I am not sure what defines "large" in this discussion. My largest classes I have taught at GCU to date are 20. I have used a variety of small group activities when I have classes over 10. Some are dyads, triads and even quartets. i also have had groups teach portion of the material. 

Large classes are particularly challenging for on line classes because each student is an audience of 1. The largest classes I had were 30 . The DQ's allow one on one communication because the instructor must comment on each DQ. I go beyond that and try to respond to at least 20% of the participation points . If I can tell a student is struggling with the material I generally go on the individual forum and work with them there one on one. I have also called students or had them call me at prearranged times to go over the material for assignments. I also use CAT's insuring I have at least one CAT for each DQ question. 

Frank, I also have had some very large classes online. I think 30 was my largest. I know I respond to every DQ response - or the initial DQ response from each student. I was not aware it was the university policy that we had to respond to every student DQ response. When you have two DQs it is definitely challenging. Even more so if there are 3 DQs! 

We need to respond to DQ1 and DQ2 for every student and DQ3 if there is one . We do not need to post to every response in the participation part of that forum. I generally respond to at least 20% of the comments. When I do peer reviews we suggest that there be responses to at least 10% but there are no specific rules as to the proper percentage. I suggest 10% is minimum but not all professors do so. 

Frank, Are you talking about grading each DQ or are you talking about writing a response to each DQ response? I am not clear.

Great discussion Ron and Frank!  

I appreciate hearing the perspective of the online faculty because responding to several DQs a week sounds like a challenge to provide meaningful feedback. 

I purposefully decided not to define large. I teach ground courses of up to 93 students in a single lecture and 24 in a lab setting. Twenty-four is a large lab class (capped at 24 students) but would be a smaller lecture size. 

Ron,

Great idea having students work in groups of two, three, four on small activities and incorporating peer-to-peer teaching. 

How do you ensure the groups stay on task and are learning from each other? Do you have any methods for how groups are formed?

Kathryn, Thank you for your response and questions. I do not have any particular way of breaking up students into groups. I have had a few cliques in the cohort classes (Master-level counseling classes). I try to break these up when I break up the class into groups. One of my 6 student classes was one big clique!(*smile*) 

To ensure they stay on task I walk around the group and join each group as I go around suggesting where they might find further research to answer the questions.

Ron each DQ has to be responded to and graded. my classes generally have 2 DQ's The students in my classes are required to post additional comments, 4, to those DQ's based on other students responses  to get full participation credit. I respond to 20% or more of them. 

Frank, I hate this form of communication some days. I grade every DQ as required and give feed back to the effect that the student did met the learning objectives of the DQ and the in-text citations and references are correct. I also deduct points if the post is late. Then I also respond to each student's first response to the DQ and engage them in further discussion to deepen understanding and information. I am asking if this later response is the university requirement or am I just an overzealous and very active teacher?

Thanks for the insight into managing a class by allowing students to self-select groups (sometimes an entire class when they're small!). It is a great idea to move around the classroom. This can lead to great student-instructor interactions and provide an opportunity to help the students with the activity!

These are great ideas on managing DQs and providing meaningful feedback to the students. Let's see if we can expand into the management of the class itself. Here are some thoughts!

Among higher education, managing large class sizes receives considerable attention with strategies and best-practices promoted in the published literature and books. Most sources agree on similar success elements: clear structure, set routine, well-organized and planned lessons, and purposeful activities in caring and supportive environment where students feel secure and valued. This is no easy task! So let’s share some of OUR best practices for managing larger class sizes (even smaller ones if scalability seems appropriate). 

Think about some of your most successful attempts at managing a larger class size. How did you do it? What were the pros and cons of this method? Would you recommend others try this?

So I'd like to go back to the "I have this form of communication" and "I agree this method of communication is difficult at times" comments. In some of the science ground classes, we removed many Discussion Questions (DQ) since we interact and engage with the students 2-3 times per week and offer office hours and Explore More! sessions for outside class engagement.

DQs allow students to remain engaged in the material and play an important role in online courses. They challenge us in many ways such as tracking original responses, checking for authenticity and adherence to the question, verifying quantity (and quality) of student-to-student responses, and providing our own meaningful feedback.

Let's share any ideas or suggestions on how we could improve this process or what other methods are available for meaningful engagement with material online.

Kathryn, I find that I have to read students' DQ responses carefully because sometimes what I "think" the student is saying is not what the student saying. If I think I am not understanding the student I quote the section of the DQ response I am struggling with and ask a few questions to clarify what the student meant. If I am having a particularly difficult time and the subject is one that may be sensitive, I will respond to the student in the individual forum so as not to embarrass the student. I am grateful that this rarely happens. 

To the broader question about this form of communication and your question. I like to use a Socratic teaching method and ask students questions to deepen their thinking. I might include an article that offers an opposing point of view and ask for their thoughts.

