Large classroom sizes can be cumbersome for some instructors, but a workshop on Tuesday may help ease some of those worries.

The noon meeting in the University Union Walnut Room, sponsored by The Center for Teaching and Learning and The Writing Across the Curriculum, will give the faculty tips on how to keep students interested in large classrooms while still learning the appropriate material.

“The teachers who come to my faculty development workshops say that increasing class size is one of the biggest challenges they face in their teaching,” said Daniel Melzer, University Reading and Writing coordinator.

One of the themes of the workshop is helping faculty members understand teaching possibilities to engage students in large classrooms.

According to Melzer and Vice President for Academic Affairs Joseph Sheley, class sizes have grown a small amount, but Sacramento State is not planning on purposely having larger class sizes, or hiring more teachers.

“(Faculty) growth will be pegged with growth in our enrollment,” Sheley said.

Unlike UC Davis, where some class sizes have more than 300 students, Sac State’s increased sizes will not surpass 200 students per classroom.

“For us, 80-120 students is a big class,” Sheley said.

Having the big class sizes like Davis wouldn’t work at Sac State because it doesn’t have large facilities, Sheley said.

Smaller classes are a part of Sac State’s culture, Sheley said. “(It’s) the way we interact with our students.”

Teachers also agree that sometimes having larger classes is not as beneficial.

“In a major like graphic design, where the majority of our courses are hands-on studios, increased class sizes affect the teacher’s ability to critique student work,” said graphic design teacher Mario Estioko.

“The biggest problem is that it does not allow for student group presentations, which are a valuable addition to most business classes,” business teacher Ray Tewell said.

Tewell also said with bigger classes, there are a variety of abilities and educational backgrounds, so it’s hard to get important topics across to all of the students.

It’s hard on students who can’t take notes as fast as others, and shy students “tend to feel lost in a big class,” Tewell said.

Melzer said there is also research done supporting a connection between increases in class sizes and decreases in student learning and engagement.

These results are shown in Astin’s “What Matters in College” and Pascarella and Terenzini’s “How College Affects Students.”

Sheley is confident the workshop will benefit faculty.

“What matters is quality. Quality is possible in both larger and smaller courses. If the class lacks quality, we should not be offering it, regardless of what size it is,” Sheley said.

Also, Sheley said that we will probably see more “blending” of televised, online and classroom choices.

“They will occur because more of our faculty members are beginning to ask for more variety in how they construct their learning experience and their class schedules,” Sheley said.

Danielle Sazio can be reached at [email protected]