3 of the 26 Tricks to Enhance & Engage Learning

Last week, I attended Marc Ratcliffe’s "26 Proven Tricks to Enhance & Engage Learning" session at the ASTD International Conference and Expo. Each "trick" was organized around a letter of the alphabet, and most of them were designed to facilitate engagement and elicit feedback in ILT. My favorites were:

-- Jargon Jumble. Fill out a unique index card for each of the course’s technical terms and acronyms, then fill out another card for its definition. The class then has to match the term with the definition, giving them the chance to discover the definition on their own. You could also give a single index cards to each student and have them talk to the rest of the participants to find their match.
-- Review Roulette. Split the class up into 3-4 groups and give each group 2 index cards. Each group will take a different module/section of the class and come up with two review questions, putting their answers on the back. The instructor gathers up the cards, shuffles them, and asks two questions to each group – they may get their own review question, but then again, they may not!
This technique also enables you to subtly gather student feedback in two ways:

1. What the students found interesting and/or effective is identified by what topics the students choose as their review questions
2. Their answers will indicate if they effectively learned the topic. If the question and answer are particularly effective, you could even steal it for the next iteration of the class!

-- U-Turn cards. Each student gets a card, and can present it to the instructor at any point during the class. When shown, the instructor needs to present the point he was just making from the opposite perspective. Typically, students use this card when presented with negative statements, such as "you typically don’t attempt to sell product X to group Y." This technique helps facilitate creative problem solving and questioning assumptions as the class typically analyzes the statement from all angles to fully understand why the original point was being made.