reflection, and meta-cognitive organization.

Things to Keep in Mind about Peer Assessment

• Similar to self-assessment, students benefit from clear and specific learning goals and rubrics. Again, these may be instructor-defined or determined through collaborative dialogue.
• Also similar to self-assessment, it is important to not conflate peer assessment and peer grading, since grading authority is retained by the instructor of record.
• While student peer assessments are most often fair and accurate, they sometimes can be subject to bias. In competitive educational contexts, for example when students are graded normatively (“on a curve”), students can be biased or potentially game their peer assessments, giving their fellow students unmerited low evaluations. Conversely, in more cooperative teaching environments or in cases when they are friends with their peers, students may provide overly favorable evaluations. Also, other biases associated with identity (e.g., race, gender, or class) and personality differences can shape student assessments in unfair ways. Therefore, it is important for instructors to encourage fairness, to establish processes based on clear evidence and identifiable criteria, and to provide instructor assessments as accompaniments or correctives to peer evaluations.
• Students may not have the disciplinary expertise or assessment experience of the instructor, and therefore can issue unsophisticated judgments of their peers. Therefore, to avoid unfairness, inaccuracy, and limited comments, formative peer assessments may need to be supplemented with instructor feedback.

As Brown and Knight assert, utilizing multiple methods of assessment, including more than one assessor when possible, improves the reliability of the assessment data. It also ensures that students with diverse aptitudes and abilities can be assessed accurately and have equal opportunities to excel. However, a primary challenge to the multiple methods approach is how to weigh the scores produced by multiple methods of assessment. When particular methods produce higher range of marks than others, instructors can potentially misinterpret and mis-evaluate student learning. Ultimately, they caution that, when multiple methods produce different messages about the same student, instructors should be mindful that the methods are likely assessing different forms of achievement (Brown and Knight, 1994).

These are only a few of the many forms of assessment that one might use to evaluate and enhance student learning (see also ideas present in Brown and Knight, 1994). To this list of assessment forms and methods we may add many more that encourage students to produce anything from research papers to films, theatrical productions to travel logs, op-eds to photo essays, manifestos to short stories. The limits of what may be assigned as a form of assessment is as varied as the subjects and skills we seek to empower in our students. Vanderbilt’s Center for Teaching has an ever-expanding array of guides on creative models of assessment that are present below, so please visit them to learn more about other assessment innovations and subjects.

Whatever plan and method you use, assessment often begins with an intentional clarification of the values that drive it. While many in higher education may argue that values do not have a role in assessment, we contend that values (for example, rigor) always motivate and shape even the most objective of learning assessments. Therefore, as in other aspects of assessment planning, it is helpful to be intentional and critically reflective about what values animate your teaching and the learning assessments it requires. There are many values that may direct learning assessment, but common ones include rigor, generativity, practicability, co-creativity, and full participation (Bandy et al., 2018). What do these characteristics mean in practice?

Rigor. In the context of learning assessment, rigor means aligning our methods with the goals we have for students, principles of validity and reliability, ethics of fairness and doing no harm, critical examinations of the meaning we make from the results, and good faith efforts to improve teaching and learning. In short, rigor suggests understanding learning assessment as we would any other form of intentional, thoroughgoing, critical, and ethical inquiry.

Generativity. Learning assessments may be most effective when they create conditions for the emergence of new knowledge and practice, including student learning and skill development, as well as instructor pedagogy and teaching methods. Generativity opens up rather than closes down possibilities for discovery, reflection, growth, and transformation.

Practicability. Practicability recommends that learning assessment be grounded in the realities of the world as it is, fitting within the boundaries of both instructor’s and students’ time and labor. While this may, at times, advise a method of learning assessment that seems to conflict with the other values, we believe that assessment fails to be rigorous, generative, participatory, or co-creative if it is not feasible and manageable for instructors and students.

Full Participation. Assessments should be equally accessible to, and encouraging of, learning for all students, empowering all to thrive regardless of identity or background. This requires multiple and varied methods of assessment that are inclusive of diverse identities – racial, ethnic, national, linguistic, gendered, sexual, class, etcetera – and their varied perspectives, skills, and cultures of learning.

Co-creation. As alluded to above regarding self- and peer-assessment, co-creative approaches empower students to become subjects of, not just objects of, learning assessment. That is, learning assessments may be more effective and generative when assessment is done with, not just for or to, students. This is consistent with feminist, social, and community engagement pedagogies, in which values of co-creation encourage us to critically interrogate and break down hierarchies between knowledge producers (traditionally, instructors) and consumers (traditionally, students) (e.g., Saltmarsh, Hartley, & Clayton, 2009, p. 10; Weimer, 2013). In co-creative approaches, students’ involvement enhances the meaningfulness, engagement, motivation, and meta-cognitive reflection of assessments, yielding greater learning (Bass & Elmendorf, 2019). The principle of students being co-creators of their own education is what motivates the course design and professional development work Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching has organized around the Students as Producers theme.

