Embedding Interactions in Sociology Lectures to Enhance Engagement and Apply Theory
Creating opportunities for interactions in traditional lectures is common advice for promoting student engagement and encouraging higher attendance (Exley and Dennick 2004). When surveyed, students say that what they value most about face-to-face teaching is the opportunity to interact with their teachers (Do 2017). But large lecture theatres pose challenges to creating interactive and student-centred learning environments. Interactions can also escape lecture recordings, making it difficult for those listening online or reviewing the recordings for revision purposes to make the most out of the lectures, let alone fully appreciate the discussions and contributions from their peers.
Dr Nick Pendergrast, Senior Tutor in Sociology, experienced these challenges firsthand. A few years back, Dr Pendergrast was assigned to coordinate the SOCI20017 Sexualising Society subject for the first time. This subject of over 100 enrolments had a timetable of two-hour lectures, which Dr Pendergrast wanted to break up with small group discussions. These lecture-based activities were designed to give students the opportunity to share their ideas, hear each other’s perspectives, and practise applying theories and concepts while they are still fresh in their minds. Although the interactions in the lecture theatre were successful, students relying on the Lecture Capture recordings were unable to participate or clearly hear their peers’ contributions.
While Dr Pendergrast did not want to do away with interactions in lectures, he was keen to accommodate both groups of students, those attending in person and those tuning in to the Lecture Capture. Thus, he explored alternative ways to create and facilitate lecture-based interactions and turned to learning technologies.
Poll Everywhere, a University-supported learning technology, quickly became Dr Pendergrast’s favourite tool, allowing him to run a wide range of activities in a lecture theatre while ensuring that these activities are enhancing everyone’s learning experience. The tool allows for interactive engagement with the audience through polls, quizzes, and surveys. Dr Pendergrast particularly appreciates the availability of anonymous responses, which ensures that more voices and viewpoints are reflected in the lectures. In SOCI20017 Sexualising Society, the anonymity has helped to break the ice and get students to share personal experiences about relationships and dating apps relevant to the topics of the subject. In this subject, the technology has afforded interactions, in which students contribute original real-world examples relevant to the subject’s theoretical basis. Activities like these offer students a way to relate their personal lives to sociological theory, which can be an effective way in making theory more accessible (McCabe 2013).
Dr Nick Pendergrast has also relied on Poll Everywhere to check students’ understanding of the lecture content, asking a couple of quiz-like questions at the end of the lecture to ensure that students understood key concepts. Dr Pendergrast finds these quick activities effective in determining whether any part of the lecture needs to be repeated or if a concept needs to be revisited the following week.
Dr Pendergrast transferred these learnings from SOCI20017 Sexualising Society to SOCI10001 Understanding Society – a level one Sociology subject of over 300 students. In SOCI10001 Understanding Society, Poll Everywhere has proved to be effective in once again bringing abstract theory closer to students’ everyday lives. For example, in one of the lectures, Dr Pendergrast explored globalisation by asking students to look at all the products around them, such as their jumpers and laptops, and use PollEverywhere to post where these products were made in. This simple activity allowed Dr Pendergrast to demonstrate to first-year Sociology students how globalisation is not merely a theoretical idea. Seeing different products and countries pop up on the screen offered insights into global inequalities, highlighting which countries are producing more than consuming.
In the video below, Dr Nick Pendergrast shares his experiences of using Poll Everywhere for creating meaningful lecture-based interactions in both SOCI20017 Sexualising Society and SOCI10001 Understanding Society.
References
Do, C. (2017). The Effect of Lecture Recordings on Lecture Attendance: Law Academics’ Misconceptions and Law Students’ Reality. Journal of the Australasian Law Teachers Association. 10, 41-60.
Exley, K., and Dennick, R. (2009).Giving a lecture: From presenting to teaching. Taylor & Francis Group.
McCabe, J. (2013). Making theory relevant. Teaching Sociology, 41(3), 282-293.