Hi Mark,
Delivery is always a challenge with foundational courses. There is so much information that must be shared in a very short time. The knowledge the students must acquire is essential so I can understand where you are coming from.
Try to be as animated as possible and offer graphic and colorful PPs to help keep the students engaged. If you can use games as review methods and this will can help to make the course more exciting to the students.
Gary
As the module discussed, the instructional method will vary according to the course content and goals. Some courses and subjects lend themselves to demonstrations more easily than others. In my short teaching career I've gotten a lot of satisfaction out of the demonstration/return demonstration process.
My current course (Introduction to Medical Terminology) doesn't really lend itself to this approach. I'm using pretty much straight lecture with AV materials, and do try to ask questions frequently. Still, I think I'm boring, and need to vary my approach a bit. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to do this and still cover the required material in the short amount of time that I have.
Lectures and demos need to be intermixed. you need to stay flexible on scheduling and class attention.
In my class we also use many visual aids that are either supplied by the campus or possibly from a student if the aid is relevent to what we are teaching at the time.(i.e. engine components,etc.This helps with that "real world"
approach to the course.
Hi Jon,
Good advice. I know other instructors will benefit from your examples.
Gary
Vary up those lectures folks. Gone are the days of straight lecture. A lot of students today have shorter attention spans thanks to media technology overload. Internet technology like YouTube, music downloading, file sharing, blogs /chat rooms, web searches and video games provide somewhat instant gratification.
If you take to long to get to the point you are done. If you don't appeal to multiple learning styles and incorportate a few methods as you go you will lose the interest and focus of the students.
The majority of delivery systems is via lecture which is what most students come to expect. however, this method can be supplemented by demo, visual examples, power point to vary or maintain interest
Lectures can be boring if they are not planned and organized. Demos should generally be much more interesting for the student, especially if you have prepared well.
