{"id":16024,"date":"2014-12-16T10:28:46","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T15:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/?p=16024"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:28:15","slug":"group-presentations-engaging-students-even-large-classrooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2014\/group-presentations-engaging-students-even-large-classrooms\/","title":{"rendered":"Group presentations engaging students even in large classrooms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Group presentations engaging students even in large classrooms\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

By Emily Cook, EDC staff writer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For professors teaching large classes, it can be intimidating to even think about group presentations; but if it\u2019s done right, it doesn\u2019t have to be, according to professor Melanie Coughlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Melanie<\/a>
Professor Melanie Coughlin uses group presentations to engage students in large classes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Coughlin has been teaching East Asian Religion at Carleton University for the last two fall semesters, and in both years, her teaching has included group presentations, despite having classes of 70 students or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI see the course as not just delivering context, but delivering skills,\u201d she says. \u201cIf they don\u2019t actually get trained in the skills they need to put together a presentation, they\u2019re never going to learn by sitting and watching me do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coughlin says this is why it\u2019s important to break up lectures with presentations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just a favour to them, it\u2019s also a favour to me,\u201d she says. \u201cIt gives me feedback on where the students are, what they\u2019re understanding, or not understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She outlines five challenges professors face in coordinating presentations in a large class. The first is it cuts into time for teaching the syllabus. Coughlin says this isn\u2019t a problem when students present information relevant to that week\u2019s readings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI find it makes such a difference for being able to enliven the material, make it fresh, and make it for the students you\u2019re teaching,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other difficulties Coughlin highlights include a loss of time liaising between students, failing to assign students to groups if they aren\u2019t present at a lecture, and groups getting stuck with a heavier course load when members drop the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coughlin\u2019s method to avoid these difficulties is to create different student roles, including one coordinator, two to five writers, and one or two presenters. This way, only the coordinator communicates with the professor and the semi-autonomous roles mean the group won\u2019t be faulted if a student fails to show up or do the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final difficulty that Coughlin says instructors can face is a lack of unity in the groups due to irregular class attendance. To combat this, Coughlin has integrated group activities into lectures to encourage more students to come to class. She says she noticed an increased attendance this year, which might be a result of the more interactive lectures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with the benefits to student learning, Coughlin says group presentations help her get to know students on a personal level, which makes any extra work worth it because in the end it\u2019s \u201ca more meaningful experience as a teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more tips on getting the most out of group work, check out the teaching tip on our resources page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Emily Cook, EDC staff writer For professors teaching large classes, it can be intimidating to even think about group presentations; but if it\u2019s done right, it doesn\u2019t have to be, according to professor Melanie Coughlin. Coughlin has been teaching East Asian Religion at Carleton University for the last two fall semesters, and in both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16024"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43013,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16024\/revisions\/43013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}