In the stereotypical high-enrollment class, one finds disengaged, bored, unmotivated students who feel lost in a crowd. This is because it is more difficult to create connections with students, and to keep them engaged, in this type of setting. But it is by no means impossible. Indeed, some high-enrollment classrooms are far more lively and engaged than a smaller class could ever be. But that is not the default experience - instructors plan carefully to create that type of experience.
Often, but not always, turning to technology is a sensible response for the instructor who needs to keep a large course engaging, because you can scale up a digital activity more easily than an analog one. At the same time, using technology just for the sake of engagement is an unhelpful remedy. Figuring out how to keep your course engaging requires analyzing exactly what you are trying to accomplish, as well as what the student experience will be - and what your experience will be - under each of your different options for accomplishing it. In one way or another, you want to embrace active learning as much as possible. Figuring out how exactly to do that in a large course is where the challenge typically lies.
- Group discussions: Set roles of facilitator, scribe, reporter, etc. For efficiency, instructors might provide feedback to the groups rather than individual posts (use assignment/feedback instead of posts). Use active learning strategy of think/pair/share to facilitate lively discussions. Smaller discussions in groups, rather than commenting before a large class, also makes participation less stressful for introverted students. It works well to pose open-ended questions for students to discuss in their group and then ask volunteers to share their group’s perspectives with the entire class.
- Use the Canvas online discussion to continue or extend in-class discussions. Instructors can jump start subsequent in-class sessions by referring to some of the online discussions. This is a good way to review prior material, publicly praise, and encourage students who may be reluctant to talk in public.
- Strategies to set up Groups: Use the LMS function to randomly assign students to groups as this usually makes for more diverse groups that stay on topic and provide new perspectives. Give names to the groups that pertain to the course’s discipline; groups names for an astronomy course, for example, may use the names of planets, stars, and other astronomical objects.
- Showing examples: Showing examples are an efficient way in large classes to save you time and at the same time create engaging learning activities that make clear to your students what are good discussions, writings, problem steps, etc. Teach your large classes by sharing examples from your past students. Have students do something with these examples to really engage students in their own learning. For example, include an example of a well-developed discussion post and a weak discussion; then, develop a class activity around it where student groups discuss what makes for a good discussion post and how the weaker discussion post could be improved. Other “showing” examples might be an exemplary introduction paragraph, an excellent compare/contrast paragraph, or a well-written introductory paragraph.
- Preps for guest speakers: Involve your students in preparing for guest speakers by asking them to research the speaker’s area and then develop questions about topics they would like to know more about. Prior to the presentation you share those student questions with the speaker. Take advantage of the efficiency of graded group assignments to collect the questions.
- Use Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) (Simkins and Maier 2010): This pedagogical strategy blends structured, out of class, web-based exercises with related class activities that promote active student learning. The pre-class and in-class components work together to provide a feedback loop that facilitates students being better prepared for class meetings, gives students frequent and immediate feedback about gaps in their learning that they can use to focus their learning before more high stakes assessments, and informs instructor's “just-in-time" modifications of class discussions and activities.
- Ask thoughtful questions that foster higher-level thinking skills. For example, link the lesson’s material to a current event and ask students to pose possible solutions. Ask students to identify possible solutions using their cell phones or laptops in a F2F course or a Canvas quiz in an online course. Another idea is to have your students use online resources to think through steps of solving a problem and submit in a group assignment. All of these can be designed as discussions or assignments in Canvas.
- The “A-Team” - Designate a portion of your students in each class period that are expected to come to class specifically prepared for active engagement. These students are graded on their classroom participation for that day. This serves to combat moments of silence from your students. It also provides some energy to make it more socially acceptable for other students to engage.
- Peer Instruction – Often, but not always, done in conjunction with a polling tool. If the instructor would prefer to not use a polling tool, a simple hand raising can suffice. Have students respond to a question. If 30-70% of the class has the right answer, have the students group up with people who chose an answer that was different from theirs. Then have them justify their answers to one another. After a few moments of discussion poll the entire class again to make sure they were, in fact, able to discern the correct answer themselves. Rather than feeling burdened by the high enrollment environment, this harnesses it.
- Group Quizzing – Start class by giving students a brief quiz over the assigned readings. Then have students group up (3-5 students per group) and take the same quiz together. This lets you and the students immediately see the benefits of learning in collaboration.
- Mix up learning activities: Mix class discussions or debates with small-group discussions to draw out and include more introverted students who might not feel comfortable speaking up in a large class of students. Intersperse different types of learning content and activities in your course design: explanations with examples; video and audio clips (instructor, YouTube, documentary, interviews); PPTs of main points; reflection questions to guide viewing of videos and reading assignments. Assign readings (textbook, articles, links) followed up with short quizzes or assignments – sort of a read and practice structure.
- Examples of active learning that work well in large classes:
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