I teach a subject that addresses a specialized area of practice (game audio development) within a broader professional field (audio production). By its nature, the specialization requires advanced development of challenging technical skill and higher-order thought. In all fairness, it is not a likely target for a majority of my students. Many of them pick up on this early on: they tune out and turn off. I am working to develop presentations and activities that offer learning objectives more easily generalized outside of the specialty. But I feel strongly that it would be a disservice to the students to entirely gloss over the most important, characteristic aspects of the subject. Do you have techniques that you can recommend for presenting very challenging lecture material in a way that allows students to feel comfortable knowing that they will not be held responsible for having fully absorbed or assimilated the information? Looking back at my favorite teachers, they have all offered "a finger pointing at the moon," showing me how far I have to travel, and suggesting that the reward is commensurate with the distance. This approach only worked because I was able to distinguish between the moon, and the material that was actually going to be on the test. How can I communicate to my students that it's okay to be a little overwhelmed, that sometimes they're actually supposed to feel that way? Thanks in advance! Stephen