Below is a list of other CFT teaching guides that supplement this one and may be of assistance as you consider all of the factors that shape your assessment plan.

• Active Learning
• An Introduction to Lecturing
• Beyond the Essay: Making Student Thinking Visible in the Humanities
• Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)
• Classroom Response Systems
• How People Learn
• Service-Learning and Community Engagement
• Syllabus Construction
• Teaching with Blogs
• Test-Enhanced Learning
• Assessing Student Learning (a five-part video series for the CFT’s Online Course Design Institute)

Angelo, Thomas A., and K. Patricia Cross. Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers . 2 nd edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993. Print.

Bandy, Joe, Mary Price, Patti Clayton, Julia Metzker, Georgia Nigro, Sarah Stanlick, Stephani Etheridge Woodson, Anna Bartel, & Sylvia Gale. Democratically engaged assessment: Reimagining the purposes and practices of assessment in community engagement . Davis, CA: Imagining America, 2018. Web.

Bass, Randy and Heidi Elmendorf. 2019. “ Designing for Difficulty: Social Pedagogies as a Framework for Course Design .” Social Pedagogies: Teagle Foundation White Paper. Georgetown University, 2019. Web.

Brookfield, Stephen D. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995. Print

Brown, Sally, and Peter Knight. Assessing Learners in Higher Education . 1 edition. London ;Philadelphia: Routledge, 1998. Print.

Cameron, Jeanne et al. “Assessment as Critical Praxis: A Community College Experience.” Teaching Sociology 30.4 (2002): 414–429. JSTOR . Web.

Fink, L. Dee. Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses. Second Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2013. Print.

Gibbs, Graham and Claire Simpson. “Conditions under which Assessment Supports Student Learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education 1 (2004): 3-31. Print.

Henderson, Euan S. “The Essay in Continuous Assessment.” Studies in Higher Education 5.2 (1980): 197–203. Taylor and Francis+NEJM . Web.

Gelmon, Sherril B., Barbara Holland, and Amy Spring. Assessing Service-Learning and Civic Engagement: Principles and Techniques. Second Edition . Stylus, 2018. Print.

Kuh, George. High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter , American Association of Colleges & Universities, 2008. Web.

Maki, Peggy L. “Developing an Assessment Plan to Learn about Student Learning.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship 28.1 (2002): 8–13. ScienceDirect . Web. The Journal of Academic Librarianship. Print.

Sharkey, Stephen, and William S. Johnson. Assessing Undergraduate Learning in Sociology . ASA Teaching Resource Center, 1992. Print.

Walvoord, Barbara. Assessment Clear and Simple: A Practical Guide for Institutions, Departments, and General Education. Second Edition . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print.

Weimer, Maryellen. Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice. Second Edition . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2013. Print.

Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding By Design . 2nd Expanded edition. Alexandria,

VA: Assn. for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2005. Print.

[1] For more on Wiggins and McTighe’s “Backward Design” model, see our teaching guide here .

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Home » Blog » 15 Active Learning Strategies and Examples

15 Active Learning Strategies and Examples

This paradigm shift from traditional teaching to active learning underscores the learner’s role in constructing knowledge. Rather than being just a recipient of information, the learner becomes an active participant in a two-way process, whereby learning is imprinted through memorable, interactive activities and challenges.

With today’s dynamic global environment, active learning has become more critical in L&D than ever before. This teaching approach encourages employees to play an active role in their own education, fostering a culture of continuous learning and adaptability, vital in the ever-evolving world of work.

What is Active Learning and How Does it Work?

First defined in 1991 by educational theorists Charles C. Bonwell and James A. Eison , the method includes “anything that involves students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing.” It’s a reciprocal process where cognition and demonstration combine to reinforce key learning points.

A recent study conducted at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute concluded that “active learning can put students in the driver’s seat of their lessons. Active learning techniques encourage students to produce thoughts and get feedback through interactive settings rather than passively receiving information as is common in pervasive approaches to education like lectures and readings.”

Active learning allows students to analyse, synthesise and apply knowledge rather than passively receive information. It fosters learner engagement , interaction, and deeper understanding, moving beyond the memorization of facts to cultivate higher-order thinking skills.

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Key components of active learning strategies.

At the heart of active learning are three fundamental components: Engagement , Reflection, and Application. Learners actively engage with the material, reflect on the content’s relevance and meaning, and apply what they’ve learned in practical, often collaborative, situations.