Thank you for the discussion. 

Frank, you wrote, "The question I always have is the student just posting off the top of their head or have they actually read the text or gone to outside sources. Since some business DQ's such as what is the importance of forecasting can be answered very generically I p[ost comments to the DQ but then expand upon the DQ comments as a reply."

I post this in the first announcement of a class: "Your post should be at least 200 words. Remember to support all of your answers with in-text citations and references at the end of the post. I do not know if you have read the text, lecture or are familiar with our ethical standards if you do not discuss these resources in your posts and in your assignments."

What do you think?

As a ground instructor, it can be challenging to meet all of the criteria that Kathryn mentioned above including set routine, prepared activities, and creating an environment that allows students to feel secure and valued.  My largest lecture size to date is 72 so that is what my experience is based on.  One of the comments I often get back on EOCS is that students are amazed that I know everyone's name.  Something as simple as learning everyone's name leads to students who feel like a member rather than an attender. Membership leads to greater interest in the course.

Sandy, Wow! You know the names of all 72 students! I do well up until about 30 after that well not so good!

 I do go around the whole class and shake everyone's hand on the first evening cohort. Students remark to me that I am the first professor at GCU who has ever personally greeted them in this way. 

Thank you again Ron and Frank! As instructors, clarifying our expectations for an assignment at the beginning is great management habit. What a great idea to ask for source information in a DQ which ensures that students are providing meaningful responses and as mentioned, not just off the top of their head. 

I recently read an article in Radical Pedagogy that reviewed past studies. It implied that students expect higher education to involve minimal effort, non-negative feedback, little challenge, and to be rewarded for personal opinions regardless of quality (referenced below). So... asking for clarification from a student may be conceived as negative feedback. Ron mentioned he may individual message a student. How else can we be constructive when we need to correct a respsonse or misconception in front of the student's peers. This may be even more important in very large settings.

Delucchi, M. Pelowski, S. Liking or Learning? The Effect of Instructor Likeability and Student Perceptions of Learning on Overall Ratings of Teaching Ability Radical Pedagogy (2): 2, 2000.

Thanks Sandy for letting us know something you do that student's respond well to! I think that is a great suggestion for managing a large class size. And Ron - that's a great way to establish rapport, one of the effective classroom management strategies. And in business, would that also be projecting a precedent for future behavior when these students are empoloyed? 

I often fail in learning all my student's names (kinda like responding to select DQs instead of all of them), but learn as many as possible because I like to establish that connection. Since this is a great way to effectively manage a large class, let's share some ideas on how we can learn the names of students. 

I believe large lecture class is usually a class with 50 or more students with an instructor assistant present also at GCU. I have a few lecture classes of this size in the past. A couple of things that I found particularly ineffective could be classroom projector setting, chair/desk arrangement, and instructor's podium (the computer system). For instance, a wide classroom with two projectors on the front wall while the podium is in front of one projector is hard for the instructor to see the other half of the students, so a good way for the instructor to communicate is to walk around when giving instructions.  A narrow but long classroom with one projector in the front is really difficult for the students in the back to see, and even worse for them to see the writing on the front whiteboard. I sometimes had to intentionally write huge formula (when not using the Smart Podium) on the whiteboard just for the backseat students to have a good view. In both case, the instructor need to walk around or back and forth for effective facilitation.

Learning the names of students in a large class can be challenging.  During the first week of class, the students are asked to take a "selfie" outside my office door.  I award one participation point for successfully completing the assignment and uploading the picture to an assignment folder I create in LC.  This serves two purposes: first, students know where my office is so they don't need to ask (even though the information can be found in multiple places), and, secondly, I can review their pictures until I learn their names.  After the semester is over, when I see a former student on campus, I can look up their picture to refresh my memory.  I also use the name tag system for the first couple of weeks as well.

Regarding students perception based on the Radical Pedagogy comments, frankly students who feel that in the realms of higher education we need to tread softly and babysit so that their feelings are not hurt simply need to GROW UP. I can tell you after spending 40 years in the business world and 8 years teaching ,students who want us to baby sit them  will never succeed in the real world. 

Gary, I have been in some of those classrooms at GCU. Fortunately, most of my classes are less than 20 students so they can all sit in one section of the kinds of classroom. I can't imagine teaching in those rooms.

Kathryn, You asked, "How else can we be constructive when we need to correct a respsonse or misconception in front of the student's peers. This may be even more important in very large settings."

It was a small class of seven students. One of the students made some stereotypical comments about a minority group and why they would find it difficult for them to provide counseling to this group. Several of the student's peers made facial expressions which quickly let me know that I would have to address this student's comments. I redirected the student to the ethical standards of our profession. I also acknowledged to this student that their perspective about counseling clients with different values, beliefs and lifestyles was not uncommon which is why our profession has the ethical standards it does. I encouraged the student and the rest of the class to use their ongoing classes as a way to continue to develop self-awareness about situations and populations they might find challenging.

