Case Study: Brown University Boosts Active Learning and Online Engagement with Top Hat

How Top Hat helped Brown University create a vibrant active learning community—on campus and remotely

Brown University, an Ivy League research university, needed a more effective way to support active learning and student engagement in and out of the classroom. Its existing LMS, Canvas, helped organize course materials but did not create the level of interaction or community the Digital Learning & Design team wanted, and the university’s prior classroom response system caused frequent technical issues. Top Hat was brought in as a flexible active learning platform to help close that gap.

Top Hat provided Brown with engagement tools, asynchronous learning features, custom support, and training for instructors and designers. Brown professors used Top Hat for course content, assignments, assessments, and interactive textbooks, while Top Hat Community helped support communication and collaboration during remote learning. The impact was strong: 66% of Brown undergraduates used Top Hat in 2019–2020, usage rose 320% in spring 2020, nearly 85 professors taught with it in a single semester, and more than 1,000 professors and students became active Top Hat Community users within eight months.

Brown University

James Foley

Assistant Director of Digital Learning & Design