En Hui Cheah
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Perry Samson
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Climate & Space Sciences & Engineering / Engineering
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 6 – 4:40pm – 5:30 pm
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: En Hui Cheah, Perry Samson
Presenter: 27
Abstract
A major challenge for many students entering college is learning to navigate large lecture courses and finding their sense of belonging amidst the crowd of students, and this challenge is even more prominent for students who feel they are a minority in class. However, there is a lack of existing research on how to make students feel more comfortable participating in large lectures. Therefore, the overarching goal of this research is to explore whether the use of a backchannel that allows students to ask questions anonymously in large lecture courses will encourage students to voice out their queries in class and expand their participation. Observations were made throughout the 2021-2022 academic year on 8 large lecture courses at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and information on the questions asked and the inquirer was recorded. Therefore, the focus of this specific presentation is the number of questions being asked verbally in front of the entire class to the instructor in these large lecture courses, some of which utilizes backchannels and some that do not, and compare the differences between them. The findings of this research will prove valuable to other college instructors as it can provide guidance to the way they structure their lecture in order to encourage inclusion towards all students.
Engineering, Interdisciplinary, Social Sciences
