Reducing the Distance to Your Students in Large Classes

By Dr. Judith M. Dunlop

This article is a reflection on ‘lessons learned’ from the Teaching Large Classes: Challenges and Opportunities conference co-hosted by Wilfrid Laurier University, McGraw Hill/Ryerson and the Institute for the Advancement of Teaching in Higher Education held in Waterloo, Ontario in May, 2005. The structure of the workshop included a large lecture hall presentation by the keynote speaker, John Mitterer of Brock University who addressed the impact of instructional technology on teaching and learning. This was followed by panel presentations comprised of faculty and students from Wilfrid Laurier University followed by questions and discussion with the audience. Finally, there were three concurrent workshop sessions offered in the afternoon.

What was very apparent was that these instructors were searching for answers and wanted to brainstorm with each other and the panelists on how to manage large classes.

What is presented here is an analysis of the themes that emerged from the panel discussion, audience participation, and the three concurrent workshops attended, namely: 1) Engaging a Class of 1000 Students; 2) Using Interactive Websites to Foster Self-Directed Learning in Large Classes; and 3) Schtick-Handling: Two Cheers for Low-Tech Large Class Teaching.

This conference, attended by 200 instructors from across Ontario, created a community of concerned faculty who identified their struggles with managing large classes and expressed their concerns about the learning climate they were experiencing. The ‘lessons learned’ from this workshop primarily reflect the importance of creating interactive relationships with students. Notwithstanding that this is a difficult task in large classes, the workshop did address the processes that have been found useful in attempting to create these relationships.  What was very apparent was that these instructors were searching for answers and wanted to brainstorm with each other and the panelists on how to manage large classes.

In this audience of 200 faculty, despite geographical, disciplinary and experiential differences, there were two primary questions that seemed to be most pressing: 1) How do I manage disruptive students in large classes? and 2) How do I reduce the teaching and learning distance between faculty and students in large classes?

Creating Relationships and
Managing Disruptive Behaviour

The variety of approaches used by faculty to build interactive relationships with students all reflect distance reduction techniques between teacher and learner such as: 1) seating plans; 2) greeting students at the classroom door; 3) using a wireless mike to walk around the classroom; 4) lecturing from the back and sides of the room; and 5) organizing protocols for how to handle disruptive behaviour.  Some faculty use seating plans where students have assigned numbers and are asked to sit in the same place every class while others reported that they stand outside the classroom door and welcome students to each class by shaking their hands and making eye contact with them.

...there was also the “one rule” strategy for handling disruptive behaviour...students do not talk while the instructor is lecturing.</p>

In addition there was also the “one rule” strategy for handling disruptive behaviour (the one rule is that students do not talk while the instructor is lecturing).  Students are informed of the “one rule” and then given a series of warning steps about how transgressions will be handled.  When the one rule is broken the instructor takes increasingly intrusive steps such as: 1) lower the voice; 2) stop talking; 3) stare at student; 4) request student stop talking; and 5) tell student they have to leave the classroom.

Other strategies to enhance learning included moving around the classroom and lecturing from the back and sides of the room.  As well, instructors can stand behind a talkative student and lecture from that position so that all students are looking at the instructor and the disruptive student.  Walking around the classroom also helps to solve the text messaging and computer game issues that represent new types of disruptions to 21st century teaching; it allows the instructor to simply close the computer when they observe it being used inappropriately.  

Engaging a Class of 1000 Students

Who can imagine creating an interactive relationship with a class of 1000 students?  The workshop entitled  “Engaging a Class of One Thousand Students” reported on teaching innovations developed for an unusually large class which also could be applied to smaller classes (one can only speculate what  constitutes a small class to someone teaching a class of 1000).

The class in question consists of lectures offered twice a week to the whole class in Convocation Hall at the University of Toronto.  Students also attend a bi-weekly lab and a weekly tutorial.  Although one of the innovations used is clicker technology--or Classroom Performance Systems (CPS)--to increase interaction and reduce distance between instructor and students during the lecture, it is the organization of the students that is most interesting to our discussion of building interactive relationships.  The instructors organize all of the 1000 students into groups who choose a class representative to meet regularly with the instructors to provide feedback on the course.  This appears to be successful in creating a channel for interaction with the larger student body.  Although large screen TV monitors can bring the instructor and the lecture material closer to the student through technology, there is no reciprocal mechanism that allows the instructor to see or hear the students who are in the sitting in the balconies of Convocation Hall.

Using Interactive Websites to
Foster Self-Directed Learning in Large Classes

Another form of interactive technology-based relationship has been created by the instructors who presented the workshop “Using Interactive Websites to Foster Self-Directed Learning in Large Classes.” The course they described provides interactive learning through the use of WebCT-based tools such as Discussion Forum and Self-Quiz.  Students are required to join small on-line groups and answer discussion questions based on lecture content. Interactive relationships are created among students themselves and between their group and the instructor through feedback on the Discussion Forum. The technology provides the instructor with a mechanism not simply to grade an assessment, but to reinforce correct answers, and correct misinformation.

What was very apparent was that these instructors were searching for answers and wanted to brainstorm with each other and the panelists on how to manage large classes.

The Self-Quiz Tool associated with WebCT creates interactive relationships between student and the instructor as it allows feedback--question by question--to student responses. The technology provides the instructor a mechanism not simply to grade an assessment, but to reinforce correct answers and correct misinformation.  This is an effective way of using of on-line course sites to promote participation and interaction between students and instructors.  The distance between teachers and learners is reduced because the technology allows the instructor to continue to teach outside the classroom and to offer individualized and group learning experiences.

Schtick-Handling:
Two Cheers for Low-Tech Large Class Teaching

In the final workshop “Schtick-Handling: Two Cheers for Low-Tech Large Class Teaching,” we were offered another look at managing large classes, one which does not worship at the altar of teaching with technology.  In fact the presenter suggested that the old mode of stand-up lecturing can humanize large class teaching.  Here then, we find an alternative to applying high-tech solutions to teaching large classes. 

Using an experiential approach, the presenter demonstrated how he uses charisma to engage students in large classes and to make larger classes feel smaller.  This did not work as well with faculty, some of whom were annoyed at being moved about the classroom during the workshop!  While acknowledging that not all instructors are suited by personality or experience to creating interactive relationships with students in this way, the presenter challenged faculty to consider that high tech teaching is not the only answer to the large class challenge.

Establishing Effective Learning
Relationships with Students

So what have we learned about teaching large classes?  Primarily, this article has focused on facilitating and enhancing student learning through the development of interactive relationships between instructors and students.  Whether the class size is 1,000 or what may now be considered a small class of 100, managing classroom behaviour to maximize learning, engaging students in interactive relationships, facilitating learning through high tech solutions and organizing students into either face-to-face or web-based groups reflect teaching in the 21st century.  Added to this is the drama inherent in teaching large classes where multiple scenarios are carried out at the same time, and your lecture may not be the most interesting activity compared to text messaging or searching on e-Bay. 

The experience of teaching large classes can be enhanced by promoting interactive relationships between instructor and students thereby reducing the distance between teacher and learner, reducing the anonymity created by large classes, and increasing the human element that motivates and supports student involvement and learning.

More information about the content of the workshops and the presenters can be obtained by contacting Dr. Judith Dunlop at dunlopf@uwindsor.ca

Dr Judith Dunlop is a professor in the School Of Social Work at the University of Windsor, and a recent participant in the Faculty Associate Program at the Centre for Flexible Learning