The document discusses scaling classroom participation for humanities courses. It describes how science and math courses keep students engaged at scale through problem sets that provide automatic feedback. It questions how to take a similar approach for humanities classes, noting that multiple choice and essays are limited. The Parlor app is introduced as embedding discussion and lightweight quizzing in course readings to encourage active reading, start conversations, provide self-serve feedback, gauge reactions, measure participation, and promote competition to push students. The app helps teachers build reading lists, highlight insights, quiz students, and see participation metrics.

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parlor
Scaling classroom participation.

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Class Size is Growing
Lecture in 1350s

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Lecture Today

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Online Course

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UNLIKE SCIENCE AND MATH
HUMANITIES CLASSES DON’T SCALE

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Q. HOW DO SCIENCE AND MATH COURSES
KEEP STUDENTS ENGAGED AT SCALE?
A. PROBLEM SETS
POINTS! Assignments are bite-sized,
quantifiable…and self-perpetuating.
Feedback is self-serve and
provided, automatically.

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Q. WHAT'S THE MORAL EQUIVALENT OF
"PROBLEM SETS" FOR THE HUMANITIES?
A. Multiple choice Q&A is limited.
B. Short answer and essay questions are
labor-intensive to grade.
C. Seminar style discussions don’t scale.

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PARLOR’S APPROACH
EMBED DISCUSSION AND LIGHTWEIGHT
QUIZZING IN COURSE READINGS.
TOUR

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The Parlor App is available for Chrome and Firefox.
Parlor is an App
that helps teachers…

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1. Cultivate a reading habit.
Build a “reading list” for your course.

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2. Encourage active reading
Students seek out and
highlight relevant insights
for each other.
3. Quiz constantly,
everywhere
Students are asked to
reflect on what they’re
sharing…and bucket reading
by course concepts.

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4. Start conversations
Sharing seeds class discussions

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5. Self-serve feedback
Students can see the topic breadth of
their reading relative to the class.
* Topics you’ve read v. the class.

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5. Self-serve feedback
Which concepts are students “getting”?
Which ones are being neglected?
* Course concepts you’ve highlighted v. the class.

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5. Self-serve feedback
How broadly is the class reading?
* Sites you’ve read v. the class.

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6. Gauge student reactions
What’s confusing? What’s amazing?
What’s controversial?

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7. Measure participation
Catch students that are falling behind
before they fail the mid-term exam.

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8. Put on the Peer Pressure
Use friendly competition to push students to read
more broadly and deeply.

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To learn more about trying Parlor in your
classroom, visit parlorproject.com/pilot