Students retain more information and gain a deeper understanding of their subject material when they have the opportunity to take part in their learning in active and engaging ways.
But how can you use Engageli to support this?
You may have seen the article on Active Learning Ideas for Engageli here in the teaching knowledge base. While it’s a great resource of activities you can slot into your current lesson plan, we thought someone leading a session in Engageli might benefit from a start-to-finish overview of a complete lesson in Engageli. For more insights on how to use Engageli in Aula with deep linking, please view this article.
So here are two active learning lesson templates you might adapt for your module. One is intended as a lecture-style lesson which introduces a new concept to your learners, and the second is a follow-up workshop or seminar style lesson where students can explore further.
Active Lecture Lesson Template
This is a roughly 50-minute lesson based on the task of introducing a new concept to a group of students, which would typically be followed up by a seminar, workshop or lab session.
This downloadable Microsoft Word template is deliberately broad so that you can adapt it to your subject area, class size and learners.
The table below contains the same overview as the download:
| Activity | Description | Resources and Digital Tools | Duration |
| Preparation | Before the session, share resources with your students for making the most of Engageli in Aula and your usual communication channels. It’s also a good ideas to open the classroom at least 10 minutes before the session to deal with access issues that may arise. | See this article for supporting your students with Engageli on the knowledge base for resources to share with student before and during your first Engageli session. The Engageli team have also created a Quick start guide for students | 10 minutes before session. |
| Welcome | Welcome students to the session, giving them an introduction to yourself (for the first few weeks of the module) and an overview of the learning outcomes for the session. Here’s where you’ll set expectations for participation for the day. | Normally this will be done verbally or with your PowerPoint presentation. Alternatively, you might play a video in Engageli that you’ve prepared to introduce the lesson. | 2-3 minutes |
| Student Activity: Ice Breaker | Introduce the new concept and/or recap what you’ve previously covered with an activity. This might be a get-to-know-you exercise, a recap of the previous week, or an opinion poll to see what students already know about this session’s topic. | Check out the active learning ideas article for a list of ice breaker activities (some of which include PowerPoint templates you can insert into your own slides). The Engageli quiz can be used to create a quick opinion poll and share it with your learners. Padlet – consider creating columns in the Padlet, to allow the upload of ideas, pictures, brief recordings, etc. | 3-5 minutes If a first session, allow more time. |
| Introduction to the topic | Share your presentation, introduce the session’s topic, and set the scene. This can pick up from previous activity e.g., where students shared their views /understanding of the new topic. | This would usually be your PowerPoint presentation and/or video content, or even a guest speaker. | 10-15 minutes |
| Student Activity: Initial Discussion or Inquiry Based Activity | Give your learners a chance to process and respond to the new information. Suitable activities at this stage of the lesson might include • Group Reflection (Discussion) • Problem Solving (Discussion) • Treasure Hunt (Inquiry) | You can learn more about these activities in the active learning ideas article, but any activity which encourages students to talk together and/or do some independent research to develop their understanding will be helpful here. Google Docs, MS Word online and Padlet are helpful for collating views or questions. If you’re using Google Docs, you can create one public document per table before the session and then share them instantly mid-session with the distribute docs feature. | 5-10 minutes |
| Continue with topic | Continue with session. You may have to revisit if previous activity shows questions not answered. | As above, this would normally your PowerPoint presentation, video clips or even a guest speaker. | 10-15 minutes |
| Student Activity: Second Discussion or Collaborative Activity Time permitting | Encourage the students to gather again to process this follow up input from you by working together once more. Activities at this stage of the lesson might include • Group Reflection (Discussion) • Elevator Pitch (Collaboration) • Art Attack (Collaboration) | You can learn more about these activities in the active learning ideas article, but any activity which encourages students to talk together and/or do some independent research to develop their understanding will be helpful here. Google Docs, MS Word online and Padlet are helpful for collating views or questions. If you’re using Google Docs, you can create one public document per table before the session and then share them instantly mid-session with the distribute docs feature. | 5-10 minutes |
| Student Activity: Wrap-Up Time permitting | Wrap up the session by checking understanding of learning concepts and responding to anything which needs clarification. Activities might include o Wrap-up quiz o Minute paper o Muddiest point | See the active learning ideas article for wrap-up exercises. As above, consider continuing with Engageli polling feature to get some quick feedback from your class. GoogleDoc / MS Word online – for collating views or questions. | 5-10 minutes |
