Oct 27

Is the difficulty of using active learning compounded in a large class by the students who prefer large classes due to their anonymity or can instructors work through this?
Although McKeachi mentions that T.As near the end of the chapter, he doesn't really tell us how to utilize them. When teaching large classes, what can T.As do to help facilitate learning, especially in intro classes?
McKeacie has a lot of ideas on how to reach the students in a large class. However, what about the instructor? Is there as much feedback from the students, such as questions asked during class, or are they less reluctant to speak up in front of a large group?
This chapter discusses the importance of communication with your students and establishing relationships, how feasible are some of his suggestions about reducing students anonymity? For example, invitations to coffee, flashcards with students pictures on them, seating charts.
- With regard to Reducing Anonymity - it's a nice idea, but how feasible are some of these strategies? Shouldn't some or most of the burden of being known to the professor be on the student?
I like the idea of student poster presentations with large classes, but would this encourage enough active learning to be worth the time and effort?
When teaching a large intro class of 100 or more people, is it possible to have effective discussions, or would this be too time consuming? Possibly breaking the class into discussion sections would be more effective, if you had the TA's to do so.
Outside readings are cited as an additional problem with teaching larger classess, I would think the real problem would be assessing if students utilized and understood the material. Since discussion adn writing are limited how can you really tell if student did the reading?
In my experience, teacher's who use PowerPoint are usually staring at the tops of their student's heads as they scribble down everything from each slide. What sort of design strategy could be used to prevent this from occurring, but still incorporate the use of PowerPoint into a class lecture?
To help students feel less anonymous in a larger class setting, would it be helpful to bring in extra TA's to help facilitate discussions, mingle with students, and hold additional office hours? What sort of advantages and what sort of problems could arise from this strategy?
The chapter discusses the keypad/buzz in system, in which the professor can put up a multiple choice question after a lecture and this will give the professor feedback as far as how many of the students actually understood the lecture. I like this method as a good feedback tool. If i was provided with the equipment, i would use it? What do you think?
I like the idea of "virtual" office hours. Since no one typically shows up, it would be kind of neat to hold virtual office hours in the evening when students would probably be more available. Is this feasible? Does anyone know how that is set-up?