Teaching Large Classes

Linda pointed us toward Graham Gibbs video on ‘Teaching Large Classes’ on the Dowhousie University site.

This looks at the issues around teaching in large classes, from the lecture theatres being uncomfortable, to students losing focus after 20 minutes. It asks how you can use this kind of contact to inspire students to learn and study outside of class, and how you can develop communities or even just get students to talk and discuss.

He gives some ideas for making the learning active. Give the students a break after 20 minutes, to discuss and reflect perhaps alone or in groups. Give them an opportunity to apply knowledge with small case studies in the lecture theatre, which can lead into what you are trying to get them to accomplish out of class.

How do those ideas influence how I teach large classes. Well in the past those classes for me have been WebCT inductions. I try to keep these to about 20-30 minutes any way, if the students are only listening. But what if our induction 20-30 minutes was a section of a much larger session – could I add any activities to this induction when there are no computers for the students to use?

Possibly looking at the way I talk in the induction, I could keep my language focussed on the student – “this is what you will do to achieve X”, “this feature will save you time in situation Y”. I try to keep reminding the students that it is simple to do what they will need to do.