TThis week I am back from my holidays and getting my brain into gear for the year ahead. On returning from holiday I discovered that my first year class has grown in size, from 540 students to 740 students. Wow.
In some ways this comes as no surprise, I was expecting a few more (say another 100) but 200 was a little bit of a shock. That being said, when teaching super massive classes, there are a few things to consider. Below are some of my observations and thoughts for the coming year.
Firstly, as an engineer, I like to classify things. When we started thinking about a common first year in engineering, we asked an external body to help us think about large teaching. As they ran their workshop it became clear that large was anything bigger than 30 students, but there is a world of difference between 30, 90, 300 and 900. What works at one scale may not work at another. So I thought it might be helpful to define what we mean by different numbers:
- 10 – Small class size.
- 30 – Medium class size. This a standard class size in a school. At this scale you can know the name of all students.
- 90 – Large class size. This is fairly typical of the size of class I have taught over the years at Bristol. There are both flatbed and lecture theatres that fit this size, so teaching can be delivered in a single session, whether didactic, or flipped. Whilst you may not get to know the name of all students (although I distinctly recall one of my own lecturers making a point of remembering all our names when I was a student, which was appreciated) you hopefully will recognise them all and can have a conversation with all of them in workshop style sessions.
- 300 – Massive. At this point you need one of the biggest lecture theatres we have at Bristol (and from my experience designing Universities, 300 is typically an upper bound for lecture theatres at universities generally). So, if you want to do flipped or workshop style teaching you are into double teaching, or more. It starts to become hard to remember the names and faces of students. Making the sessions feel personable requires considerable effort.
- 900 – Super massive! At this point you are double, triple or quadruple teaching. There will be no point when you have everyone in the room at the same time. When teaching the same thing multiple times there is a challenge to keep it fresh and remember what you have told who, so preparation and consistency become key.
As you can see we are hitting the super massive category. This means every week I need to double teach my lecture and quadruple teach my workshop. Both of which are exhausting and I am making a note now to be kind to myself and book in recouperation time as the emotional effort to be present, sociable, to initiate conversation and to help the students feel valued and heard is significant. That is not to say that I don’t love it, I do, I really do, its just that afterwards, I need to refill my tank, or I will burn out.
So here is the big question. How do you make students feel valued and seen when teaching 740? I have thought about this long and hard and have been trying to pick up tips and tricks. There are no simple answers, but here are some of my current thoughts:
1. The Nando’s Approach
Last year when I taught the same unit I put group sheets on every table, and every week the students signed the sheets to say they were present. At some point during the session I collected in the sheet from every table, and this created an opportunity for me to have a conversation with those at the table. I noticed a similar thing at Nando’s. When you take your seats at the table they put a wooden spoon in the cutlery container. Once your food has been delivered someone collects the wooden spoon and asks if everything is OK with your meal. Other places use a similar approach. So this year I will created a series of systematic reasons to engage with the tables. Things that need handing out, things that need collecting, for both me and my teaching assistants. And there will be a set of questions to ask when doing this, creating a space for conversation and connection without feeling awkward which will hopefully lead to students asking questions, seeking feedback, and looking for advice.
2. Systems
The unit that we run is complex. It involves a laboratory induction, multiple submissions, group work, presentations, lectures, workshop sessions, computer labs and self-supported study. Creating systems that track and support students is essential. But it’s not just about having systems, it’s about having systems that flag the right problems with the minimum of effort.
A few years back I visited Laing O’Rourkes concrete precast factory. One of the many highlights was seeing the tools hanging on the wall, they described how every tool has a place and you can look at the wall and instantly see if there is a tool missing or not, because if it is not there there is a brightly coloured painted version of it visible instead (this is called a shadow board). If the tools were stored in a tool box, you would need to sort through them to find out if all the tools were there.u would need to sort through them to find out if all the tools were there.
Similarly on the unit, we tried to make it easy to spot when people were missing. The sign-in sheets that I collected every week, made it easy to spot students who didn’t show up. If they missed two sessions I sent an email, explaining that they could not miss any more. Likewise, the lab induction, we moved to a new form, where they take responsibility for their own learning and certifying their training, as a result we had to run no lab inductions over the summer for resitting students as they had all completed it during the term. Designing systems that create the outcomes you are after is essential when teaching on such large units.
One of the most important systems was creating a unit email address – so all enquiries go to one in-box, and when asking them to email about certain topics, stating what subject to use so you can find all the emails in one go.
3. Forks
Which brings us back to the restaurants. Over the summer I have watched “The Bear” with my son. It is a show about running a restaurant. I had watched seasons 1 and 2 previously, but season three came out recently and I am keen to watch it (currently 6 episodes in) but my son hadn’t seen the first two seasons, so together we re-watched them. I was really looking forward to one episode, “Forks” where one of the main characters goes and works at one of the best restaurants in the world. It is the most beautifully redemptive episode. Anyway, one of the things I noticed rewatching it was that everyone has the same meal (a 9 course taster meal), but they also personalise the experience, making notes of allergies and dietary requirements, tracking tables, speaking to the guests and making changes on the fly. *Spoiler alert*. At one point a family note they are leaving Chicago but haven’t had the cities famous deep dish pizza, Richie, who the episode is focussed on, overhears this and decides to enable them to have a deep-dish pizza course added to their menu so they don’t miss out. Whilst this final example may be beyond what we can deliver the idea is to create a single experience that is then personalised. Whilst we create systems, we need to be able to make them flexible. To consider the individual needs of students. To help them when they are struggling. So, in creating systems we need also build in personalisation, from how we run labs, to how we require presentations. Managing these details really make a difference.
So, with all that in mind, I will try again to run an engaging and valuable unit which provides a rich learning experience for all 740 students taking it!
