Making Large Classes Feel Small(er)

Whether you are teaching a small seminar or have hundreds of students, formative assessments can be deployed for a variety of purposes, such as giving students low-stakes opportunities to demonstrate their learning and giving you insight into the class environment. These kinds of “temperature checks” can better position you to be more responsive and well-timed in your teaching. Intentional acts of checking in with your students can signal care. Formative assessments can also help build community by giving students a chance to connect with one another and co-create meaning.  

Sample Strategies for High Enrollment Courses 

• Online tools like Poll Everywhere or Socrative simplify the work of grading for instructors and provide immediate feedback for learners. 
• Collect an “exit-ticket” survey where all students list what they learned and/or what they are still confused about (i.e., “quickly identify the muddiest point from today’s lecture”). Tanner (2010) points out that even reading 10 percent of student responses in high-enrollment classes can give instructors valuable insight about what to focus on in the next class. You can sample a different set of responses each time you use this strategy.  This intentional act of collecting responses from all students contributes to each individual feeling “seen” among the masses.
• Give the class a question that tests their comprehension. Devote time for students to think on their own, then discuss in pairs or small groups, and then vote on the correct answer. After students view responses from the entire class, further discussion and revoting ensues. Smith and colleagues (2009) found that the discussion that follows the initial vote is meaningful and drives student learning. With this approach, you are creating opportunities for students to connect with one another, and you can monitor trends in student learning in real-time. Anonymous tabulation is also a preferable substitute for randomly calling on students to share responses, a practice that Cooper and colleagues (2021) have identified as a driver of participation inequities. It can also take up additional class time if you have to re-direct the class (Nadile et al., 2023). 
• Try taking this a step further by creating cooperative quizzes or two-stage exams. After students complete an individual quiz/exam, they have higher levels of investment, which can be channeled into discussions with classmates to debate and reach a consensus on each answer. These approaches have been shown to increase student understanding, motivation, self-confidence, and collaboration and to lower anxiety and academic integrity violations.

Published Winter 2024