| Closing the session | Summarise (revisit) learning outcomes (aims) of the session and respond to any questions coming out of the wrap-up activity. If you skipped the wrap-up activity, give students a chance to get clarity on anything which they may not have understood. Give guidance as to what happens next. This can be about the next lecture or follow up seminar/workshop or lab session and any assignments or readings students will need to do during the week. | Normally the tutor’s PowerPoint presentation. Students often feel more confident to ask for clarification on something they didn’t understand anonymously. Remind them they can post questions to the Engageli Q&A anonymously. You can always invite students to leave and answer each other’s questions in the community feed in Aula. | 5 minutes max |
Active Workshop or Seminar Lesson Template
After you introduce a new concept to your learners, it’s great to have a follow-up session where there’s even more room for conversation and exploration. This is a template for an approximately 50-minute lesson which does just that:
The table below contains the same overview as the download:
| Activity | Description | Resources & Digital Tools | Duration |
| Before the seminar/workshop or lab session | Open session at least 10 minutes before the start time to deal with any access issues which may arise. | Before the start of the class, send out the quick start guide so your students can make the best use of the Engageli platform. Quick start guide for students | 10 minutes before session |
| Welcome | Briefly outline the plan of the session. You may wish to recap the concepts introduced in the lecture before this session. Introduce learning outcomes (this may include tasks, discussion questions, or lab instructions). | Normally the tutor’s PowerPoint presentation. Could play a pre-prepared short video clip. Ideally to be shared via AULA before the session so that students arrive prepared. | 5-10 minutes |
| Student Activity: Discussion (or, if appropriate, an inquiry-based activity) | Introduce an activity to stimulate engagement between students early on, encouraging them to reflect on what they’ve learned in the lecture before this session. Or, if appropriate, open up the session to inquiry and exploration of new resources to build on the concepts from the lecture. Relevant activities from the Active Learning Ideas in Engageli article include · Group Reflection (Discussion) · Treasure Hunt (Inquiry) | Activities mentioned here can be found in the Teaching Knowledge Base article on Active Learning Ideas for Engageli. | 15 to 30 minutes |
| Student Activity: Present to the class | Assuming you did not have a whole-class discussion, this would be a great time to ask for representatives from each table to share what they’ve discussed or discovered with the whole class. Be clear with students whether you will be calling on anyone from the table or that the tables should nominate someone to share their findings. | A spokesperson presents back output collated in the format chosen earlier. You can ask the students to Raise their Hands to speak to the whole class or else you can host a panel discussion with the representatives from each table. | 10-20 minutes |
| Introduce a follow-up activity Optional | Based on the conversations and presentations made so far (or on a research question you’ve formulated before the session), invite the students to take part in a second activity or discussion, exploration or other lab work. | Normally the tutor’s PowerPoint presentation. | 5 to 15 minutes |
| Student Activity: Present to the class Optional | Representatives from each table report back on their findings, as before. | As above, a spokesperson presents back the output collated in the format chosen earlier, which can be a collaborative document or a Padlet. | 5-10 minutes |
| Reflection on session activity and output | Summarise (revisit) learning outcomes (aims) of the session. To check learning and understanding of threshold concepts: · This would work well as an Engageli quiz · Invite students to reflect on what was or wasn’t understood in the previous week and in this session to ask during the wrap-up | Engageli quiz tool build into the Engageli platform. By running a quiz, you’ll be able to check understanding at the time and review answers later. There’s more info on visiting data collected in the Engageli Admin Portal in the full walkthrough presentation here | 5 minutes |
| Wrap-up | Invite questions, either with raised hands, the Q&A, or a combination of both. Provide guidance as to what happens next. This can be about the next lecture or follow up seminar/workshop or lab session. | Normally return to the tutor’s PowerPoint presentation. Invite questions for further clarification via the class podium, the Q&A, or both. Remind students that they can post question anonymously; this is especially helpful to those who aren’t confident in showing they haven’t understood something. Finally, encourage students to ask and respond to questions in the Aula community space during the week. | 2-3 minutes |
Conclusion
We hope you get a lot of value out of these templates.
If you adapt either of them for your own Engageli lesson, we’d love to hear about it! Leave us some feedback here on the article (click the ✔ or the ❌ below to start), or get in touch with the authors listed below.
Please make sure you have viewed the step-by-step guidance article.
