Class Size Issues

by bernoulli

May 18, 2011

Due to poor budgets over the past 10 years, like most schools we have been experiencing larger class sizes. Classes I used to teach with 25-30 students are now routinely 38-40. I taught one statistics class a year ago with 62 students. Note that we don't have any TAs or graders. What I noticed are the following: 1. I give more Scantron quizzes and tests. I don't feel comfortable grading so many quizzes or tests because of time and concerns over consistency. 2. I don't assign as many threaded discussions because I have to form discussion groups and then don't get around to monitoring them. 3. More stress just thinking about the number of students I'll be facing as I walk into class. 4. More problem students to deal with. 5. Perhaps a good thing, I post homework, quiz, and test solutions Bb sometime with narrated explanations. This saves time going over things in class. It does take time. 6. Not as excited about teaching anymore. 7. I quit giving out my home phone number to students. It ...See More

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Sspil I teach classes as an adjunct and I've noticed the trend for larger class sizes as well. I've also noticed that lately the department head will sign waivers to "overfill" a class expecting that students will drop as the semester progresses. While this is true, it makes for a very hectic beginning of the semester, sometimes with not enough places fo...See MoreI teach classes as an adjunct and I've noticed the trend for larger class sizes as well. I've also noticed that lately the department head will sign waivers to "overfill" a class expecting that students will drop as the semester progresses. While this is true, it makes for a very hectic beginning of the semester, sometimes with not enough places for the students to sit the first couple of weeks and we're squeezing in extra chairs to accommodate everyone. Luckily some of the classes I teach are lab classes where the number of students is limited by space in each section and because of safety reasons, they can not overfill a lab section. Classroom lecture is a different story.

One nice addition is that our adjunct union finally negotiated extra pay for double sections (large class sizes). It's not a lot, but at least it helps with the extra time an instructor has to put in to planning and grading. Our full time faculty are credited with extra hours toward their maximum load for a double section.

I teach physics and can not give Scantron multiple choice exams exclusively. They must solve problems and the grading is tedious. One tool I use to help myself is online homework. I found a rather good online program for Physics. My students like it because it is self directed and I don't have to grade homework. I also use Angel (our online communication system) extensively for communicating with students and posting information. All quiz and exam solutions are posted so I don't use class time to go over them.

Adjuncts are not paid for office hours, but my college has allowed me to schedule paid time in the tutoring center. This helps me a great deal because my students can come for extra help and I am compensated for my time. Prior to last year, any time I spent outside of class helping students was my own time. I didn't mind when it was only a few needing help, but with the large class sizes it was getting to a point where I was spending almost as much time with students outside of my class as in. We don't have any full time physics instructors so I couldn't direct them to full time faculty office hours for questions.

It seems like we are all having to do more with less. My challenge is to try and keep the quality of my classes while not killing myself in the process.

May 23, 2011

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marjoryt I see very large sections with 30+ students for freshman composition. However, some of my coworkers teach the same courses and have only 10 to 15 students. There's definitely a discrepancy, which I put down to - -student perception/data indicating some instructors are harder - lower percentage of passing students

-use of technology - our s...See More

May 30, 2011

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bernoulli Nice response, marjorie! Thanks! I am going to use some of your methods!

Can you explain a bit more about the items below? I don't think I fully understood what your meant. Thanks!

> > I'm firm about my due dates and don't do "instant make up" but > save everything for 1 day before progress report and 1 day > before ...See More

May 31, 2011

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SM On 5/18/11, bernoulli wrote:

We live in a changing world and work in a changing profession given the changing times. I think this is all something we have to get used to at least for now and have to remember that we are fortunate to have jobs.

That said, my friends in England and England in general is a very pessimistic place - ...See MoreOn 5/18/11, bernoulli wrote:

We live in a changing world and work in a changing profession given the changing times. I think this is all something we have to get used to at least for now and have to remember that we are fortunate to have jobs.

