On Monday, professor Aaron Mansfield walked into the Merrimack Lecture Hall for the first time. His reaction, the Lecture Hall’s new technologies will add a spark to his “Intro to Sport Management” course.
“It’s cool that they have whiteboards on the sides of the room to use, and the screen up front is really big,” he said. “I’ll also be using a microphone since accessibility services recommended it.”
Likewise, Professor Brandy Benedict, who will teach “Problem Solving with Python” said the Lecture Hall is a perfect fit for her course.
“There’s a gorgeous, huge digital screen at the front of the classroom,” she said. “I’ll be using it to share my lecture notes on one side and have the python development environment on the other. I’ll be coding on the screen simultaneously with the students.”
Both Benedict and Mansfield have not taught classes this large before. Benedict said the 65 students enrolled in “Problem Solving with Python” will nearly triple the size of her previous all-time biggest class.
“These students are mostly freshmen and they’re still trying to learn about what Merrimack is all about,” she said. “I really want to emphasize group work, active learning and having students connect with each other in the classroom.”
Starting this week, history professor Walker Robins will teach “US History from Pre-Contact through the Civil War and Reconstruction,” one of many courses held in the new Lecture Hall this semester. Suffice to say, Robins liked his new digs.
“I’m surprised that for such a large classroom, it has a tight, intimate feel,” he remarked. “One of the things that can be difficult in a larger class is getting actual discussions going, especially if everyone is pinned to the back of a huge auditorium. This is pretty compact, so I definitely think it would be possible to have those conversations.”
Robins said he is not intimidated with larger class sizes. He taught similar class sizes at his alma mater, the University of Oklahoma.
“(My classes) were in a larger lecture hall not too dissimilar from this,” he explained. “When the call went out at Merrimack for courses and instructors that might fit in the Lecture Hall, I thought it could work. I taught versions of this course to larger classes before.”
Mansfield said he is looking forward to meeting the challenges a larger class sizes may bring. “Intro to Sport Management” was previously split into two cohorts – this semester will be the first time all 80 students will be under one roof.
“It’s an exciting time for Merrimack,” he said. “Even when I first interviewed here, I got a sense of momentum the school had. Even now, when I think about where I started versus now, the school has grown so tremendously. It’s been a joy to be a part of that.”
Located next to Sullivan hall, the Merrimack Lecture Hall holds five classrooms and caters to all disciplines and schools across campus.
