Large introductory courses present a distinctive teaching challenge: How do you create connection in a room of hundreds? How do faculty know whether students are learning before they fall behind? How do students receive meaningful feedback and support? And how can a large gateway course feel like a learning community rather than an anonymous lecture?

The Large Course Initiative brings together faculty and the Institute for Excellence in Teaching & Learning to tackle these questions through course redesign. Faculty teams in Biology, Chemistry, and Mathematics & Statistics have examined their courses from the student perspective and introduced novel approaches to active learning, assessment, peer interaction, academic support, inclusive teaching, and technology.

The goal is not simply to make large courses more manageable. It is to make them better learning environments—places where more students participate, connect, persist, and succeed.

The changes faculty have made are translating into meaningful improvements in the student experience. Across the suite of participating courses, faculty are seeing stronger engagement and persistence, including reductions in course withdrawals, and improvements in measures of student belonging and success.

Across the large courses participating in this initiative, faculty have focused on four areas that can make a significant difference in the student experience:

• Engaging students
• Supporting student success
• Building belonging and inclusion
• Using technology to strengthen learning

Together, these priorities provide a framework for faculty to rethink what it means to create an engaging, connected, and supportive learning environment at scale.

Engaging Students

Creating an active learning environment can be especially challenging in a classroom of hundreds. Faculty redesigned elements of their courses to give students more opportunities to participate, collaborate, apply what they are learning, and connect course concepts to real-world problems. These approaches are helping shift the large classroom from a primarily lecture-based experience toward one in which students play a more active role in their learning.

Strategies faculty have put into practice include:

• Active Learning Activities. Active learning strategies create opportunities for students to participate directly in the learning process through discussion, problem-solving, collaboration, and application of concepts.
• Experiential Learning Case Studies. Experiential learning connects concepts to authentic problems and experiences, giving students opportunities to learn through application and reflection.

Supporting Student Success

Large gateway courses play an important role in students’ academic journey, particularly when they provide the foundation for continued study in a discipline. Faculty have introduced more intentional opportunities for students to practice, receive feedback, recognize when they are struggling, and develop the skills and learning strategies they need to make progress. The goal is not simply to help students complete a course, but to build the knowledge, confidence, and learning habits that support continued success.

Strategies faculty have put into practice include:

• Reflective Assessments. Approaches such as exam wrappers encourage students to reflect on their performance, understand feedback, and identify strategies for improvement.
• Low-stakes Assessments. Frequent quizzes, clicker questions, and short assignments give students opportunities to practice and faculty opportunities to identify areas where additional support may be needed.
• Structured Learning Pathways. Structured learning pathways help students understand not only what they need to learn, but how to approach complex material and engage with a course’s core learning objectives.

Building Belonging & Inclusion

It can be easy for students to feel anonymous in a course with hundreds of classmates. Faculty in this initiative have intentionally redesigned aspects of the large course experience to strengthen connections among students, instructors, teaching teams, and peers. Inclusive teaching practices, small-group experiences, and near-peer support help create a learning environment in which students feel that they belong, have people they can turn to, and are supported in their ability to succeed.

Strategies faculty have put into practice include:

• Inclusive Learning Strategies. Intentional approaches to course design and teaching help create learning environments that are welcoming and accessible to students with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences.
• Learning Assistants. Trained undergraduate “near peers” work alongside faculty and teaching teams to facilitate learning activities, increase interaction, and provide students with another source of connection and academic support.

Using Technology to Strengthen Learning

Technology can be particularly valuable in large courses when it helps faculty understand how students are learning and gives students more opportunities for interaction, practice, and timely feedback. Faculty have explored learning technologies, online resources, and learning data as part of their course redesign—using technology not simply to manage the scale of these courses, but to create a more responsive and engaging learning experience for students.

Stay Tuned!

Visit this page often for more initiative updates, strategies, and impact data on how we’re transforming the large classroom and improving the BU student learning experience.