That said, my friends in England and England in general is a very pessimistic place - having once controlled 1/3 of the earth and now no longer able to call themselves a 'superpower', we're going the same route and I guess will become the same pessimistic place that England has become.

I admire the changes you've made to contend with the change that you're dealing with.

> Due to poor budgets over the past 10 years, like most > schools we have been experiencing larger class sizes. > Classes I used to teach with 25-30 students are now > routinely 38-40. I taught one statistics class a year ago > with 62 students. Note that we don't have any TAs or > graders. What I noticed are the following: > 1. I give more Scantron quizzes and tests. I don't feel > comfortable grading so many quizzes or tests because of time > and concerns over consistency. > 2. I don't assign as many threaded discussions because I > have to form discussion groups and then don't get around to > monitoring them. > 3. More stress just thinking about the number of students > I'll be facing as I walk into class. > 4. More problem students to deal with. > 5. Perhaps a good thing, I post homework, quiz, and test > solutions Bb sometime with narrated explanations. This saves > time going over things in class. It does take time. > 6. Not as excited about teaching anymore. > 7. I quit giving out my home phone number to students. It > was OK when I didn't get very many calls at home. > 8. I don't hang around my office as much outside of office > hours. > 9. Some of the classrooms I have are really not suited to > be used at capacity...difficult for students to see. > > I am a heavy user of technology, but unfortunately the > course I have developed to a very high degree as a hybrid > course has not been assigned to me much in the last 2 years. > > Anyone else want to chime in about this? I did attend a > workshop about how to teach large classes. It was geared > more toward how to manage the class during the class time. I > learned a lot, but it still takes a lot of time.

May 31, 2011

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marjoryt I'm firm about my due dates and don't do "instant make up" but >> save everything for 1 day before progress report and 1 day >> before final exams. Probably MOST of the work I grade is either research related (my Comp. I students do annotated bibliographies) or composition-related (all my classes are English). An assignment submitted on...See MoreI'm firm about my due dates and don't do "instant make up" but >> save everything for 1 day before progress report and 1 day >> before final exams. Probably MOST of the work I grade is either research related (my Comp. I students do annotated bibliographies) or composition-related (all my classes are English). An assignment submitted on time receives bonus points and/or revision opportunity. An assignment submitted late will still be graded, but is a "one up" - the grade is final. This encourages prompt submission and the last minute "let me get this correct." In the past, I would end up with a foot high stack of papers to get graded along with the final exam. That problem just doesn't happen any more - last spring the last minute paper stack from 157 students was only 2 inches thick; most of the papers being research papers revisions. Originals and revisions are submitted together; I can then spot check for corrections. > >> Starting last term, my official attendance is in the audit >> report - I don't keep a separate one. Because so many of our students receive PELL grants, we track attendance and are audited fairly closely. Most instructors keep a traditional gradebook with attendance - a paper one. I started my first year as a college instructor with an electronic gradebook and always kept attendance via that way, and also posting to the college attendance audit system - in effect I was double posting. Three years ago I decided to make the Blackboard gradebook my official gradebook for the course, not keeping a separate one. I just download a copy every week to my computer as a backup, and then at the end of the semester download the gradebook to an Excel spreadsheet. Perfect solution, but Bb persists in not giving us an attendance function (in my opinion a major problem with the software). It was horrendously time consuming to keep an Excel program for attendance and also post to the required college audit system, kept in Banner. Double entry - a real problem. So, last semester I decided to try keeping attendance directly in the audit report. Usually I just pulled up the program on my laptop and clicked off names during class. If necessary, I could provide a written roster and had the students initial beside the name (this works really well if students tend to slide in late). At the end of the semester I just downloaded the audit report, formulated into Excel, and submitted with my grades.

I guess the whole idea is to get out of duplicate record keeping - have one system and be dedicated to that system.

>

Jul 7, 2011

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