Large College Classes Becoming More Common

A November 24, 2007 article from The Associated Press reports that, across the nation, college classes are growing larger to accommodate more students. Experts estimate that, in less than a decade, the number of American college students will increase from the current 18 million to approximately 20 million. Concerned that extremely large classes are not the most effective way to teach, educators are seeking ways to help students in these college classes learn and retain the material that is taught. One approach is to transition learning away from passive methods and toward more active models. An example of an active model is the use of "clickers," where students use hand-held devices to respond to questions from the professor, which allows the professor to immediately judge what percentage of the class is on-track with the lesson.

The article is available at the Yahoo! News Web site.