Large class, small feel: How Future Skills helped 300 students feel connected

Most people can recall a time when an educator connected with them. It is a special feeling: you align with their teaching style, how they connect concepts or, maybe, push your thinking to a new place. So, how does an educator make those kinds of connections in a room of 300 students? Dr. Ayesha Mian Akram found a way. 

Mian Akram, PhD, is an assistant professor (teaching) in the Law and Society program in the Department of Sociology. Many of her offerings are large-enrolment courses, and there can be anywhere from 150-300 students in the room. 

“Finding ways to keep students engaged and help them apply their learning outside the classroom can be challenging in large-enrolment courses,” she says.

"In large, early year, classes, students often miss out on making connections with one another, which is important to me. Students often comment that it's impactful in their learning to hear from other experiences."

Future Skills module tailored for large-classroom needs

Mian Akram discovered the Future Skills Innovation Network (FUSION) and was curious about how it could support her challenge in teaching large classes, while also striving to build connection between students and meaningful teaching moments. 

Future Skills currently offers 10 modules, with a total of 13 available by March 2026. Each module covers a  skill, from AI literacy and collaboration to problem-solving and self-management, based on the Government of Canada’s Skills for Success Framework. 

“I explored the Inclusivity module and found it to be really impactful in the ways it encourages students to think about an assumption or bias,” Mian Akram says. 

“I thought the way the module prompted reflection would be helpful for 300 students to complete asynchronously, to reflect on their individual circumstance and something that could support the course material and our discussions on ethnicity and racialization.”

Mian Akram worked with the Future Skills team to figure out how best to include the module and tailor it to her class in different ways. 

She created a schedule for students to complete portions on their own, as well as a final in-class workshop and the completion of the module workbooks. In all, the module contributed 10 per cent of the final grade. 

Learning more about her students

“It's interesting to see inclusivity taught as a skill that needs to be developed and reflected upon, like any technical skill,” Mian Akram says. “It was important for students to see that you learn skills as part of a degree, but you also need to be able to speak to how those skills could be a good fit for a job or for someone’s career objectives.”

Mian Akram read each student workbook, driven by curiosity and genuine interest in learning more about the people who took her class. 

“I wanted to see what students were taking away and if it was something I wanted to continue,” she says. “Even if a student said it didn’t explicitly improve their inclusivity skill, it still provided them a space to think about it and their approach.

"They found having that reflective time was helpful.”

Connecting with a professor can be challenging in large classes

One of the students who benefited from the module was Viviana Costante, a second-year political science major also minoring in law and society, as well as dance. 

“I grew up dancing competitively and I wasn’t ready to give it up yet,” she says. “It’s fun to take with my classes, you finish a test and shake it out.”

Costante has taken several of Mian Akram’s courses and connected with her teaching style. When she heard about the 300-level course, she immediately enrolled. In her time at UCalgary, she herself has noticed the challenge a large-enrolment class can present to students. 

“Connecting with a professor can be challenging in large classes,” Costante says. “When a professor just talks at you, you can feel lost in such a large course. 

"Dr. Mian Akram gives moments to take a concept and sit with it, or come back to it, and discuss based on your own experience, which makes it easier to get your footing.” 

Costante found the Future Skills module gave her the opportunity to apply her learning in her own life, which made it more impactful. 

“As a fresh student, it’s hard to take these really intricate concepts that have been taught for years and actively do something with it," she says. "Writing it down and reflecting on it through the module gave me room to explore everything more.”

Unpacking a father’s lived experience with Future Skills

The module’s section on privilege especially resonated with Costante.

“I’ve known I have been blessed," she says. "Through the module, I had the opportunity to explore where this privilege came from and I engaged in conversation with my dad."

Her father immigrated to Canada from a small town in Italy when he was 15 years old, along with his mother and siblings. Not speaking English, he had to start a new life in the country. 

“I can’t imagine picking up and moving with the clothes on my back, siblings and mom, and having to work in places where he didn’t know the language, couldn’t go to university — he built a beautiful life for my sister and me,” says Costante.

“I knew there were struggles, but I had never unpacked it with him.” 

Concepts resonate beyond class

Costante says she has already applied concepts in her own life, from her job as a server in a fine-dining restaurant, to her role as VP Wellness in her sorority. 

“You learn how to listen, understand and knock down your own biases,” she says. “The prompts sparked a lot for me, and I am grateful to Future Skills for awakening these critical-thinking moments.”

For Mian Akram, it’s this kind of feedback that affirms the importance of innovative teaching in a large class. 

“I am always trying to find ways to help students think about applying their learning to wherever they go and whatever spaces they are in outside the class, from their personal or professional lives,” she says. 

“Future Skills offers individualized reflection so students can see the connection between course material and their personal experiences. It is a powerful program, and I am glad to share so other instructors can see the benefit.”