Learning Methods
Which Active Learning Method Fits Your Workshop?
This series has covered seven active-learning methods — seven different ways to structure a workshop so participants do the cognitive work that produces real learning. Each method was developed to solve a specific kind of learning problem.
April 28, 2026
Simulation-Based Learning
Simulation-Based Learning is a workshop design approach in which participants enact a specific scenario — playing roles, working through a constructed situation, and practicing the interaction in a safe context.
April 28, 2026
Action Learning
Action Learning is a workshop design approach in which participants work on their own real, unresolved problems over time, take action between sessions, and return to the group to reflect on what happened. The problem is not simulated.
April 28, 2026
Collaborative Learning
Collaborative Learning is a workshop design approach in which participants work together on a shared task to produce learning none of them could reach alone.
April 28, 2026
Case-Based Learning
Case-Based Learning is a workshop design approach in which participants analyze a specific, resolved scenario — the case — to draw out transferable principles they can apply to similar situations later.
April 28, 2026
Inquiry-Based Learning
Inquiry-Based Learning is a workshop design approach in which participants investigate an open question — gathering evidence, forming and testing hypotheses, and developing understanding through the process of inquiry rather than through direct…
April 28, 2026
Project-Based Learning
Project-Based Learning is a workshop design approach in which participants produce a tangible artifact — a plan, a strategy, a prototype, a document — over the course of the workshop, and the artifact becomes both the vehicle and the evidence of the…
April 28, 2026
Problem-Based Learning
Problem-Based Learning is a workshop design approach in which the session is built around a complex, open-ended problem that participants work through to solve. The problem is introduced first, before any relevant content is delivered.
April 28, 2026
What Active Learning Is (and What It Isn't)
A workshop where participants spend most of the session listening produces weaker learning outcomes than a workshop where they spend most of the session working with the material.
April 28, 2026
Active Learning
You are building workshops where real behavior change is supposed to happen — cohorts, group programs, intensives, coaching sessions, the sessions your participants pay to be in.
April 28, 2026