Pushing Active Learning to the Extreme: Is It Worth It?

The authors’ scholarly reflective narrative addresses the rewards and challenges of an immersive experiential active learning pedagogy. They ask, “was it worth it?” for students and for themselves. Although research evidence makes it clear that active learning benefits student learning and engagement, designing a course to incorporate active learning often requires extensive effort from instructors. Thus, it is reasonable to consider whether the benefits outweigh the costs. They conclude that the direct and indirect benefits of observing student learning and development in addition to the rewards of scholarly collaboration outweighed the costs of continual course redesign and student discomfort. They offer questions for others to consider before implementing active learning practices.