When class sizes grow, faculty often encounter challenges in creating an effective and engaging learning environment. ASSETT decided to ask the best of the best what strategies have worked for them. We interviewed 6 faculty and a teaching assistant who have had success in teaching in large introductory level courses. Here are their responses to some common challenges faced by instructors of 100+ enrollment courses.
Tips on Managing Distraction in Large Lecture Courses
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How Can I Create an Enjoyable Classroom Culture?
Creating a space where students are comfortable with inquiry in your 100+ class can be a tough thing to accomplish. Start with some basics to create an open, inviting space in which to learn.
- Tips:
- Let your passion for your discipline show.
- Students appreciate humor. It’s ok to let students see your human side.
- Make content relevant to students’ lives. Learn something about your students’ interests, hobbies, and aspirations.
- Come early, stay late.
- Play music before and after class.
- Tools:
- Resources:
- Finck, J. E. (2011). Be The First To Arrive And The Last To Leave Your Class. Journal of College Teaching & Learning (TLC), 9(1), 27–32.
- Gleason, M. (1986). Better Communication in Large Courses. College Teaching, 34(1), 20–24.
- Sass, E. J. (1989). Motivation in the College Classroom: What Students Tell Us. Teaching of Psychology, 16(2), 86.
- Waite, W. M., Jackson, M. H., & Diwan, A. (2003). The conversational classroom. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 35(1), 127-131.
How Can I Create a Student Centered Learning Environment?
Student centered learning is about student discovery and construction of knowledge rather than passive transfer of knowledge from instructor to the student. Help students feel comfortable and encouraged to take part in that process of discovery and creation.
- Tips:
- Learn as many students’ names as possible.
- Find ways to show you care about students’ success in the course
- Create rapport in your classroom
- Become familiar with student centered learning approaches. Start with something small like minute papers.
- Tools:
- Utilize the Print Friendly Photo Rosters in myCUInfo by bringing them to class to learn student names.
- Ask students to use tent name cards for the first 2 weeks of class.
- Example:
- Resources:
- How to get started
How Can I Minimize Anonymity and Give Students a Voice?
Undoubtedly, a large course can be intimidating for students. Use both small group activities and technology to create inviting opportunities for students to share their thoughts in and out of class, with you and other students.
- Tips:
- Have recitations sit together in sections in the lecture hall so they get to know each other.
- Improve your discussion management skills for a large classes.
- Use online discussion tools to extend opportunities to contribute
- Remember to set specific parameters for participations
- Utilize small group features in D2L’s discussion boards
- Commit to using discussion boards on a regular, consistent basis
- Give evidence that you have read students’ posts
- Teach students how to contribute to discussions
- Try using a backchannel so students can post questions or responses in real time during class.
- Tools:
- For online discussion try D2L discussions or Piazza.
- For a backchannel, Padlet or TodaysMeet.
- Example:
- Resources:
- Glessmer, M. S., Pick, M.-A., & Göttsch, P. (2014). Enabling backchannel communication between a lecturer and a large group. Retrieved from http://www.sefi.be/conference-2014/0101.pdf
How Can I Increase Student Engagement?
One of the best ways to get students engaged in your classroom is student centered and active learning. Find ways that students can influence and participate in the content, activities, materials and pace of their learning.
- Tips:
- Use active learning strategies and interactive course techniques. Start small with think pair share, sentence summaries, and polling exercises. Later you can try peer review, debate teams or the jigsaw method.
- Use clickers as a way to jump start discussions.
- Get comfortable with group work and incorporate collaborative and other peer learning opportunities.
- Tools:
- Example:
- Georgetown University, Biology Course
- Resources:
- Guide to active learning continuum in the large course
- Active learning strategies
- A review of the literature
- Yazedjian, A., & Kolkhorst, B. B. (2007). Implementing small-group activities in large lecture classes. College Teaching, 55(4), 164–169.
How Can I Better Manage Communication?
Think beyond email. Be creative in seeking ways to be available and communicate with your students. Students can still feel connected in a course and to the instructor when you use one to many online communication methods.
- Tips:
- Set aside specific hours to be available to students online (email, chat, or video call).
- Answer frequently asked questions using the D2L news or discussion tool.
- Consider creating short videos or screencasts (computer screen recordings with audio narration) to explain concepts students typically have trouble understanding.
- Tools:
- For online office hours try
- Video chat services like Zoom, Google Hangout
- Slack for online chatting
- For short videos try D2L’s Webcam, Quicktime (Mac), or Camera (Windows 8)
- For screencasts try Jing or Snagit
- For online office hours try
- Example:
- Resources:
How Can I Administer Assessments Effectively and Efficiently?
Creating meaningful assessments for 100+ students doesn’t have to mean endless hours of grading on your part. Incorporate real world scenarios and let technology help with the grading.
- Tips:
- Use technologies like clickers and automatically graded quizzes for immediate feedback opportunities
- Sharpen your multiple-choice exam question writing skills if you are concerned about automatically graded tests.
- Use real world scenarios in test questions to make content relevant
- Design meaningful rubrics for grading papers and projects
- Tools:
- Resources:
How Can I Encourage Attendance and Participation?
An age old dilemma in large lecture courses is attendance and participation, for both students and teachers. Create unique in class experiences and opportunities for students to provide feedback on how the course is going. Let students know when you’ve made adjustments based on their feedback, too.
- Tips:
- Make the in class experience something they can’t get anywhere else
- Don’t be predictable. Use a variety of class activities.
- Help students feel noticed, so that they want to participate.
- Solicit regular feedback from students, and even consider giving some credit it. Then be explicit about the adjustments made based on the feedback students’ provided.
- Tools:
- D2L Survey tool for collecting regular feedback.
- Resources:
- Potential strategies for students who don't come to lecture
- Snell, L. S. (1999). Interactive lecturing: strategies for increasing participation in large group presentations. Medical Teacher, 21(1), 37–42.
How Can I Maximize TAs’ Strengths?
TAs are an invaluable resource for large classes and have most likely been an undergraduate in their recent past. Draw on their understanding of the student experience while at the same time giving them guidance to be successful leaders in the classroom.
- Tips:
- Ways to prepare TAs in advance
- Refer them to the Graduate Teacher Program and the Fall Intensive Workshops
- Guide to Being a TA
- Guide to Interacting with Students
- Provide TAs with your own set of guidelines and expectations.
- Listen to TAs; pick their brains. They have great ideas and undergrads may be more open and honest with TAs.
- Ways to prepare TAs in advance
- Tools:
- For communication and organization, try Google Docs and Google Calendar
- For managing multiple tasks, try Trello
- Example:
- Resources:
- Ross, Catherine and Jane Dunphy. Strategies for Teaching Assistant and International Teaching Assistant Development. Bolton: Anker, 2007.
How Can I Maximize TAs’ Strengths?
Hear a TA’s point of view to better understand ways to support them.
- Resources:
- Dudley, M. (2009). Jumping out of an airplane: a TA’s perspective on teaching effectiveness. Eastern Educ J, 38, 1–10.