Here’s how those three components work in more detail:

Engagement : This aspect describes a mix of concentration and interest. Students focus on the topic in hand because it is taught in a manner that makes it intrinsically interesting.

Reflection : Students are asked to consciously reflect on the subjects they have been learning. This helps personalise and imprint the knowledge, and the repetition of key points helps fix them in memory.

Application : This aspect focuses on the practical use of key pieces of learning. By making the topic practical, students learn how useful the subject can be, motivating them to remember and focus.

Another key element of active learning is that it’s frequently collaborative. Not only do learners benefit from interaction with the educator, but they join forces in team exercises, or share their opinions and experiences in group discussion.

Benefits of Active Learning

Active learning has a plethora of benefits, some of which include:

Boosting Retention

Active learning strategies help learners retain information better. When learners actively engage with content—discussing, debating, teaching, or applying it—they’re more likely to remember it. Part of the reason for this is that activities help personalise the learning content, creating appreciation and some of the positive emotions that make an experience memorable. Information Processing Theory explains retention in three stages – sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Critical Thinking

Active learning cultivates critical thinking skills. Learners don’t just absorb information; they analyse, evaluate, and synthesise it, fostering problem-solving and decision-making skills. Critical thinking is considered a soft skill and is essential to any modern educational programme, from social science to the humanities, hard science, and vocational subjects.

Collaboration

Active learning often involves teamwork and collaboration. Through group activities and discussions, learners develop interpersonal skills and learn to work effectively as a team. This is particularly helpful in workplace settings where learners can support one another in the shared goal of picking up new skills they can use at work.

Increasing Engagement

Active learning increases learner engagement. Interactive activities stimulate interest and motivate learners, contributing to a more enjoyable and effective learning experience. By creating engaging interactive content, you can avoid the glazed eyes or after-lunch slump of less involving courses!

15 Active Learning Examples

Now that we understand active learning and its benefits, let’s delve into some practical strategies to implement this learning approach.

1. Think-Pair-Share

Think-Pair-Share encourages collaboration and peer learning. Learners think about a question or problem individually, pair up to discuss their thoughts, then share their insights with the larger group. This method combines social learning activities like collaboration and reflection in a way that draws out the strengths of both modalities.

2. Three-Step Interviews

Three-Step interviews allow learners to apply different questioning strategies and reflect on understanding. They take turns acting as the interviewer, interviewee, and observer, promoting active engagement and deep reflection. This kind of active learning works particularly well for courses emphasising social and negotiation skills, including hospitality, politics, journalism, and sales.

3. Case Studies

Using case studies enables learners to apply concepts to real-world scenarios. This strategy fosters critical thinking and problem-solving skills, linking theoretical learning to practical application. Case studies should be designed to chime with course participants’ lives and experiences, allowing them to offer their own personal insights. This allows them to become emotionally and intellectually involved in the subject under discussion, and the learning is likely to stick.

4. Role-Play

Role-play enhances empathy and problem-solving skills. By acting out scenarios, learners gain insights into different perspectives and learn to navigate complex situations. It can be particularly instructive to ask learners to inhabit both sides of an interaction, for instance, a police officer and suspect, or sales professional and buyer. Not all students will be comfortable in such a performative exercise, however.

5. Flipped Classroom

In a flipped classroom, learners explore content independently before class, freeing up classroom time for active discussions and problem-solving activities. This method works best in a highly motivated educational setting, such as vocational training resulting in professional qualifications. An obvious drawback is that, if students don’t prepare, they’ll get very little out of the class-based content. It’s also important for participants to reflect on in-class discussions after each session.

6. The Muddiest Point

The Muddiest Point requires learners to reflect on challenging areas, providing invaluable feedback for the educator. The educator will typically ask “what didn’t you understand?” or “what point did you find most complex?” and then follow up with a focused session exploring that concept. This technique helps identify misconceptions and knowledge gaps, as well as improving future iterations of course content.

7. Problem-Based Learning

Problem-Based Learning cultivates critical thinking and decision-making skills. Learners tackle real-world problems, applying knowledge and skills in a practical context. Rather than the theoretical situations covered in a typical case study, problem-based learning might take a story from the news or social media and explore it under the lens of the topic in hand. This makes the subject feel more relevant to the students, and more useful.

8. Simulations and Gamification

Simulations and gamification create immersive learning experiences. These methods engage learners in an interactive, competitive environment, enhancing motivation and learning outcomes. Such games could involve anything from quizzes to physical games or puzzles to be solved by teams. Some subjects will lend themselves to this better than others, and competitive workplaces , such as sales teams, may prove more comfortable with such challenges.

