Active Learning and Integrated Assessment: Minerva’s Approach to Teaching Future Skills

The Minerva Project works with global higher education partners to build transformational education programs based on Future Skills. Within our learning taxonomy, we identified practical knowledge as distinct Learning Outcomes (LOs). What differentiates Minerva programs from other Future Skills-focused programs is: 1) active learning pedagogy, 2) direct feedback and assessment of Future Skills, and 3) systematic reinforcement throughout students’ learning experience. The goal in our lessons is to practice skills and broad concepts, therefore we use flipped classrooms with active learning techniques. To guide students’ improvement of Future Skills in our programs, we directly assess LOs and provide feedback on specific LO applications in both synchronous (e.g., in-class polls) and asynchronous (e.g., assignments) aspects of each course. Learning Outcomes from the learning taxonomy may be introduced in one course but are assessable in any other course in the curriculum, ensuring that skills are reinforced throughout a student’s learning experience. In this chapter, we outline principles that underlie the development of learning taxonomies and curricular approaches in Minerva programs. We employ the same principles to collaborate with partners and build custom learning taxonomies and curricula; throughout this chapter we illustrate partner adaptations using examples from our collaborations.