Motivational active learning in blended and virtual learning scenarios: Engaging students in digital learning

The way people learn has changed over the last years. New pedagogical theories show that engaging and active learning approaches are particularly successful in improving conceptual understanding and enhancing the students' learning success and motivation. The Motivational Active Learning approach combines engagement strategies based on active and collaborative learning models with gamification. While many active learning models rely on in-class setups and active and personal interactions between students and between instructors, MAL was designed to integrate active learning in different settings. Our research project focuses on enhanced learning strategies with MAL in different computersupported scenarios. This chapter outlines the potential of the pedagogical model MAL (Motivational Active Learning) in the context of blended and virtual learning scenarios; it also summarizes relevant literature and discusses implications and future work.