Large Courses Strategies

 What Challenges Might a Large Class Face?

One of the key advantages of online learning is the ability to offer a course without the restrictions of a physical classroom. While an in-person class is restricted by the number of learners a classroom can hold, online classes don't experience the same limitations. However, increasing the number of learners requires careful consideration of how the course is built and facilitated. Some concerns affiliated with large online classes include the amount of time needed to deliver individualized feedback to all learners and a decrease in instructor presence, cognitive presence, and social presence.

It's important to note that there is not a specific enrollment size that defines a "large class" (Thomas, 2021). What constitutes as small and large can differ between disciplines or class topics. For example, an introductory undergraduate online course with 50 learners may be considered small while a graduate-level online course may be considered large at 30 learners. One thing that remains consistent regardless of class size is there is no "one-size-fits-all" approach to class size (Taft et al., 2019). Therefore, the strategies in the next section focus on how to improve online courses with large class enrollments.

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Strategies to Support Large Online Courses

The content below has been adapted from Arizona State University's Best Practices for Large-Enrollment Online Courses, Part I Links to an external site. and Part II Links to an external site.

• Create a course management plan (e.g. communication, analytics, etc.)
  
  • Message Students Who: Links to an external site. Send messages to specific groups of learners based on assignment submission status, assignment grade, and more.
  • Host targeted office hours to answer common learner questions (Raible et al., 2015).
  • Utilize synchronous video tools like Zoom or BigBlueButton Links to an external site. to communicate with learners in real-time.
  • Scheduler Links to an external site.: Create blocks of time for learners to meet with you one-on-one. Learners can sign-up for individual time slots.
  • New Analytics Links to an external site.: Track average course grades, view online participation rates, and explore individual learner analytics. You can also message learners who meet specific grade or participation criteria, similar to the Message Students Who feature.
  • Implement a Three-Before-Me Method to encourage learners to seek out answers from other avenues prior to reaching out to you (Phillips & Chen, 2015).
• Manage student expectations
  • Provide transparent and details grading criteria in the course syllabus
    • Promote Active Learning in Group Projects Through the Use of the Transparent Assignment Framework
  • Provide methods for students to contact you for feedback or help (e.g., virtual office hours, email, canvas messages, etc.)
  • Provide realistic expectations for grading/feedback turnaround
• Leverage quizzes and exams when possible
  • Build-in automatic feedback Links to an external site. for right and wrong answers in Canvas
  • Use available tools <Replace -  Institution Name> to discourage cheating
  • Use quiz reports Links to an external site. to help you determine questions that may need to be written
• Reduce your grading load
  
  • Create detailed grading rubrics and use the Canvas rubric tool with the Speedgrader feature Links to an external site. for quick and easy grading.
  • Consider peer review for assessment to encourage student-to-student evaluation. Use the peer review Links to an external site. feature in Canvas
  • Use templates and worksheets in lieu of essays and papers if possible
  • Scaffold large assignments. Break larger assignments into smaller chunks with varied due dates to break up grading tasks.
    • Modeling Spaced Repetition in Course Design.
    • Using low-stakes quizzes to encourage mastery.
  • Use Group Evaluation to Assess Group Work
• Use groups strategically
  • Allow random or self-enrollment Links to an external site. groups
  • Establish and communicate group expectations and ground roles (e.g., group contract Links to an external site.)
  • Consider allowing students to select a group leader and other group roles (e.g., facilitator, moderator, researcher, scribe, etc.)
  • Leverage peer evaluation (e.g., peer evaluation form Links to an external site.)
• Reframe the use of Discussions
  • Award points for participation.
  • Refrain from asking questions with a right or wrong answer, instead, ask open-ended questions
  • Don't aim to respond to all students, instead pick 2 or 3 student responses to highlight.
  • Group Discussions Links to an external site.: Divide large class discussion assignments into more manageable group discussions (Drozd et al., 2021).
  • TOPR: Manage Discussions in Large Classes
  • Use Three-Before-Me as a Communication Strategy in a Large Class