Abstract:

The pressure of having a large student cohort and decreased government funding has forced higher education institutions to put a large number of students in one lecture hall especially of courses at introductory level. Researches showed that there were negative impacts when students were taught in a big lecture hall environment especially to first year students. This research investigated the factors that impacted first trimester students from an offshore campus of an Australian university located in South Asia when they were taught in a big lecture hall. The finding of this research shows that majority of students tended not to ask questions in classes as they were scared of asking questions in front of other students in a big lecture hall. This behaviour may cause by cultural issues and such an impact can be eased by adopting appropriate technology to allow students to ask questions electronically. Although first trimester students are less likely than senior students to perceive class sizes and asking questions to be the important influential factors in their learning, the perception can be changed by implementing a proper reward system.

Keywords:

Offshore Campus, Australian university, First Semester, Tertiary Student, Learning Experience.