Learning 2.0: Hands-on research, interactive technology and community engagement

Assistant English professor Heidi Kim (center) uses archival materials in Wilson Library to connect her students to literature and history and to create events where students share their research with the public. (photo by Steve Exum)

Assistant English professor Heidi Kim (center) uses archival materials in Wilson Library to connect her students to literature and history and to create events where students share their research with the public. (photo by Steve Exum)

Remember those classes where you were lectured to for more than an hour without a break, where you could have downed a whole pot of coffee just to stay awake? Faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences are experimenting with new ways of keeping students active and interested, whether in large lecture classes or smaller seminars.

Instructors are moving beyond a one-dimensional format and using interactive tools and technology, redesigned classroom spaces, and guest speakers. And plenty of learning takes place outside of the classroom through hands-on research and community engagement.

We highlight creative teaching and learning in the College in the following stories:

Intro to entrepreneurship (super course)

Interactive psychology instruction

Physics inside out

When literature and history leap off the page

What’s your dilemma?

Learning about Lumbees

Champion of undergraduate research

Engaged learning: Spanish in the Professions (video)

Classroom is community

Inspiring a ‘spirit of inquiry’