Savvy Strategies: Getting Active!

Published on Wednesday, July 24, 2024

If you have an Apple watch, you understand the drive to “close your rings” each day. The green rings can be especially difficult to close. For our android and non-Apple watch friends, the green ring tracks your active minutes each day. While it is a challenge each day, there is something so satisfying in seeing each of those rings closed. We know that being active helps with our overall health, but being active in the classroom can also help with learning outcomes!

Active learning is a strategy that helps move information from our short-term memory to our long-term memory because it uses multiple mediums to gain and retain knowledge. A popular active learning strategy in the educational realm is a flipped classroom where introductory information is given to students prior to the class session, and the class session is used as a collaborative or problem-solving session based on the material given. In the SOM, this would be similar to the POPS sessions. We would love for you to be a part of these POPS sessions on Thursday afternoons (M2) or Friday mornings (M1). A call will be sent out through the listserv in July, so be on the lookout!

Some other active learning strategies involve small group discussions on cases or patient presentations, labs, audience response (i.e., Poll Everywhere, Kahoot!, Nearpod, etc.), journal clubs, and more. One easy way to move towards active learning is to have a recorded lecture in Canvas prior to your session, and then your 50-minute session is used for whole-group or small-group problem solving, case-based discussion, or even how the concept will be tested through a Step-style review.

If you would like help moving towards an active learning strategy, I am more than happy to help brainstorm. Email me at bricker@umc.edu for more ideas!