TEL Strategies in Large-Enrollment Classes
The large-enrollment course is a fixture of the undergraduate educational experience at the University of Minnesota, as it is at virtually every research university. However, as reviews of attitudes and performance (e.g., Cooper and Robinson; Cuseo; Twigg, 2004) suggest, students in our largest courses are twice as likely to receive unsuccessful grades (D, F, N, or W) as those in sections with 24 or fewer students (Enhancing Student Learning Through Innovative Teaching and Technology Strategies (University of Minnesota Bush Grant proposal, 2004, p. 7); national studies likewise suggest that retention of students in large enrollment classes is a significant problem.
Seminar
The seminar was held in-person and also broadcast live via UMConnect:
February 1, 2005
12:00-1:30 p.m.
274 McNeal Hall
UMConnect Meeting recording
The panelists discussed how they addressed these issues by using technology to promote active learning, assess performance, create learning communities among students, and strengthen communication between students and instructors.
Moderator:
Robin Wright
biological sciences, Twin Cities campus
Panelists:
Kate Briggs
psychology, Twin Cities campus
M. J. Maynes/Ann Waltner
history, Twin Cities campus
Laura Molgaard
veterinary medicine, Twin Cities campus
Deb Olson
environmental health sciences, Twin Cities campus
Campus Projects
Information about the panelists' related projects will be published after the seminar.
Bibliography
The following may help you conduct research about TEL strategies in large-enrollment courses.
Cooper, James L., and Pamela Robinson. "The Argument for Making Large Classes Seem Small." New Directions for Teaching and Learning 81 (spring 2000): 5-16.
Cooper and Robinson note that problems associated in the literature with large lecture sections relate to the relatively low time-on-task in lecture-based courses: students are able to pay close attention for the first 10-20 minutes before their concentration wanes. Cooper and Robinson's research suggests that breaking up lectures with small group work can promote critical thinking and knowledge retention, create a sense of community, motivate students to participate more actively, and (most importantly) reduce attrition. Although the authors don't directly discuss how technology can be used to foster small group work, digital technologies provide one means by which instructors can attempt to develop small discussion or work groups.
Cuseo, Joe. "The Empirical Case Against Large Class Size: Adverse Effects on the Teaching, Learning, and Retention of First-Year Students." Policy Center on the First Year of College. http://www.brevard.edu/fyc/listserv/remarks/cuseoclasssize.pdf.
Cuseo argues that large-enrollment classes impinge on student learning, motivation, and satisfaction because of
- a reliance on lecturing (pp. 2-4);
- a diminution of student involvement or activity (pp. 4-5) and "depth of thinking" (pp. 6-7); and
- a drastic reduction of interaction between instructors and students, both in the classroom and in terms of feedback on student work (pp. 5-6).
Cuseo offers some recommendations for optimal class size and curricular changes, many of which can be adapted for use in a hybrid setting.
Hiltz, Starr Roxanne. "Collaborative Learning in a Virtual Classroom: Highlights of Findings." Proceedings of the 1988 ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. Portland, OR: Association for Computing Machinery, 1988, 282-290. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/62266.62289.
Hiltz's presentation provides a useful overview of one early study in the use of networked computers to increase student interaction, engagement, and motivation. Although implementation challenges both technical and cultural inevitably affected the success of the project, student responses were generally favorable and students in virtual classes performed as well as their peers in traditional classes (although the fact that instructors optimized the curriculum for online collaborative learning makes it difficult to draw accurate comparisons between those sections and sections organized more traditionally).
McPherson, Maggie, and Miguel Baptista Nunes. "The Failure of a Virtual Social Space (VSS) Designed to Create a Learning Community: Lessons Learned." British Journal of Educational Technology 35, no. 3 (2004): 305-321.
As a means of creating community among a cohort of post-graduate instructional technology management students, designers in McPherson and Nunes's study attempted to develop a virtual social space, a commons area in which students' peer-to-peer academic interactions could be preserved and extended beyond the bounds of the individual learning module or class. Despite students' initial enthusiasm for the idea, the virtual social space failed to create a robust community among these distant learners; McPherson and Nunes posit that a combination of pre-existing social norms (e.g., a strong preference for e-mail versus threaded discussion tools among student participants) and a failure to formally tie use of the commons space into students' study program contributed to the lack of use.
Twigg, Carol A. "Improving Learning and Reducing Costs: Redesigning Large-Enrollment Courses." Troy, New York: Center for Academic Transformation, 1999. http://www.center.rpi.edu/PewSym/mono1.pdf.
------. "Using Asynchronous Learning in Redesign: Reaching and Retaining the At-Risk Student." Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks 8, no. 1 (February 2004): 7-15.
"Improving Learning and Reducing Costs: Redesigning Large-Enrollment Courses" is a report outlining the findings of the Pew Trusts-sponsored course redesign initiative, and "Using Asynchronous Learning in Redesign: Reaching and Retaining the At-Risk Student" is a summary of the report. Although each of 30 participating institutions were encouraged to develop technology-assisted redesign models custom customized to suit the needs of their students and curricula, most focused on the use of technology to make large-enrollment courses more active, more engaging, and more cost-effective.
