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Show page 2 lessons, fail 2001 Beyond Measure: Defining Large-Format Classrooms through the Health Sciences BY CRAIG FROEHLICH ILLUSTRATION BY SANDRA PALACIOS To define the characteristics of what a large-format class is, the University of Utah's Social and Behavioral Science Auditorium is a good place to start. After all, it is a big classroom. Natural light is non-existent in this rectangular hall. Sunlight only hints through random scratches etched on the blackened glass doors. The ---------------------- theatre seats fill with students -the kind of students who look younger every year. The class has officially started and the amplified echo of a professor competes with the wavering murmur of the incoming tardy. Many students crowd into the rows of seats closest to the stage and the lecture, but some linger as far back as the projection booth -atop ascending stairs, a hundred feet away. The nervous tapping of pens and the constant hum of chatter "The large class puts pressure on me to do the best possible job of delivering the most effective lectures." compete with the goal to be heard and to teach. Dale Lund teaches here three times a week. "This is my favorite class," says Lund, a director and professor at the University's Gerontology Center. He ventures down from the University's health sciences facilities to teach an introductory course in sociology. The class has an enrollment cap of 400 students with 374 on the roll. He's been experiencing the challenge of a filled lecture hall since his days as a graduate student more than 20 years ago. The average class size for the 2001 fall semester is 23 students, says Bidisha Rudra, a senior research analyst at the University's Office of Institutional Analysis. Lund's Sociology 1010 class is one of the 26 courses this fall with 200 or more students. The biggest of the big classes are often introductory and survey courses geared toward freshmen and sophomores. However, a December 1999 Institutional Analysis survey reports that dissatisfaction with large classrooms is second only to financial difficulty as the reason many students left the University after the first year. Regardless, Lund enjoys the opportunity to give a sociological perspective to a greater number of students. The scenario also offers Lund a professional challenge. ---------------------- "The large class puts pressure on me to do the best possible job of delivering the most effective lectures," he says. He admits that maintaining student attention is more difficult in a large class and has found success in the moderate use of overhead projectors for supportive images. He combats the impersonal feel of a crowded room with an informal demeanor and a concerted effort to involve students. He creates a smaller and more personal experience or atmosphere by using his personal experiences, asking students questions and taking the microphone into the audience periodically Lund has two teaching assistants in his class. He values their help with supplemental instruction, student interaction, exam grading and in adding a degree of organization to the course. Unfortunately, the luxury of teaching assistants isn't always available. Sixty students are just a fraction of 400, but it's a large class for the teacher charged with teaching them solo. To handle the rigors of a lopsided student-to-instructor ratio, many professors find it necessary to stray from subjective essay questions and group discussion, and most resort to multiple-choice tests and prepared lectures. Lund managed to acquire a teaching assistant in his upper- |
