A number of us have found professors who have really inspired us with their lectures. They convey their subject with energy, and engage us as people. One gathers students on stage to act out what he is teaching. Another, a climatologist, asks us to send him photos of the day's weather. Professors who ask us questions, make jokes, bring in their dogs — do anything to humanize themselves — make us feel less like just a body in the room.

So we — 15 students in a course on freelance writing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where large lectures are an unavoidable feature of our education — will add our voice to this important conversation. And we think we can be of immense help.

But even sitting up front doesn't help when the professor is on a stage elevated so far above us we feel as though we're watching a live play with only one actor in it.

Find out what college is like for us now, rather than what it was like for you years ago.