Creative Education 2012. Vol.3, Special Issue, 824-828 Published Online October 2012 in SciRes (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ce) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2012.326123 Copyright © 2012 SciRes. 824 Enhancing Student Engagement through Small Group Pedagogies in a Large Class Environment Ayse A. Bilgin 1 , David Bulger 1 , Greg Robertson 2 , Sigurbjorg Gudlaugsdottir 1 1 Department of Statistics, Macquarie University, North Ryde, Australia 2 Department of Education, Macquarie University, North Ryde, Australia Email: ayse.bilgin@mq.edu.au Received August 30 th , 2012; revised September 28 th , 2012; accepted October 15 th , 2012 Higher education institutions all over the world have been increasing their student intake due to higher demands for education, creating larger and larger classes. The problems of teaching a large class are widely recognized and various solutions have been suggested. The pedagogy literature establishes that learning outcomes and engagement for students in large classes are improved when students feel that they belong to small groups within the classes. This article describes recent changes to a second year statistics unit with large practicals aimed initially at promoting group work, and more generally at conferring some of the benefits of smaller classes. Specifically, we aimed to increase students’ interaction with tutors and each other, and to develop students’ verbal communication skills and confidence through short unre- hearsed presentations. Results of preliminary analysis of students’ responses to survey questions on their learning habits and learning environment showed that students are generally happy with the new learning space regardless of their age, gender and whether they were local or international students. Although stu- dents felt less comfortable presenting their solutions to the class, they found it worthwhile to listen to peers’ solution presentations. Overall, students found their peers and teaching staff to be supportive of their learning. Keywords: Student Engagement; Collaborative Learning; Learning Spaces; Large Class; Unrehearsed Student Presentations Introduction Macquarie University is a large institution in Sydney, Aus- tralia. It has about 24,000 undergraduate students, 12,000 post- graduate students, 1120 academic and 1245 non-academic staff. The academic year is divided into two 13-week semesters, each followed by a 3-week formal examination period, plus a 6-week summer session for selected units. One of the largest units we teach in the Department of Statis- tics is a second year unit, Operations Research I, which typi- cally has 750 - 1100 enrolments annually. This unit covers topics such as linear programming, project planning, simulation, transportation, transshipment and assignment models, inventory and queuing. Every semester we have two streams of lectures since our largest lecture theatre can only hold 500 students. Students are expected to attend a three hours lecture and one hour practical class each week. The theory and examples of the applications of the theory are presented and discussed in the lectures. In the practicals, students solve problems under the supervision of the practical leader and another academic. Al- though we have a number of small classrooms that could be used for practical classes, due to limited resources, we are un- able to have small practical classes for these students. For close to a decade we had practical classes with 100 to 150 students in lecture theatres with two academics present. The crowded space limited the practicable types of lesson structure, impairing stu- dent engagement. The University has responded to current research in the de- sign of learning and teaching spaces by building new learning spaces such as C5C Forum, a space which flexibly supports a variety of learning and teaching modes. The audio visual sys- tem in C5C Forum has as its backbone a Crestron Digital Me- dia system, enabling presenters to display different devices on different screens. The user devices include 2 High Definition document cameras, a resident PC, Bluray player and the ability to plug in an external laptop. One of the great features of the system is the annotation capability, allowing the operator to write or draw over the image projected from any of the user devices onto the screens. This space was made available in first semester 2011, and our unit was the first to use it for regular classes. Our current project is a component of a bigger project—ini- tially funded by a 2011 Priority Grant, led by Dr Greg Robert- son from the Department of Education and including teaching teams from all four faculties—which explores the ways in which academics use C5C Forum’s innovative and flexible learning environment to maximise the engagement, satisfaction and learning outcomes of their students. Although this space can also support more didactic teaching styles, the technology embedded within it creates a flexible learning environment that can support small group work within a larger class. It also pro- vides opportunity for the academics to physically approach the students and have individual conversations during the class. The problems of teaching a large class are widely recognised and various solutions are suggested (Aagard, 2010). The litera- ture documents that, when students are in large classes, if they feel that they are in a small group within that class, their learn- ing outcomes and engagement will increase (CTE, 2008). Some