Teaching Large Classes FAQ

My colleagues and I like coffee a lot and spend a good deal of time consulting with faculty who teach large classes. Thus, we developed the caffeine-o-meter to demystify the process of improving a large course.Part of it is below and the entire thing is on our department website. In all seriousness, it was important to us to provide faculty a continuum of options with fairly accurate portrayals of what each option would “cost.” It is very easy, in my opinion, to push interventions that not only overwhelm, but alienate faculty from a process that should involve iteration and continual improvement. The best improvements generally start small and grow as their validity is proved and entry cost is reduced.

And a final note is needed to thank all of those we’ve linked to and referenced. Your willingness to share you work and resources is what makes me so proud to be a part of this profession.

Caffeine-o-meter Legend

Latte-level:

Hidden in a latte are 1-2 ounces of intense and bitter espresso, but that bite is neutralized by a good helping of beautiful steamed whole milk. A latte is like a good lightweight improvement or evidence-based teaching method.

Macchiato-level:

Macchiato means “mark” or “stained” and involves toning down a stiff shot of espresso with a small “mark” of milk. A macchiato is like a medium-sized improvement to a large course. It will take a little effort, but won’t keep you up for nights on end to implement.

Double Espresso-level:

There’s no getting around the fact that two straight shots of espresso will be bitter and might result in a jittery, sleepless night. A double shot is like a highly efficacious educational improvement that might require a few late nights.

Large Classes FAQ

How do I keep students from texting and Facebooking in class (or utilize these technologies for learning)?

There are a range of responses and tactics for addressing this issue and much of it comes down to instructor preference. On one end of the scale, instructors can clearly stipulate that using digital devices of any kind (cell/smart phone, tablet, laptop) is prohibited during class or at least during lecture. With that said, this is becoming increasingly impractical in large classes since devices continue to shrink and students’ ability to use them covertly has only improved. Instructors can instead capitalize on the fact that the majority of students own and and are proficient in using digital devices. A few options are listed below:

Latte-level:

Facilitate real-time, backchannel discussions [see this FAQ on leading substantive discussions] using Polleverywhere, Harvard’s Live Question Tool, Today’s Meet, or Twitter.

Macchiato-level:

Facilitate collaborative group projects with technologies such as Google Docs (see example), Prezi (see example), or Mindomo (see example) that gives students a co-editable web space within which to interact and co-create.
Allow students to curate and create mashups of web resources related to lecture and course activities with tools such as Storify, Pinterest, Scoopit, Delicious, Diigo, Google Reader (and other RSS aggregators such as YahooPipes), or Evernote. See this resource on how to integrate curation activities in your course.

Double Espresso-level:

Use a flipped class approach and/or implement active learning activities to minimize down time.

How to easily and efficiently get a pulse on how the course is going?

End-of-course evaluations are helpful in making improvements for subsequent semesters, but they are inadequate for being responsive to students needs and perspectives while a course is running. This is where formative assessment comes in. Formative assessment techniques allow you to quickly and periodically evaluate students’ understanding of course concepts so that small improvements can be made to on-going instruction.

Latte-level:

Implement lightweight classroom assessment techniques (see e.g., a list from Iowa State and Vanderbilt)
Use Google Forms or Qualtrics to develop short, online surveys to get both quantitative and qualitative feedback from students.

Double Espresso-level:

Developing feedback dashboards (analogue or digital) that give you (and potentially your students) near real-time feedback on students are progressing through your course (see this example from an award-winning hybrid course).

How to get students to do activities (readings, quizzes, homework) prior to coming to lecture?

Research suggests that only 20-30% of students do assigned reading before coming to class (Burchfield & Sappington, 2000). Thus, in most cases, students need motivation for completing work if you expect most of them to do it prior to coming to class. Motivation (or rewards) can broadly come in two forms: social and formal credit related to overall grade. Social credit involves giving students opportunities (see e.g., base groups) to share their understanding (or seek clarification) of pre-class readings and activities with their peers. Formal credit involves giving students course points for completing pre-class activities (e.g., one-minute paper or D2L quiz).