9. Peer Teaching

Peer teaching reinforces understanding and builds confidence in knowledge. By teaching their peers, learners gain a deeper understanding and consolidate their learning. The classic American “show and tell” in junior school is an example of this, but adult learners can also benefit from sharing their experiences or explaining a point with reference to an example from their own working lives.

10. Debates and Discussions

Debates and discussions encourage active participation and analysis. They foster critical thinking and the ability to articulate and defend viewpoints. Although a little out of favour in modern schools, nevertheless this classic strategy serves to imprint key issues in social, cultural, and political thinking. It’s possible to reduce the antagonistic elements of debates by imposing strict discourse rules (such as addressing the chair or avoiding ad hominem attacks).

11. Interactive Quizzes and Polls

Interactive quizzes and polls engage learners and assess knowledge. They make learning fun, while also serving as valuable tools for instant feedback. These can work just as well in-person as they might online, or in blended learning settings. They are essential as part of any eLearning Platform that offers online courses – as both a measurement tool and a method of monitoring progress and content effectiveness.

12. Experiential Learning

Experiential learning involves hands-on activities for practical skill development. Learners gain practical experience, increasing the transfer of learning to real-world situations. For situations in which site visits are impossible, bringing pieces of the subject into the classroom can be highly instructive. First aid lessons require this aspect, and children love this aspect of learning. It’s worth not neglecting this for adult learners of any subject, however.

13. Brainstorming Sessions

Brainstorming sessions stimulate creativity and idea generation. They foster open-mindedness, encouraging learners to consider various possibilities and solutions. When brainstorming, it’s vital not to make any value judgments on suggestions, but simply to group and list student ideas. Once everyone has had their say, the educator and class can begin to identify common themes and recurring ideas.

14. Field Trips and Site Visits

Field trips and site visits connect learning to real-world situations. They enhance understanding and contextualization of knowledge. Site visits are fun and instructive and add much-needed variety to an in-person course. They often introduce students to hands-on skills they might pursue in greater depth, or to potential workplaces or causes they can become invested in.

15. Learning Circles and Communities

Learning circles and communities help foster collaboration and knowledge sharing. They create a supportive learning environment where learners can learn from one another, share insights, and collaboratively solve problems. With digital courses, it’s often important to create a forum for learners where mutual encouragement and support can occur. When classes are held in-person, students can be encouraged to help one another with coursework and collaborative projects.

Implementing Active Learning Strategies

Key considerations.

When incorporating active learning strategies, consider the learning objectives , the learners’ characteristics and needs, and the available resources. It’s also important to ask what students want to get out of the course (rather than any objective need for certification or qualification).

The right blend of active learning strategies can enhance the learning experience, making it more engaging, meaningful, and effective.

For instance, you’ll need a very different approach with a community of language learners from different countries, with varying levels of proficiency, than you would teaching an established workplace group where the main variable is seniority.

Let’s break these variables down a little:

Student Objectives: What would each student like to get out of the class, in terms of educational purpose and enhancement of their working or home life?

Student Characteristics: What proficiency and understanding level are your students at? If it’s a workplace course, what level of seniority do they have (how easily can the effect change)? If you have shy students, how can you involve them in activities without undue pressure?

Student Needs: What is the practical outcome supposed to be? It could be a qualification, a certificate, or simply a better understanding of a topic. It’s also worth asking, going into a class, if anyone has any additional needs, since you may have students with dyslexia, ADHD, or other learning challenges.

Available Resources: Do you provide paper and pens, devices, calculators? Do you invite guest speakers? Are their physical challenges and hands-on experiences? Do you provide meals? All these ingredients could affect the success of your course.

Challenges of Active Learning Strategies

Active learning strategies, while beneficial, pose certain challenges. They require time, resources, and planning. They also require students to buy into a style of learning that some may not be familiar with.

Let’s unpack three more common challenges of active learning in a little more detail:

Student Hesitancy: To make active learning inviting, it’s best to design courses so that students come to expect and are prepared for this style of education from day one. Begin with simple exercises like a current knowledge quiz or simple pair exercises, and then progress to more involved exercises.

It’s also important to be clear with instructions and allow time for students to get used to being active rather than passive participants. Explain why you’re using these methods, rather than more rote methods of learning. If students believe it’s in their best interests to participate, they will.

Lack of Collaboration: Before you can expect a group of disparate individuals to work together, they must feel comfortable together. Begin with simple introductory exercises, so students get to know one another before being asked to share more personal experiences. Where students are too shy to choose partners, it’s okay to assign partners for them, so long as you attend to any obvious signs of discomfort.

