Create and give more engaging and effective lectures
Whatever your views on lectures as a learning tool, they are still used as the main way of transmitting information to large numbers of students simultaneously in the majority of universities. It appears that they won't be disappearing anytime soon. Therefore, we need to find a way to make the best use of the format.
There are a number of reasons that some lectures fail. It is often due to:
- Little or no interaction between the lecturer and students
- Few or no questions from students or the lecturer
- A lack of apparent interest in the topic from the lecturer
- A lack of active learning/student activities involved
- A lack of supporting media
- An extensive requirement for student note taking
To insure that none of these statements is true of your lectures there are lots of things that you can do, some of which are below.
Interaction
Feeling involved in a discussion encourages much more engagement than being talked at. There are quite a few ways you can achieve this feeling without just asking questions.
Firstly, get rid of your notes. You should know the content of your lectures well enough to do them by heart. Having notes means your audience will question your authority on the subject. This alone will leave them disengaged.
Notes are often used as a crutch, they give you somewhere to look other than at the students and they give you an excuse to hide behind the podium. They will also lead to interrupted speech, breaking up the flow of the story.
Losing the notes allows you to look at your audience and talk directly to them. It also means you can move around the auditorium throughout the lecture. Doing this will emphasise your enthusiasm for the subject.
This is not an excuse to spend the whole time looking at your presentation instead. Your slides should be there to give you cues and act as visual aids for your students. They should not be a backup to notes or an additional reason to stop talking towards the audience. You should be facing your audience for as much of the presentation as possible.
Questions
Firstly, create a comfortable environment at the beginning of the course and encourage your class to ask questions. Being able to ask decent, coherent questions means there is a certain level of understanding going on. This is great feedback for you on your own performance.
Some students will never want to ask questions out loud to a large group, but modern technology allows you to give them other ways of asking. Most universities have an online learning platform; these can normally be used to create discussion groups for each unit. Set up a discussion for students to ask questions during the lectures as well as between them. Leave some time to answer these questions at the end. Another tool you could use is Twitter. Create a hashtag for the lecture and share it along with your Twitter handle at the beginning, encouraging your students to ask questions throughout.
It's also a good idea for you to ask questions throughout the lecture; even if all you're asking is: "Did you understand that bit?" This will break up any long chunks of talking and give your audience a chance to recover and bring their attention back onto you. This is also why giving a few activities will help to keep them interested.
Interest
If you are doing a lecture on a particular topic then you are most likely going to be interested in it. Unfortunately, on its own this isn't enough. You need to show that you're interested in the topic. You also need to show that you want to be there, giving the lecture. If your students have the perception that you don't want to be there, then they will quickly stop listening.
If you can show your passion for the topic then you will pass that on to your audience. If you can tell stories or anecdotes and make the subject personal (e.g. tell them why you think the subject is interesting) then that will all help. Expressing your own excitement is one of the best ways to engage anyone, whatever the situation.
Active Learning/Student Activities
Most lectures will last between 50 and 90 minutes, longer than most people's attention span. If you can break them up into 3 or 4 parts, with an activity in-between, the students are much more likely to listen to all parts of the lecture.
There are all sorts of tasks you could give. One of the best and easiest is to encourage them to discuss a problem or question within a small group or with the person next to them. This not only makes them think analytically but also encourages a small amount of movement. This movement will quickly revive any nodding heads.
If you have the technology available you could also ask multiple answer questions and get the students to respond using a clicker. This is great because it not only encourages interaction; it also allows you to assess how much the audience understands.
Supporting Media
Another way to improve interaction is through the use of multimedia. If you have a presentation, make the most of it.
Three quick tips to improve presentations:
- Keep the words on each slide to a minimum.
- Make sure any words or images are large enough to be seen at the back of the room.
- Include images, videos and animations to help clarify your points. (Don't add them if they have the opposite effect!)
Be aware of the technology you have available to you. For example, you may have a smart board that allows you to easily annotate your slides. Additionally, if possible, make sure that all of your media works before you start.
Notes
Finally, relieve the students of the need to take notes. When they are writing the notes they are not really listening. They are also unlikely to be able to keep up with everything you are saying and will probably miss something important.
Provide the slides and any additional explanation they may need online or in a handout. Tell them that they don't need to take notes. Give them ideas for further reading and questions to research that may have arisen as part of the lecture.
These are just a few of the things you can do to help engage your audience and make your lectures more effective. Ultimately, you need to remember who your audience are and what your goals are. As long as you are doing everything you can to make sure that your audience reaches those goals you will be creating good lectures.
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