Hi Gary: great comment and I agree that we can consider >48 to be a larger section of a class, especially when IAs or graders are provided.  You pointed out a great characteristic of the instructor to manage whichever layout the classroom has. The instructor should be moving throughout the class to make eye contact, engage with, and keep students focused. This also allows the instructor provide some individual feedback if students are working on a problem. As for handling writing on the whiteboard – that’s a challenge as some rooms have whiteboards on the side where the projector is in front. 

To this extent – I always try to physically visit all my classrooms before a new course starts. I log into the computer, check the projector system out, and try out the smart board. 

Hi Sandy: That's a great idea to have students take selfies outside your office and submit them for participation points! I can only imagine what your hall mates think during week 1 of classes - but they're probably using this idea as well. I have used group pictures (not outside my office, but that's an idea worth trying) and love seeing how happy they are. Most of the students are smiling and eager to learn.

Another added benefit is that you have their pictures for later when it comes time for letters of recommendation! 

Hi Ron,

Thank you for sharing a very sensitive issue you experienced while managing your classroom. It sounds like you were able to redirect the student who made a stereotypical comment in a sensitive manner that benefited the entire class. This is a great example of incorporating our Christian Worldview with the application of ethics in the classroom. It is not enough to teach it, but we need to live it and be cognizant of our words and actions. 

This relates to the concept of discipline in a classroom. Although we probably think of discipline in terms of the secondary education principal, we require this in large classes as well from respect, courtesy, cheating, plagiarism, and more.

Who else can share an experience that demonstrates positive management (or maybe not so positive with a learning aspect) of their classroom?

Kathryn, Thank you for your affirmation. I also often lecture from the back of the room so I can see what students are doing on their phones or laptops while I am talking. I have a remote clicker so I have this freedom.

Hi Ron,

That's another great classroom management technique - to walk around the classroom and be physically available to make eye contact. This has the hidden gem of ensuring students are on task related activities when using electronic devices. I wish all the classrooms had built in remote slide advancement units but until then, instructors can bring their own advancers which allows greater freedom in moving throughout a class.

On the other hand, sometimes in a large classroom, it is physically impossible to be behind students in the back row  (thinking of building 57 lecture halls on the first floor). There is also the challenge of how to work a problem on the white board/smart board and move around the class efficiently. 

I'm curious how others have addressed some of these issues when in a large classroom setting? Let's share our experiences, best practices, and ideas on retaining engagement and physical presence through a large, odd-sized classroom.

Ron,

It's a great idea using a remote clicker in the classroom when needed. I wonder if you used it with your laptop or just the desktop computer system. I used it sometimes in my church Sunday school class with my laptop, but haven't tried it in GCU classroom setting, since I typically just use the desktop system and don't bother with the extra accessories. Great for pointing out this remote clicker tech.

thanks,

Gary

Kathryn, I have never had occasion to teach in the very large classrooms. Do you have teaching assistants when you are teaching such large classes?

Gary, you are welcome. I purchased a remote clicker the second week I started teaching cohort classes. The only thing is to remember to change batteries once in a while :). I plug it right into the desktop system provided by the university. 

I recently was the keynote speaker at a large conference and used the remote clicker. It was wonderful to have this freedom to advance the slides at my convenience.

Another good topic for this form would be a conversation about creating innovative or creative power points.

ron

Gary and Ron

First, thank you Ron for responding to Gary! You are correct that clickers work very well with the university computers. And Gary, I have never had one malfunction or not be recognized from a computer. I purchased a simple Logitech type for ~$40-$50. I like the on/off control, slide advance or move backward, and ability to i turn the screen off. The red laser pointer helps emphasize key features of an image or important words on a slide. The range allows me to walk relatively far away from most podiums and still advance the slides and use the laser pointer (just watch your aim!).

Clickers are absolutely necessary for teaching most science labs since the room design places the computers behiind the projector screen! 

Hi Ron,

As a full time faculty member, if the class size falls above ~50 students we are assigned an IA or grader. This varies based on college. In my larger classes (75-93), I have had two IAs or one IA and one grader. The IAs attend lecture and hold 1-3 hours of office hours each week. They can assist with grading and classroom management. The graders are not required to attend lecture, although I know some faculty have them come on exam days to assist with distribution and grading. They help with participation, online activities, and grading tasks. 

I like your topic about creating innovative or creative presentations... have you looked at piktochart or venngage infographic? They have some great templates and infographics. 

This brings up a great point for some final discussions. Let's share some of our ideas on how to best use an IA to assist with in-classroom management. What are some expectations we can have that still allow IAs to have a more peer-to-peer relationship than instructor-student relationship?

Kathryn, I am not at all familiar with piktochart or venngage infographic. Does the university give classes on these?

Ron