Running out of Time: This is very common. When students are engaged, they can lose track of time. It’s often a good sign!

However, to avoid your course running out of control, make sure you do time trials of collaborative exercises, and be very upfront with any timescales you impose. You can even use a bell or whistle to warn students when they have five or two minutes left to finish up an exercise.

All these challenges can be overcome through careful design, strategic planning, scene setting, and the use of technology to streamline and support the learning process.

Remember that active learning is often a process of trial and error. What works well with one group may not prove so successful with another. It’s worth having alternative exercises to hand in case it becomes obvious that you need to pivot to a different approach.

Measuring the Impact of Active Learning Strategies

Methods to measure the effectiveness of active learning include surveys, assessments, observation, and feedback. Make sure you incorporate a bit of time for learners to complete satisfaction surveys or training feedback forms and make it as easy as possible to do so anonymously. Don’t make these too lengthy but do allow space for comments.

It’s essential to evaluate not only engagement and knowledge acquisition but also the development of skills and attitudes and the transfer of learning to real-world scenarios. Ideally, whoever has commissioned the course will have some method for following up and measuring KPIs after some weeks or months have passed. Ask if you can receive a copy of this information too.

Final Insights

Active learning, with its focus on engagement, reflection, and application, offers numerous benefits. It boosts retention, enhances critical thinking, fosters collaboration, and increases engagement.

At Skillshub, we fully commit to active learning, and incorporate many of its strategies into our learning solutions, creating eLearning content which is engaging, active and involving.

Our offerings are designed to facilitate active learning, equipping learners with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to thrive in today’s dynamic world.

If you’re ready to incorporate active learning into your L&D strategy with the help of an eLearning company , get in touch with us today!

Sean McPheat

Sean is the CEO of Skillshub. He’s a published author and has been featured on CNN, BBC and ITV as a leading authority in the learning and development industry. Sean is responsible for the vision and strategy at Skillshub, helping to ensure innovation within the company.

Updated on: 4 October, 2023

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Top Learning Techniques

Last Updated: Aug 28, 2024

Every student is different, which means that their learning style will vary too. For example, whilst some students prefer to spend days poring over their textbooks, others prefer to create cue cards from the notes that they’ve made in lectures.

In recent years, online learning has become increasingly popular as students realise the benefits of learning in their own homes, at their own pace. However, this learning format comes with its own challenges that require adapted learning techniques.

You need to find the learning practices that work best for you to get the most out of your course. It may take some trial and error to find the best technique, which is why it’s best to start trying different methods as early as possible on your course.

We’ve compiled a number of learning techniques that can help you to maximise the success of your study sessions and provide you with a good foundation for your exams.

What are the top learning techniques for students?

Some of the best techniques for learning include retrieval practice, spaced practice and collaboration. These methods are designed to keep your brain active through information recollection and creating connections between topics so that you have a better overall understanding.

The techniques featured in this article are effective for students that attend in-person classes and those that learn online too.  Research shows  that cramming in revision in the lead up to exams, which is favoured by most students, is ineffective compared to other learning styles.

Continue reading to find out the learning strategies that have been scientifically proven to increase your knowledge intake and understanding of topics.

Retrieval practice

One of the best ways to improve your learning is to try and recall information that you have previously obtained. At the beginning of each study session, you should try to recall the topics that you covered in your previous session or online lesson. You can do this by writing bullet points about the topic from memory and then double-checking that you have remembered the information correctly.

This method will get your brain working faster than if you just re-read your revision or lecture notes. Another option is to take an online quiz or practice test so that you can identify areas that you are stronger in and the areas that you should prioritise in your next study session.

Many students find it incredibly effective to talk about the topic to a friend or family member. It’s also a good idea to try and contact your fellow students to see if they would be willing to act as a study partner over video call or email.

You will find yourself remembering more about the topic as you verbally describe and explain each concept or fact. Practice retrieval will reinforce your knowledge of the topic, especially if the person you are talking to asks questions.

Practice testing

Not only does taking practice tests familiarise you with the exam layout and question formats, but they will also highlight gaps in your knowledge that you can work on.

At BARBRI, we give our students several multiple-choice tests that are delivered in an exam style. The answers to the questions and guidance will only be offered once all of the questions have been completed. There are four mock tests throughout the course, including two 90-question practice tests and a full SQE1 exam with all 360 questions.

Taking regular practice tests can help to ease the stress and anxiety that accompanies the actual exams. It will also help you to consolidate your knowledge into answering actual questions.

Elaborative Interrogation

This learning technique involves thinking of questions about the topics that you are studying so that you can add background information. You will form your own interpretation of the topics rather than just absorbing what you are being told from other resources.

