In this seminar, experienced teachers of large classes shared their strategies for keeping their classes active and engaging. It’s not about the tools, but how you use them to meet the needs of your learners, staying true to your teaching approach.

References:

McKeachie, W. (1980). Improving lectures by understanding students’ information processing. In McKeachie, W.J. (Ed.), Learning, Cognition, and College Teaching. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, No. 2. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Learning spaces e-book by EDUCAUSE
Good, M. (2001). On the Way to Online Pedagogy (Chapter 13) in John Stephenson (ed.). Teaching and Learning Online: Pedagogies for New Technologies. [Online]
Lyman, F. (1981). The Responsive Class Discussion. In A. S. Anderson (ed.), Mainstreaming Digest. College Park: College of Education, University of Maryland, 1981. (Think-pair-share technique)
Thiagi, S. (2005). Thiagi’s Interactive lectures: Power up your training with interative games and exercises. USA: ASTD Press.
George Brown (1978). Lecturing and Explaining. London: Methuen. (Peer squares-peer assessment technique)
Shenk, D. (1997) Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut, San Francisco: HarperCollins.  

Presenter: Colin Quilter
Normally large classes are divided into two streams-one with face to face lectures and the other with video lectures. Overuse of Powerpoints are a common issue and basically as much information as possible is crammed into each slide with the numbers amounting to almost 50 slides for an hours lecture. Powerpoints should be only for ‘powerful’ or important points/bullet points. Too much detail in illustrations is called ‘data smog’ (Shenk, 1997). Do powerpoints benefit the students at all? Or are these mere tools to aid (help remember all the important information for the lecture and the sequence in which each is to be taught) lecturers deliver the lecture?
Strategies
In a class including illustrations etc-colour coding of diagrams/illustrations can be an activity to engage students in. The actual color coding can also enhance retention and transfer of knowledge and aid comprehension among students.
Smaller diagrams and labeling should be used as it will be more legible when blown up using datashow.
Smaller chunks of text should appear on powerpoints-avoid text that is running across the entire slide.
Attention span of an average male is 10mins and for an average female it is 20mins which comes to an overall average of 15mins. You will lose the attention of your students every 15mins so ensure that you either give them a break every 15mins or revive them using an interactive activity e.g. questions and answers prompted by an application of what they have just covered in the lecture. Use powerpoints as ‘hooks’ that will engage students and keep them interested in the lecture. Nothing examinable should be shown in a powerpoint slide show.
Use powerpoints in between as hooks. These can be anecdotes, songs, poems, pictures etc related to the subject.

Presenter: Gill Shelah
Contextualize teaching-get to know what the audience is like and what they are expecting from the class. Teacher should introduce him/herself and state/show what he/she values and why they are in the teacher’s position in that class/subject etc. Outcomes should be clearly stated (value, context and assessment).
Strategies
Be: On time; Heard; Familiar with the topics and the content; Able to move away from the podium; Familiar with student difficulties (especially language used in the class compared to the language used in the texts); Available; Adaptable; Phonetically clear; Able to accommodate questions and answers; Able to inform students on how content will be assessed;

Presenter: Peter Mellow
Strategies
Start with a quiz-it will give time for students to settle in and the lecturer to prepare.
Let students answer quiz questions and discuss the answers-it should always be related to the previous lecture.
If giving handouts, remove the keywords to encourage students to communicate and collaborate with each other to find the missing words or are encouraged to attend the lecture to fill in the blanks themselves.
Give a quiz at the end of the lecture without giving the answers for the previous one so students get used to this trend of answering quizzes at the start of each lecture.
Incorporate media in the powerpoint slides to make them more interesting.