Is Active Learning possible in large lecture halls?

One major challenge in employing active learning strategies in teaching university classes for some courses (especially, the more ‘general’ ones)  is certainly large class size. Students are seated in large lecture theatres, and in rows. The setting itself already encourages chalk and talk by the instructor. Even setting up group discussions is not that easy. Then, the large class size makes it difficult to administer and manage active learning activities. For example, it is difficult for the instructor to provide help to individual groups. There will never be enough time for individual to report their work to the whole class.

The lecturing to large classes may save costs, but it is a very 20^th century teaching activity. Of course, this is not to say that all large-class lecturing should be dispensed with. But first, such lectures should be shortened and condensed (especially given today’s shortened attention span of EVERYBODY), and instead, should be complemented with other modes of learning.

Fortunately (for me), today even with large classes, there are still e-learning strategies which can facilitate some forms of active learning, even if students are seated in rows in a large lecture theatre. For example, there are now many useful polling and quiz apps for tapping into students’ views, previous knowledge, answers to quick questions, etc. (e.g., AnswerGarden, PollEverywhere, QuestionPro, Quizizz, Socrative). There are also apps for students to easily share their ideas (e.g., Padlet, Google Jamboard). There are also apps for creating short interactive tasks, which may be administered at intervals during a lecture (e.g., Wordwall; LearningApps.org).