You can build on existing knowledge that you may already have. It’s helpful to form your own connections between topics or conduct further research into a particularly complex area to gain an understanding of the bigger picture.

Summarisation

You are exposed to large volumes of information when you are studying for exams. This can often get confusing as you try to remember it all at once. However, a good learning technique is to summarise the most important information and factors from each topic.

Try reading a passage in a textbook or making notes in a lecture and then pick out the essential facts and ideas. You should try to focus on the keywords and phrases to get a better understanding of the principal factors of the topic.

This technique is best applied straight after a lesson or study session so that you can summarise everything that you have learnt. It will also highlight any areas that you are unsure about so that you can talk about them with your personal tutor or study buddies.

Summarising topics will make it easier to revise nearer the exam as you can pick out the key components from each topic, rather than having to read through pages and pages of information.

Spaced practice

College students are notorious for trying to cram lots of studying into each day as they near an exam. However, this technique can be very stressful and ineffective. A better alternative is to spread out your study time in the weeks and months leading up to an exam so that you can take the information in more manageable chunks.

Spreading study sessions over a long period of time requires advance planning. You will need to organise and plan your sessions at the beginning of the semester to maximise the method’s success.

You will be able to retain more information in the long run because you can focus on each topic in manageable chunks. Although cramming sessions might seem effective before an exam, you are likely to forget the information in the following weeks and months because you didn’t spend long enough on each section.

Collaborate

Online learning can be very solitary, which can have an impact on your studies. It’s good to talk to your peers and tutors where possible so that you can get help with topics that you are struggling with or expand your knowledge.

We assign every student a Learning Coach, who you will have contact with at least once every two weeks. Your personal mentor can help you go over what you are learning and clarify areas that you are confused about or would like extra guidance with.

You should make a note of your tutors’ office hours so that you can arrange a meeting in advance. It’s also beneficial to attend workshops so that you can discuss work with other students. It’s likely that you will have different strengths and weaknesses with your peers, which is a good reason to arrange study sessions.

Explaining topics to someone else can reinforce your knowledge, whilst a fellow student could help you to see a topic from a different perspective.

Interleaving

Interleaving is a technique that involves studying and learning multiple topics at once. Your brain will stay more active as you move from one topic to the next, especially if the topics are very different.

You can try to make links between the topics to give yourself a better understanding of them as a whole. However, don’t try to switch between the topics too often – you should make sure you’ve made decent progress on one topic before moving on to the next.

You might initially find yourself getting confused. You’ll soon find that the swapping between topics helps you retain more information in the long run, though, as your brain will be more active in making connections and picking up information for each new section.

Concrete examples

The human brain finds it easier to understand ideas if they are concrete rather than abstract. This means that you should try to find a link between the concepts that you are taught with a literal example. Your brain will find it easier to understand and recall the information if you have something physical to reference it to.

This method is more effective if you use an example that doesn’t have an obvious relationship with the topic but still clearly represents the topic. For example, pizza slices are often used to represent percentages and fractions in maths. You’ll need to make sure that the examples are correct representations of the topic and aren’t too complicated so that you don’t confuse yourself later on.

Dual coding

This theory tests the idea that we learn best when we are exposed to two different stimuli. An effective combination of two stimuli includes visual and verbal learning. You take in information at a different rate when you are looking at an image, listening to or reading it.

Verbal recollection is sequential. You are fed a bit of information at a time before you understand the whole situation. However, you take in more information at once when you are looking at an image or video, but you may not fully understand what you are seeing.

For example, someone might tell you a story about someone who is gardening. They would first tell you who was involved, where they were and what they were planting. If you were to look at a picture of someone gardening, however, you would immediately take in the situation in a few seconds. However, you might not get additional information from the picture, such as what they were planting or the exact town they were in.

It’s highly effective to combine both visual and verbal stimuli. This could be in the form of a diagram with labels or listening to a spoken explanation whilst you watch an animation.

How can I make the most out of the learning strategies?

There are so many learning techniques to try, which is why you should switch to a new one if you find a certain method isn’t working for you. You can also combine the techniques to enhance your learning experience. Interleaving and spaced practice are two methods that work better when they are used with other learning strategies because they focus on the strategy of your learning, rather than the technique for each session.

The learning process of students is vital to gaining a comprehensive understanding of a subject. Research suggests that improving learning strategies, such as replacing notes revision with practices such as elaborative interrogation, will encourage students to actively retain more information.

Practising valuable study skills in a learning environment, whether it be in class or online, can help you to make sense of the class materials and interpret them into your own words. You can spend your online study session writing notes and then summarise the information or turn it into a diagram to help you absorb the important facts.

