Interactive Learning
A learning approach that actively involves learners in exploring, deciding, practicing, applying, creating, or responding rather than only receiving information.
Interactive Learning
Move learners from receiving information to doing something with it.
Interactive learning actively involves learners in the experience. Instead of only watching, listening, or reading, learners may explore, discuss, decide, practice, solve, create, reflect, or apply what they are learning.
That does not mean every moment needs an activity. The goal is to involve learners when participation, thinking, or practice will help them build understanding or prepare for real performance.
Active Participation
Give learners something meaningful to think about or do.
Interactive learning can take many forms. What matters is that the learner is actively working with the ideas, skills, decisions, or situations that matter.
Match the Activity
Let the desired performance guide what learners do.
Interactive learning becomes more useful when the activity resembles the thinking or behavior learners will need outside the learning experience.
- If learners need to recognize something, let them identify or distinguish examples.
- If they need to make decisions, give them realistic situations that require judgment.
- If they need to perform a process, provide opportunities to rehearse the process.
- If they need to communicate, let them formulate, practice, discuss, or respond.
- If they need to solve problems, give them problems that resemble the ones they will actually encounter.
What will learners need to do after the learning experience, and how can they begin doing some version of that here?
Meaningful Participation
Keeping learners busy is not the same as helping them learn.
An activity can look engaging without requiring much meaningful thought. Participation should support the learning goal rather than exist simply to break up content or make the experience feel more interactive.
- Avoid activities that require effort but add little understanding or useful practice.
- Give learners enough context to understand why they are being asked to complete the activity.
- Keep unnecessary rules, instructions, and interface complexity from competing with the learning task.
- Provide useful feedback when learners need to understand the quality or consequences of their response.
- Allow reflection when thinking about the experience is part of making the learning useful.
Design Intentionally
Interactive learning should fit the people, purpose, and environment.
The best approach depends on what learners need to accomplish and where the learning happens. A useful interactive experience does not need to be technology-heavy or complicated.
- Start with the learning or performance outcome rather than a favorite activity or interaction type.
- Consider what learners already know and how much support they need while participating.
- Choose activities that make sense for the available time, technology, setting, and audience.
- Design participation so learners can access and complete it in different ways when needed.
- Use interaction where it improves the experience — and allow straightforward explanation when that works better.
What will learners understand, practice, decide, or do better because they participated in this?