Courtney Haworth

It is important to make students feel comfortable asking questions and communicating with the instructor in an online setting.  New technologies don't mean students will automatically be engaged, it needs to support the learning outcome. 

It is very important to address the problem of boredom, especially with online classes.  I believe it helps to connect the content to something in the students' lives...whether it be real world examples or discussing how they will use this information or skill in their new career choice that they are working towards.  When students see value in what they are learning, they should be more engaged.

Students must be allowed to participate in their learning process and the instructor can make this happen by intentionally altering the instructional design and activities to benefit the students.  Passive learning is still required, especially for new material, however, it should not always be passive. It is the instructor's responsibility to create experiences and materials that will help the students' learning.

This module showed me that active learning is more than just "doing" an activity.  The students need to have some "ownership" of their learning and the activities to be more engaged.  Creating a good learning environment is also important to promote active learning.