Have you considered using ‘humanization’ strategies and techniques in order to help build connections?

Big lecture halls or large class sizes can pose challenges to both students and instructors alike. The larger the class size, the more difficult it may feel to make connections and build relationships. Experimenting with humanization strategies might assist students with overcoming some of the issues in adapting to this type of learning environment, and improve the learning climate for both students and instructors alike. “In humanized courses, positive instructor-student relationships are prioritized and serve ‘as the connective tissue between students, engagement, and rigor’… In any learning modality, human connection is the antidote for the emotional disruption that prevents many students from performing to their full potential (Pacansky-Brock, 2020). Humanization can contribute to higher levels of wellbeing, and can also influence student engagement, motivation, and academic achievement.

“Connections” can be made, even in large classes, in multiple ways:

• Instructor – student connections
• Student – student connections
• Student – content connections

Instructor – Student Connections

It is important to allow students to see that you are human, and experiment with ways to build more teacher-student connection into  teaching and supervision activities. This can be done in a number of ways, even in large classes or lectures, often with the help of videos. Video is a powerful tool that can help impact the perception of social presence (Thomas, West & Borup, 2017).

• Create a welcome video introducing yourself as the instructor that you post in your learning management system (ie: Moodle, Canva, Brightspace, etc.) before the course begins. Include important information about your course and/or teaching philosophy, but also mention some personal information about yourself, such as where you grew up, how you came to be interested in your research/specialty field, what you enjoy most about teaching, etc. See Quick Win 1
• In a large group, it is difficult to provide individual feedback to students, however, making a single feedback video for the entire group with more general observations and advice on a regular basis (weekly, bi-weekly, etc.) can be very helpful. Look for overall themes, issues, points of struggle, etc. that you are noticing in general with students, and share this feedback with the whole class. The video can be shared via the course learning management system, in an email, etc.

It is not important to have videos be long or perfect. In fact, the Pratfall Effect (Aronson, Willerman & Floyd, 1966) leads us to believe that people who are considered highly competent are found to be more likeable when they perform an everyday blunder (ie: making small mistakes, saying, “ummm” a few times, etc.) than those who don’t!

Student – Student Connections

Intentionally plan your synchronous (face-to-face) moments of instruction so that they are effectively used, preferably for application of content, negotiation of understanding, conversation, community building, and idea exchange. You can find many ideas for how to do this on our previous page where we discussed the use of peer instruction, questioning, and other active learning techniques. All of these can be helpful strategies for building better relationships, teamwork, and communication skills, for connecting course content with real-world application, and in helping students develop their soft skills.

Incorporate some relationship-building activities right from the first day of class. Hogan and Sathy (2022) suggest ideas such as having students work in smaller groups (3-4) to complete a syllabus quiz or scavenger hunt. This could be done live in class, or as an assignment in the learning management system using grouping tools. Students can review the syllabus in their groups and respond to questions such as, “Find one topic that you are all interested in learning about and tell me why”. Working together on a task right away can help students get to know each other and build connections with each other. See Quick Win 2

Student – Content Connections

As with instructor-student connections, video can be a powerful tool for making deeper connections between students and content. If you, as the instructor, notice that there is a concept, strategy, or piece of content that students struggle with, either currently or historically in other runs of the course, consider making and sharing a bumper video or microlecture on that topic to share with students. Bumper videos are 2-3 minute, visually oriented videos that are designed to either preview a topic or demystify a sticky concept. They incorporate visual elements like icons and images and are set to the narration of your voice. Microlectures are brief, 5-7 minute instructional videos that are designed to achieve specific objectives. The skills your students acquire in your microlectures should build upon content taught in your lectures, classes, and/or previously shared video content, as pointed out by Pacansky-Brock. See Quick Win 3

An added benefit of creating short, content-related videos for students is can further assist with instructor-student connection. It demonstrates that you are paying attention to student learning needs and trying to be more inclusive. Video is inherently differentiating, allowing students to watch at a convenient time, to replay as many times as needed, to slow down or speed up the playback, and to use assistive technology such as subtitles. Demonstrating that you want to support students with their learning in different ways can help build a culture of trust in the classroom. When you personally create these videos, it also helps students feel more connected to you, as they are hearing your voice, and possibly seeing your body language, mannerisms, facial expressions, etc. (if you choose to be visible in the video). If desired, you can also let your personality shine through in the narration, for example, through anecdotes, a sense of humour, analogies, stories, etc.