After attending a workshop on Smarter Lectures with Phil Race I went away and tried to gather together some resources which gave practical lists of tips and tricks to use in live, large group teaching situations. While I rarely offer large lectures, the principles of engagement are no different for large groups than they are for small – summarised as participative, active, and focussed on learning not on teaching and with a requirement for feedback, however the tools available to us to bring these principles to life may be different. I have attempted to gather up some practical reference points to help.

Quick reference activities for lectures (from Sussex University)

Four simple class structures for planning active lectures

Ten ways to work with millennial students and defeat lecture-induced mind paralysis by Brad Garner

The value of gapped handouts in science and content rich classes

Six ways to make lectures in a large enrollment course more manageable and effective

As a precondition to make these approaches work though it seems that an internal shift is needed – this is captured quite well in this short YouTube clip. It’s quite powerful when an educator says they wouldn’t have wanted their own child to be educated in the way that she was educating others. Paradigm shift in action!