Article
The evidence for active learning in higher education is well established. Across disciplines, students learn more when they are actively engaged in the learning process rather than primarily receiving information through lecture.
The question, then, is how to make active learning practical and scalable.
By Allison Westgate
Partner Success Manager @ Collage AI
September 10, 2026
What It Takes
More than replacing lectures with activities
Effective active learning requires more than replacing lectures with classroom activities. Kozanitis and Nenciovici (2022) describe active learning across three dimensions: behavioral engagement with learning resources, cognitive engagement through problem-solving, and social engagement through interaction and collaboration. Creating meaningful opportunities for all three requires intentional course design, particularly when faculty have limited face-to-face time with students.
This context is where technology can play an important role. Rather than simply moving lectures or course materials online, digital learning environments can help shift foundational learning outside of class while making that work more structured, interactive, and visible to instructors.
Collage, for example, uses a structured pre-class learning model grounded in backward design. Students engage with course concepts before class through active learning modules with embedded formative assessment, immediate feedback, and contextual support. At the same time, instructors gain visibility into what students understand, where they are struggling, and which concepts require further attention.
When foundational learning is structured before class, students can arrive with greater context and preparation. When instructors can see evidence of student understanding beforehand, they can make more informed decisions about how to spend valuable class time, such as allowing more time for interactions such as discussion, application, problem solving, collaboration, and mentorship.
The Opportunity
Creating the conditions for effective teaching
The role of technology in education should not be to digitize the lecture or replace faculty interaction, but to create the conditions for more of the learning experiences that faculty know are effective.
The evidence for active learning has existed for decades. The opportunity now is to build the infrastructure that makes it easier to put that evidence into practice.
References
1
Kozanitis, A., & Nenciovici, L. (2022). Effect of active learning versus traditional lecturing on the learning achievement of college students in humanities and social sciences: A meta-analysis. Higher Education, 84, 1-21.
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