With 429 participants, this year’s Active Learning Summit continued to demonstrate its strong foundation at the University of Georgia and its growing national reach. Held at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education and Hotel from Feb. 11-13, the majority of conference attendees — 350 participants — were affiliated with UGA, underscoring the institution’s deep commitment to innovative teaching and learning. Faculty represented the largest group, followed by students and graduate roles and staff and professional roles, reflecting broad campus engagement in active learning practices.
The summit also welcomed 79 attendees from outside UGA, including participants from other University System of Georgia campuses, Athens Academy and institutions across the country including Missouri University of Science and Technology, Iowa State University, Vanderbilt University and Baylor College of Medicine, evidence of the event’s increasing regional and national visibility.
Keynote speaker Saundra McGuire gave a rousing talk about how to get students to actively engage in their own learning, providing examples from her book “Teach Students How to Learn” and querying the audience throughout, creating a lively atmosphere and many conversations in her wake.
McGuire, director emerita of the Center for Academic Success and retired assistant vice chancellor and professor of chemistry at Louisiana State University, talked about why many successful high school students can flounder once in college and provided ideas for overcoming this hurdle with a particular focus on metacognition, or thinking about your own thinking.
“I always tell the students, ‘I don’t care if you made 50% on the first test,’” McGuire said. “‘You just didn’t have the correct strategies.’”
McGuire highlighted some of these strategies during her talk, including tips for teaching college students how to study and ideas for improving reading comprehension. She also led two breakout sessions at the conference, providing more hands-on work for faculty and students interested in her research and study methods.
A few other highlights from the three-day summit included a preconference workshop on integrating strategies to foster and sustain active learning and roundtables that explored how active learning intersects with generative AI by shifting the conversation from tool use to student ownership of learning.
One session demonstrated how universal design principles can make active learning more accessible to students with diverse learning needs, and another focused on how instructors can foster attention, participation and meaningful connection in classrooms shaped by digital distraction and AI tools.
The summit also included a field trip to UGA’s new Creative Engagement Wing and several opportunities to network and share ideas.
“The Active Learning Summit has become a signature space for meaningful collaboration around teaching and learning,” said Leah Carmichael, UGA’s director of active learning and conference organizer. “What’s especially exciting is seeing such strong engagement from our own UGA community alongside growing participation from institutions across the country. That combination allows us to both strengthen our campus culture of active learning and contribute to a broader national conversation about what effective, student-centered teaching can look like.”