Practice tests are also one of the best learning techniques as you can identify the areas that need more work whilst also getting an idea of the best way to answer questions for high grades. A practice test, as well as other learning materials and sources such as cue cards and study groups, can help you to gain a new perspective on a topic.

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7 powerful chunking techniques for learning and productivity.

• Updated April 9, 2024

Ever feel like your brain’s playing Jenga with information, and it’s one wrong move away from collapsing? Enter chunking – the memory superhero you’ve been waiting for. If you find yourself struggling to memorize large amounts of information, the chunking memory strategy might just be the solution you’ve been looking for. 

Chunking is a memory technique where you break down large amounts of information into smaller, more manageable pieces or “chunks” that are easier to remember. In this article, we’ll explore the science behind chunking, how to apply it in your daily life, examples of chunking, its benefits, common mistakes to avoid, future implications, case studies, and how to supercharge it by teaming up with other memory techniques for maximum results.

Table of Contents

The Science Behind Chunking: How It Helps You Remember More Information

  Ever felt like your brain’s inbox is perpetually overflowing? Studies have shown that the human brain can hold a limited amount of information at one time. This limitation can be increased by breaking down large amounts of information into smaller chunks. Yes, you’re right; chunking is here to declutter. Doing this can reduce cognitive load and make it easier for your brain to process and remember the information. Think of it as a mental cheat code that turns overwhelming data into a neatly organized playlist.

Chunking allows you to create meaningful connections between pieces of information, making it easier to remember. For example, try to remember a phone number as a single string of digits. Nightmare, right?  Breaking it down into smaller groups or chunks, like a phone number or a credit card number, can make it easier to remember. Your brain dances through these smaller chunks effortlessly, making recall a breeze.

Chunking isn’t just for numbers. It can also be applied to other types of information, such as text, lists, or anything else that gives your brain a workout. Breaking down a large block of text into smaller paragraphs or sections makes it easier to read and retain the information.

Presentations or speeches looming like a dark cloud? Chunking is your sunshine. When it comes to memorizing speeches or presentations , you can use chunking to help you remember key points or ideas. This can be done by breaking the speech or presentation down into smaller sections and focusing on each section individually. This way, you can remember each category as a single unit and recall the points more easily. Overall, chunking is a powerful tool that can help you improve your memory and cognitive abilities. It feels as easy as reciting your favorite lyrics. 

Presentations or speeches looming like a dark cloud? Chunking is your sunshine. When it comes to memorizing speeches or presentations, you can use chunking to help you remember key points or ideas. This can be done by breaking the speech or presentation down into smaller sections and focusing on each section individually. This way, you can remember each category as a single unit and recall the points more easily. Overall, chunking is a powerful tool that can help you improve your memory and cognitive abilities. It feels as easy as reciting your favorite lyrics. 

How to Apply Chunking in Your Daily Life: Tips and Techniques

Ready to sprinkle some chunking magic into your daily routine here are the different ways to apply the chunking memory strategy in your daily life:, 1. mnemonics devices.

These are memory aids that help to reduce cognitive load by creating a meaningful association between information and an image or phrase. if you need to remember a shopping list, you can associate each item on the list with a room in your house: picture eggs in the kitchen, bread in the pantry – your shopping list becomes a mental map.

2. Mind Maps

These visual representations of information can help you see and make connections between different pieces of information. Visualize your thoughts. Connect the dots between different ideas. It’s like a roadmap for your brain. Mind maps can be particularly useful for studying, brainstorming, and organizing your thoughts.

3. Breaking down larger tasks

This is an effective way to apply chunking in your daily life. If you have a big project to complete, you can break it down into smaller tasks and focus on completing one task at a time. It’s like turning Mount Everest into a series of scenic hikes. This can help to reduce overwhelm and increase productivity.

4. Use acronyms

Creating an acronym for a list of items or information can make it easier to remember. For example, using the acronym HOMES to remember the names of the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior).

5. Break information down into related categories

When trying to remember a lot of information, it can be helpful to group related items together. For example, if you’re trying to memorize a list of vocabulary words, you could group them by category. Whether it’s animals, food, household items, etc, it’s like sorting your mental closet.

6. Use repetition

Repeat, repeat, repeat. Your brain loves the familiar. Repetition is a powerful tool for memory retention. By repeating information in small chunks, you can increase your chances of remembering it. For example, if you’re trying to learn a new language, repeating new vocabulary words in small groups can help you to remember them.

7. Create a story

Creating a story incorporating the information you’re trying to remember can make it more memorable. For example, if you’re trying to remember historical events, you could create a story that weaves together the different events and their significance. Turn dry facts into a gripping tale, and even the most boring historical events become characters in your mental movie, making them unforgettable.

