JSU Center for University Scholars

Duke’s Mohamed Noor discussed his experiences teaching a very large class (i.e. 293 students) for the first time.  Part of his assessment process used mid-course evaluations, which our center has been advocating for a while.  We would expect that spending one-on-one time with students and using technology effectively would be on the list.  Both are part of the conventional wisdom these days.  Let’s highlight a couple of other approaches that worked.

“Low-stress assignments, especially daily pre-lecture quizzes they can retake based on their assigned reading. Many students have told me they appreciate having these, as they help them understand better what it is from the assigned reading I want them to walk away understanding. Even if they don’t actually read the material, they’re at least exposed to a few specific ideas (and questions/ answers) before class begins. A minority commented they felt it was an unnecessary “hoop”, but far more commented favorably than negatively. …

“In-class feedback system (via PollEverywhere). When you ask a class “How many people think A is the answer?” and get 20 hands up, and then ask about “B” and get 1 hand, does that mean that 95% of the class understands? What about the 200 people who never raised their hands? PollEverywhere has been great for me both to have the students engage in the material besides just listening to me drone on and to get an idea of REALLY what fraction of students understand (especially when I added an option that says “I don’t know” to every poll). Because these polls are done anonymously, response rates are closer to ~60-70% of attendees rather than the usual ~10%. The polls take little time, and students discussing possible answers with their neighbors helps them hear a different way of explaining the material.”

For those of you with core and introductory courses, the entire post is well worth perusal.