SRM AP focuses on bringing active learning forum into classrooms

SRM University – AP, Amaravati announced collaboration with Minerva Schools, San Francisco, to bring in Active Learning forum to its students and faculty. Minerva project works on Cognitive Neurosciences or a study of how the brain learns retrieves and applies information: everything involving conscious intellectual activity. This is what impacts students’ thinking, remembering, reasoning and decision-making.

At SRM AP, the students will learn through active learning principles that are based on the systematic data driven approach to better retain what they learn and increase their understanding of complex ideas. “The kind of online active learning that will be practiced at SRM University AP is unprecedented. Active learning, advanced research and student career development will be the key areas of focus in the coming years and we are embarking on a significant expansion plan with greater resources and programs for faculty research. Our aim is to enhance the student learning experience and explore new international collaborations to integrate innovation and technology-driven pedagogies”, says Dr. Jamshed Bharucha, Vice Chancellor, SRM University – AP. In Mid November, the students of SRM AP were first exposed to the cognitive neuroscience of learning from Minerva through a demonstration wherein a real-time session in optimization played out on multiple screens, wherein the Professor based at SRM AP taught a live session to 15 full time Minerva Students housed in Germany as part of a unique global immersion residency program and played facilitator more than lecturer, kept each student mentally engaged (even when not in an interaction), drew diagrams to demonstrate, and working from real time analytics on student participation levels, orchestrated them towards the solution.

“The way you retain information is by deep thinking and processing and more so when you come up with the solution yourself even if it is a long discovered one” said Ben Nelson, founder of Minerva Project. Also termed the ‘Intentional University’, Minerva offers curriculum that combines foundational concepts with what are called ‘Automatic mental skills/habits of mind’. Besides learning outcomes, it also provides a platform for teaching at scale in the case of highly sought after classes. SRM AP is proud to bring to its students access to the Minerva Project that is reinventing the university education for the brightest, most motivated students in the world.

Combining the best of a liberal arts and sciences curriculum with cutting-edge technology and instruction based on the science of learning, Minerva prepares students to be future leaders and innovators in all disciplines.