Standard 5: Learning Activities & Interaction

Standard 5.1

Learning activities are varied and build the skills and knowledge students need to achieve learning outcomes.

Standard 5.2

Learning activities build community and provide opportunities for interactions between students and between student(s) and instructor.

Standard 5.3

Expectations for student interactions and instructor’s plan for regular interaction with students are clearly stated.

Learning Activities and Interaction

Lightbulb image

Learning activities are the building blocks of your course, designed to help students develop the skills and knowledge necessary to achieve learning outcomes and successfully complete assessments. These activities should be diverse, engaging, and tailored to promote active participation and deep learning. In the online environment, it is particularly important we craft equitable learning opportunities that build a sense of community and facilitate interactions among students and between students and instructors. Keeping students actively engaged with you, the content, and each other promotes student success. When students are observing, doing, communicating, and reflecting, they are actively working with concepts and people. We describe these activities as interactions. Interaction is at the center of the teaching and learning process.

This standard focuses on how we create and implement effective learning activities that align with course outcomes using the online format.Please review the information below to learn how we effectively integrate meaningful learning activities into your course.

Learning Activity Examples

Engaging and effective learning activities are crucial for student success. Active Learning is rooted in the educational theory of Constructivism, which represents students making a connection between a new concept and their pre-existing knowledge. An instructor's expertise, knowledge, and teaching presence are vital in guiding students towards achieving course outcomes through learning experiences. Using active learning does not mean lecture is banned. Instead, visualize active learning on a continuum ranging from simple pauses in a lecture that allow for student questions and reflection, to more complex cooperative and problem-based projects. While working within the framework of a course, there is an opportunity to personalize learning and create a vibrant online classroom environment.

Interaction between students can include formal course-related collaboration and interaction as well as more informal social interaction, which can increase students' comfort with each other and with the online environment.

As we develop your online environment, the activities can be adapted for online courses, but the execution of such activities and interactions must be strategic and intentional.

Student to student interaction-based activities include but are not limited to:

group projects
group study guides
group case studies - comparative or collaborative
group presentations
group concept review
peer instruction
peer review/feedback of selected work (For more on using Canvas tools to manage peer review, see the Peer Review section of the Instructor Guide)

collaborative group quizzes
collaborative brainstorming
collaborative annotation
Small group activities, such as:
- Think-Pair-Share
- Jigsaw
- Round Robin
synchronous or asynchronous discussions or debates

Links to an external si

Expectations for Interaction

As facilitators of learning, we must clearly communicate expectations for student interactions and outline their plan for regular learner-learner, learner-content, and learner-instructor engagement representing Standard 5.3.

Guiding students through online environments and setting clear expectations of what interactions look like in each classroom can increase course engagement and comprehension. For example, we may include a video screen share of navigating the online course, from page to page, narrating movements and coinciding expectations throughout. Additionally, we provide written detailed expectations of student interaction within the syllabus and repeated throughout the course wherever relevant. Specifically, we will incorporate the types of interaction, how many times, and how often students are expected to engage throughout the course. For example, we explicitly state how much and how often students will post in a discussion board, as well as what that interaction will consist of. This transparency helps create a supportive and structured learning environment representing Standard 5.2.

There are some elements that can enhance meaningful interactions. For example, instructors model respectful and engaging conversation for students within a discussion board. To increase student engagement and student learning, we encourage instructors to incorporate various teaching strategies as well as offer students different ways to interact and demonstrate their learning to support learning objectives representing Standards 5.1 and 5.3. Examples of student expression are video, audio, group projects, visual representations, and even student led activities.