Latte-level:

It may seem overly simplistic, but one approach is to teach class as if students had done the reading. Students, on average, will be more apt to do the reading if they know that it will be near impossible to follow lecture if they don’t come prepared.
Read Idea Paper #40 on how to raise the value of course readings and integrate them with other class activities.

Macchiato-level:

Implement pre-class, low-stakes quizes that require students to show that they’ve interacted with the readings prior to coming to class.
Use asynchronous online technologies such as nb, Piazza, or the forum tool in D2L to structure discussions about required reading prior to students coming to class. See how one CU professor uses nb to do this.

Double Espresso-level:

Develop base groups and reporting structures that logs and tracks pre-work done by each group.

Is the lecture dead? How do I keep my students engaged?

The lecture isn’t dead and still can be the most effective way to convey basic knowledge, communicate a professors’ intrinsic interest in a subject, and quickly clarify common misconceptions. With that said, students’ expectations for what happens within the four walls of the classroom and best teaching practices for developing deep, meaningful learning what are evolving. It is commonly cited that students’ attention span during lecture ranges between 10 and 20 minutes (Johnstone & Percival, 1978; for review see Wilson & Korn, 2007) with the trend likely moving toward the shorter end of that spectrum (Svinicki & McKeachie, 2011). In addition, research suggests students retain 70% of what is said in the first 10 minutes of a lecture, but only 20% in the last 10 minutes (Meyers & Jones, 1993). While these numbers are not deterministic, there are two approaches faculty can take to engage students more readily in large lecture course:

1) Improve lecturing skills and course organization.

Latte-level:

Read the following short papers on lecturing:
- IDEA Paper #46 – Effective Lecturing
- IDEA Paper #24 – Improving Instructor’s Speaking Skills
Explore the University of Minnesota’s self-paced, online training in “Smart Lecturing”

Double Espresso-level:

Read “Understanding by Design” (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005) and use backward design to reorganize your entire course around big, meaningful ideas. TLCs can assist you in full course redesigns.

2) Implement active learning methods to supplement, break up, and/or replace in-class lecture.

Latte-level:

Implement quick interactive techniques such as think/pair/share or i Clicker questions.

Macchiato-level:

Investigate and implement simple “Change Up” strategies.
Implement collaborative learning activities and peer instruction activities such as jigsaw, base groups (also here), and constructive controversy.
Implement problem-based learning activities.
Watch faculty videos on engagement techniques.

Double Espresso-level:

Offload some of your lectures for viewing online outside of class and implement more active learning techniques during in-class time (popularly called “flipping” your class).
- See one CU professors’ foray into “flipping” her class.
- Review some of the pitfalls associated with the flipped approach.
Implement backchannel discussions (see Derek Bruff’s backchannel resources) using technologies such as Twitter, Polleverywhere, and TodaysMeet.
“Gamify” your course.

References

Burchfield, C. M., & Sappington, J. (2000). Compliance with required reading assignments. Teaching of Psychology, 27(1), 58–60.

Johnstone, A. H., & Percival, F. (1976). Attention Breaks in Lectures. Education in chemistry, 13(2), 49–50.

Meyers, C., & Jones, T. B. (1993). Promoting Active Learning. Strategies for the College Classroom. ERIC. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/recordDetail?accno=ED358757

Svinicki, M. D., & McKeachie, W. J. (2011). McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers. Cengage Learning.

Wiggins, G. P., & Mctighe, J. A. (2005). Understanding by Design Expanded 2nd Edition. ASCD.

Wilson, K., & Korn, J. H. (2007). Attention During Lectures: Beyond Ten Minutes. Teaching of Psychology, 34(2), 85–89. doi:10.1080/00986280701291291

[Image attributes – Full image is original, Latte (http://www.iconarchive.com/artist/kzzu.html), Espresso (http://www.flickr.com/photos/markfive/), Macchiato (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jgarn/)]