Engaging Large Classes: Strategies and Techniques for College Faculty

Large classes have become a fact of life in colleges and universities across America; even as academic funding has decreased, class enrollments have continued to rise. Although students, teachers, and administrators are often concerned by the potentially negative impact of uneven teacher-to-student ratios, large classes also offer many potential advantages that are less recognized and not always maximized.

In Engaging Large Classes, the authors demonstrate that large classes can be just as stimulating and rewarding as smaller classes. Written by experienced teachers of large classes across a wide range of disciplines and institutions, this book provides faculty members and administrators with instructional strategies and advice on how to enhance large class settings.

This book summarizes many of the core issues related to successfully teaching large classes, including

• An honest review of the advantages and disadvantages of large classes
• Advice on how to design, plan, manage, and fairly assess large classes
• The universality of large-class issues across disciplines, from classroom management to working with teaching assistants
• Strategies for using classroom technology, active learning, and collaborative learning
• Seventeen detailed examples of large classes from a range of higher education institutions

The authors not only present an overview of research on teaching large classes, they also equip readers with helpful insight into the mechanics of large-class pedagogy. This book has the potential to change the way academia views the reality of teaching large classes.

Christine A. Stanley is Assistant Professor Higher Education Administration in the Department of Educational Administration and Human resource Development, and Associate Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Texas A&M University. She has also served as president (2000-2001) and chair of the Diversity Commission (1994-1998) of the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Networking Higher Education, the North American organization dedicated to faculty, organizational, and instructional development issues in higher education. Prior to joining the faculty at Texas A&M University, she was Associate director of Faculty and TA Development and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Educational Policy and Leadership at The Ohio State University, where she received the Distinguished Staff Award in 1999. She is the recipient of the Texas A&M University College of Education Development Council's Outstanding New Faculty Award (2000-2001).
A biologist, teacher, consultant, and faculty developer, she has taught courses on college teaching, professional development, and diversity and social justice in higher education. She is a consultant to many colleges and universities on faculty development, and multicultural faculty and TA development initiatives in higher education.
She has contributed numerous articles on faculty development to such publications as Journal on Excellence in College Teaching; Journal of Staff, Program, and Organizational Development; and To Improve the Academy: Resources for Faculty, Instructional and Organizational Development and has an extensive record of presentations and professional organization service.

M. Erin Porter is Senior Lecturer in the Department of management Science and Information Systems at The University of Texas, Austin. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in business communication in the red McCombs School of Business and is departmental coordinator for the undergraduate multi-section business communication course. Prior to her current appointment, she was Director of Faculty Programs at the Center for Teaching Effectiveness at the University o f Texas, Austin. She has published in The Journal of Staff, Program, and Organizational Development; To Improve the Academy, and has a chapter in Practically Speaking: A Sourcebook for Instructional Consultants in Higher Education. She cowrote Business Communication, a textbook published by the American Press. She received the student generated Eyes of Texas Award for fall semester 2001.
She has been a tenured Associate Professor of Speech Communication at Southwest Texas State University where she was director for speech fundamentals and business speech coursed at two universities, director of the forensics program, taught graduate and undergraduate classes, and supervised graduate teaching assistants for large sections of introductory classes. She has been an adjunct professor at St. Edward's University and Austin Community College, as well as a consultant in the high-tech industry in Texas.
An educator, faculty developer, business consultant, and communication specialist, she has consulted on issues involving trends in communication skill sets for businesses, teams in the workplace, and interpersonal communication skills for business professionals, cross disciplinary teaching projects, and effective teaching methodology in university classrooms. She has authored articles on faculty development and business communication and has an extensive record of presentations, workshops, consulting assignments, and professional organization service.