Center for Excellence in TeachingActive learning: students learn through teaching
A description of how almost any class activity typically led by an instructor can be led by students as an active learning experience, sample activities, and how to structure such an activity.
Resources: Active learning
Discussing controversial political issues
This resource provides context on why discussing political issues with students is important, techniques to facilitate these discussions, scenarios and language to help you manage the conversation, and additional resources.
Case-based role play
A general structure and options for case-based role play activities and assignments.
An expert interview on learning theories and active learning
An interview with Kim Hirabayashi on learning theories and how they align with active learning.
Active learning
A video overview to the foundations of active learning.
Muddy Points
A video resource by Jean-Michel Maarek on the muddy points technique to monitor learning and how you can integrate it into your course.
Perusing Perusall: Strategies for active reading, social annotation, and asynchronous discussion
A faculty showcase presentation by Patti Taylor. A demonstration of Perusall and how it can be used in online courses.
Promoting intrinsic motivation
A collection of strategies for increasing student intrinsic motivation, organized by three motivational factors.
Sample assignment descriptions
A collection of assignment descriptions from actual USC courses. The assignment descriptions follow best practices in terms of connecting the assignment to the course learning objective(s), providing a narrative overview of the assignment, indicating the steps required to complete the assignment, and referencing how the assignment will be graded.
In-class work as participation
This guide serves as an explanation of using in-class work to evaluate student participation, and why in-class work is preferred over less-structured forms of participation. Suggestions for facilitating in-class work, and samples, are provided.