Absorb activities inform and inspire. Absorb activities enable motivated learners to obtain crucial, up‐to‐date information they need to do their jobs or to further their learning. In absorb activities learners read, listen, and watch. These activities may sound passive, but they can be an active component of learning.

Here are some examples of absorb activities:

Of the three types of activities (absorb, do, and connect), absorb activities are the ones closest to pure information. Absorb activities usually consist of information and the actions learners take to extract and comprehend knowledge from that information. In absorb activities, the learner may be physically passive yet mentally active—actively perceiving, processing, consolidating, considering, and judging the information. In absorb activities, it is the content (really the designer or teacher or writer of it) that is in control. The learner absorbs some of the knowledge offered by the content.

(Excerpted from E-learning by Design.)