As academics, I think we can often feel like this image here of an overloaded truck.  There are many competing demands on our time: research, teaching, administration, student experience and the all important NSS.  Who doesn’t feel like this some days ?

Large class teaching can be one more pressure that we have to deal with.  There are myriad challenges to address, such as managing student expectations, being available to students but also having a life outside work, and perhaps worst of all the relentlessness and never-ending nature of the marking.

In the early days, when I asked for help about how to deliver good teaching to very large classes, a distinguished elder scholar who shall remain nameless retorted “I just wouldn’t do them” – not that helpful to a newbie academic!  My hope today is to offer tips that are a bit more useful than that, yet grounded in the reality that large classes are not going to go away and we as academics need to deal with them. (A copy of the presentation on which this blog post is based is available on Slideshare ) Continue reading Reflections on Large Class Teaching →

The numbers of students entering full-time higher education in the United Kingdom has increased rapidly over the last 20 years.  In many institutions this has resulted in larger class sizes, with numbers of students undertaking core modules often exceeding 250 students.  The challenge facing higher education, driven by financial pressures to accept increasing student numbers, is how to evolve the student learning experience to meet the expectations of today’ s students.  Didactic teaching in ever-larger lecture theatres may not constitute the optimal approach.  Recognising this many institutions have seized on new technologies in teaching and learning as a potential solution to this problem. Continue reading Panacea or Empty Promise – Can learning technology overcome the challenges of large class teaching? →

Student cohorts of 250+ are not uncommon in today’s brave new world of Higher Education.  Indeed here in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering we deliver the largest taught MSc programme in the Faculty; a 1year MSc in the Management of Projects that attracts over 300 students each year – drawn to The University of Manchester by both its reputation and the excellent feedback the course receives from past students. Given that this course generates considerable income for the University it is not surprising that much effort is devoted to ensuring that the student experience is a good one, with academic staff working very hard to deliver excellent and innovative teaching, getting alongside students to encourage, exhort and educate them and organising added value activities such as industry focused projects and a programme of guest speakers. What we are less focused on though is the small matter of assessment Continue reading Meaningful, Equitable and Manageable: The Iron Triangle of Assessment Design →