The perceived importance of active learning techniques in online STEM courses

It is widely acknowledged that active learning strategies increase engagement and long-term retention, while reducing attrition and frustration of students with less academic preparation and self-efficacy. Promoting active learning methods in STEM has been a long-term project in higher education. This study examines the perceptions of active learning techniques in online STEM education, leveraging a large, diverse sample ( N = 727) across four STEM fields. The post-pandemic context of the study offers unique insights into how students and faculty perceive the effectiveness of various active learning methods in a rapidly changing educational environment. For eight of the nine methods studied, more than half of students and faculty found each active learning strategy to be helpful for online learning achievement. On average, both students and faculty found active learning methods to be modestly more important in online courses than face-to-face courses. A novel finding that was striking was that by a wide margin, both students and faculty perceived requiring activities more helpful than offering them on an optional basis. This implies that active learning methods become a meaningful portion of the course grade. However, faculty and students disagree on how heavily such activities should contribute to course grades. On average, students believe about half of their grade (52%) should comprise active learning activities, whereas faculty report that 32% of grades in their courses come from formative active learning assessments. The implications of activity-based STEM learning in online courses are discussed.