8. Use visualization

Picture it. Literally. Visualization can be a powerful tool for memory retention. Creating mental images of the information you’re trying to remember can help to make it more memorable. If you’re trying to remember a person’s name, you could create a mental image of them holding a sign with their name on it.

The Benefits of Using Chunking in Learning and Productivity

Why bother with chunking because it’s a game-changer. chunking has many benefits when it comes to learning and productivity. some of the main advantages include:.

• Improved memory and recall: Breaking down information into smaller chunks can make it easier for your brain to process and remember the information, leading to better retention and recall.
• Reduced cognitive load: By reducing the amount of information you need to process at one time, chunking can help reduce mental strain on your brain, leading to improved focus and productivity.

• Better understanding of complex information: Breaking down complex information into smaller, more manageable chunks can help you to identify patterns and connections between different pieces of information, leading to a deeper understanding of the material and easier application in real-world situations.

Chunking can help you organize your thoughts and ideas better: By breaking down complex ideas into smaller, more manageable pieces, you can better structure your thoughts and see how different pieces of information are related.

Chunking can also be a useful tool for improving your problem-solving skills: When you’re faced with a complex problem, breaking it down into smaller, more manageable parts can make it easier to identify the key issues and develop an effective solution.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using the Chunking Memory Strategy

• Chunking’s a hero, but even heroes stumble. While chunking can be a useful memory tool, people make some common mistakes when using it. One mistake is trying to chunk too much information at once. You should aim to create small chunks to be easily understood and remembered. Don’t overload. Create chunks that your brain can comfortably juggle. 
• Another mistake is failing to make meaningful connections between the various pieces of information. Chunking works when there’s meaning. For chunking to be effective, you must create associations or connections between chunks that make sense. Random chunks without connections? Not so effective.

Effective Chunking vs. Common Mistake

Effective chunking, common mistake.

Combining Chunking with Other Memory Techniques for Maximum Results

Why settle for one memory wizard when you can have a whole squad? Combine chunking with other techniques for an unbeatable team. While chunking can be a powerful memory tool on its own, combining it with other memory techniques can lead to even better results. For example, you can combine chunking with the loci (memory palace) method, which involves associating different pieces of information with a specific location. By doing this, you can create a mental map that helps you to remember the information more effectively.

Another technique you can combine with chunking is spaced repetition. Spaced repetition involves reviewing information at strategic intervals to reinforce it in your memory. Like a memory fitness plan, it keeps your chunks in top form. By using spaced repetition in conjunction with chunking, you can reinforce the connections between the various chunks of information, making it even easier to remember. If you want to learn more such fun techniques and exercises to improve your memory and concentration, check our blog on “ Memory Recall Exercises: Best Brain & Physical Exercises to Improve Memory & Concentration. “

Chunking isn’t just a powerful memory tool; it’s your memory sidekick. Chunking can help you remember large amounts of information quickly and easily. By breaking information down into smaller chunks and creating meaningful connections between them, you can reduce cognitive load and improve your memory and recall. From studying for exams to nailing that speech – chunking has your back. So, whether you’re facing a mountain of facts or just trying to remember your grocery list, let chunking be your memory guide. Break it down, connect the dots, and suddenly, remembering becomes a walk in the memory park.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is chunking suitable for visual learners.

Absolutely! Visual learners can leverage chunking by creating visual associations between the information chunks. Mind maps, color-coded categories, and other visual aids enhance the effectiveness of chunking for those who thrive on visual cues.

Can Chunking Be Applied to Improve Time Management?

Yes, indeed! Breaking down tasks into smaller, manageable chunks can significantly improve time management. By focusing on one chunk at a time, individuals can enhance productivity, reduce procrastination, and maintain a clearer perspective on their overall schedule.

Does Chunking Work Equally Well for Short-Term and Long-Term Memory?

Chunking is versatile and effective for both short-term and long-term memory. While it aids in quickly memorizing and recalling information in the short term, its structured approach also contributes to better encoding and retention for the long haul.

How Can Chunking Help in Studying for Exams?

Chunking is a game-changer for exam preparation. Instead of trying to memorize entire chapters at once, break down the material into smaller sections. This makes studying more manageable and facilitates better understanding and retention, leading to more effective exam performance.

Can Chunking Be Used to Improve Public Speaking Skills?

Certainly! Public speaking often involves remembering key points or segments of a speech. Chunking allows speakers to break down their speech into smaller, coherent sections. This helps in smoother delivery, reduces the chances of forgetting crucial information, and boosts overall confidence during presentations.

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