Active Learning Certification

The Active Learning Certification is designed to support part-time and full-time faculty in transforming students from passive listeners to active learners while improving learning and deepening understanding. As a result of the coursework, faculty will learn how to engage students more deeply in the learning process through meaningful lessons while promoting student reflection of understanding. At least 36 PD hours of both required and are needed to earn the certification.

To successfully achieve the certification, the faculty member must complete (3) required courses: Foundations of Active Learning (10 PD hrs.), Impacting Active Learning through Metacognition (10 PD hrs.), and Active Learning Capstone (10 PD hrs.). At least (6) additional Active Learning Elective PD hours must be taken. Please note that no application is needed upon completion of the requirements for the certification. You will be notified via email confirmation that the requirements were met shortly after you finish the Capstone course. Please see the certification planning document below for additional information on the required course sequence. Please see the required course sequence below.

Certification Planning Document
The planning document provides a list of required and elective courses which can be used to plan your certification. It is available as a printer-friendly fillable PDF. Active Learning Certification Planning Document

Certifications and Programs
Active Learning CertificationAssociate Faculty CertificationDestinationDigital Professor CertificationLifeMap CertificationSeneff Honors CertificationStudy Abroad Leader Certification

We would like to congratulate our  Active Learning Certificate Recipients!

Required Course Sequence

  1. LCTS3290 Foundations of Active Learning
    10 PD Hours

    This is the first course in the Active Learning Certificate sequence. Throughout the course, participants will be introduced to the theories and principles of Active Learning, as well as gain an introduction to the Capstone portfolio assessment at the end of the certificate process. Specific emphasis will be placed on integrating and sharing active learning strategies into the classroom.

    This course is required for the Active Learning Certification. It is a prerequisite for LCTS3291 Impacting Active Learning Through Metacognition.

  2. LCTS3291 Impacting Active Learning through Metacognition
    10 PD Hours

    Metacognition, the awareness of one’s own thought processes, can play a powerful role in what and how we learn. This course will discuss metacognitive awareness and how it can impact learning. Participants will examine how metacognitive strategies can be integrated into active learning activities to support student learning. Participants will also apply metacognitive principles to their own teaching practices.

    Note: This course is required for the Active Learning Certification. It is a prerequisite for LCTS3292 Active Learning Capstone.

  3. Active Learning Electives (At least 6 elective PD Hours required. See list of electives below.)
  4. LCTS3292 Active Learning Capstone
    10 PD Hours

    This capstone course includes showcasing a portfolio of work demonstrating the active learning program outcomes have been met. The portfolio's artifacts will include lesson plans incorporating active learning and metacognitive strategies, a variety of student feedback examples, and self-reflections.

    Note: This course is required for Active Learning Certification.

Electives

INDV1153: Making Learning Accessible
10 PD hours

This online course is designed for faculty and staff who wish to develop an enhanced awareness of learner diversity including those with disabilities. This course will assist faculty in identifying and utilizing strategies in order to create an optimal learning environment to teach all learners.

INDV2151: Inclusion and Diversity
2.5 PD hours

In this seminar, participants will investigate learning opportunities that acknowledge, draw upon and are enriched by student diversity and create atmospheres of inclusion and understanding. Participants will reflect on power differentials in the classroom, ways to increase inclusion and minimize exclusion and some theoretical underpinnings of Inclusion and Diversity.

INDV2255: Multiple Perspectives
2 PD hours

In this workshop, participants will investigate teaching strategies to improve students' abilities to engage in conversation with alternative viewpoints. Participants will reflect on ways to reveal the importance of recognizing and engaging multiple perspectives as well as ways to motivate students to learn from reputable sources.

INDV7311: Creating a Safe Space Dialogue
10 PD hours

This course will demonstrate techniques for establishing a respectful and inclusive environment that promotes healthy classroom dialogue. Dialogue can assist students in moving information from a memorized or theoretical understanding, to a more integrated, tangible and lasting knowledge. Participants will engage in best practices designed to promote discussion as a pedagogical tool. In registering for this course, you are committing to two meetings across two terms (one 4-hour and one 3-hour), complete the required reading and integrate a conversation activity into your class.

LCTS2214: Problem-Based Learning
2 PD Hours

This course explores the learning of subject matter and skill acquisition through collaborative problem-solving. Emphasis is placed on using this method in community college courses.

LCTS2217: Project-based Learning
2 PD Hours

In project-based learning, students answer a complex, open-ended question or solve an authentic problem through a collaborative process of investigation. Unlike traditional instruction where students are presented with knowledge and given an opportunity to apply that knowledge, project-based learning starts with the end in mind--a product that requires the learning of essential content and skills. In this workshop, faculty will be introduced to the seven characteristics of project-based learning, as well as techniques for managing a project-based learning experience in one's classroom. Workshop participants will draft a driving-question and will begin developing ideas for project-based learning experiences in their disciplines.

LCTS2222: Case-based Teaching
2 PD Hours

Case studies can provide a rich base for developing problem-solving and decision making skills. These critical thinking skills are necessary to meet higher level learning outcomes. This class will explore the most appropriate methods of integrating case-based teaching strategies into your course.

LCTS2223: Asking the Right Questions
2 PD Hours

Well-designed questions function as critical thinking prompts for students. This workshop will explore how to construct questions for class discussion and written work that encourages critical thinking. Participants will be introduced to a theoretical framework for "preparing, posing and pondering" questions and then use that framework to examine sample questions and create questions for their classes. * This is an elective in the Active Learning Certification and the Peace and Justice Practitioner Certification.

 
LCTS2224: Actively Engaging Students in the Learning Process
2 PD Hours

Research shows that students lose focus after fifteen to twenty minutes of listening to a lecture. This workshop will provide participants with strategies to punctuate lectures with active learning techniques to better engage students and improve learning while employing the backward design of assessment.

LCTS2226: Write to Learn
2 PD Hours

Write to learn activities allow students to think through a course concept to demonstrate understanding. As a learning-centered strategy, it assesses whether learning has occurred and promotes confidence. In this workshop, participants will examine several write-to-learn activities designed to deepen discipline learning and create an activity for their course.

LCTS3293: Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) I
2 PD Hours

Through an immersive technology-enhanced experience, faculty will explore strategies and tools for implementing active learning with technology. Looking at active learning through the lens of Adult Learning Theory, Social Cognitive Theory, and Constructivism, faculty will explore and evaluate specific educational technologies that align to these learning theories to their practice.

LCTS3294: Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) II
8 PD Hours

Continuing the Technology-Enhanced Active Learning Experience from TEAL 1, participants will build on the concepts that they have begun mapping, constructing a lesson plan "recipe" with a technology that will correlate to an active learning activity for their course. In this hands-on mixed mode course, participants will have the opportunity to test their tech ideas in the "Test Kitchen" format before posting their lesson plan and active learning technology tools.