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Interactive lectures are classes in which the instructor incorporates engagement triggers and
breaks the lecture at least once per class to have students participate in an activity that lets them
work directly with the material. The engagement triggers capture and maintain student attention
and the interactive lecture techniques allow students to apply what they have learned or give
them a context for upcoming lecture material. Newcomers might want to begin with one activity
during a class period, but may eventually call upon a blend of various interactive lecture
techniques all in one class period. Breaking up the lecture with these techniques not only
provides format change to engage students, these activities also allow students to immediately
apply content and provide feedback to the instructor on student understanding.
..
An Evocative Headline and a Think-Pair-Share: One way to transform a traditional lecture
into an interactive lecture would be to have students discuss a headline from the student
newspaper.
INTERACTIVE SESSION
The Basic Structure of Interactive Lecture
The goal of interactive lecture is to engage students by finding ways for them to interact with the
content, the instructor, and their classmates. Accordingly, interactive lectures include segments
of lecture combined with segments where students interact. One of the things that makes the
lecture interactive is the ability of the instructor to choose the content of the lecture segments
based on the students' needs. If students have difficulty answering a question, or an activity goes
astray in many or most student groups, it's time to find a new and better way to deal with the
material.
Instructors can also think of the value of format change during a class period in two ways.
1. Format change is valuable in its own right for recapturing attention and engaging
students.
2. Also, the new format is often a better way to teach a topic or get a point across.
All of the activities used to make lectures interactive involve a learning curve for both instructors
and students. Instructors must learn how to develop good questions, analyze the student
responses, and incorporate that information into the following lecture segment or the next class
period. As with many active-learning techniques, interactive lectures may take longer to cover
any given topic than non-interactive ones. Mazur (1997) recommends that the lecturer save time
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by only going over more difficult and important material rather than duplicating the coverage of
the textbook.
TASKS
The following techniques are easy to use with your content to create a focused discussion:
Pairs—Have learnersworkwiththe personnext to them. Use for identifying situations from learners’
organizations that tie back to the session content and for discussing how a particular topic can be
applied back on the job
.
Triads and Quads—Have learnerscreate smallgroupsof three or four with people immediately in the
row in front or behind. Use for group problem-solving of a scenario relevant to the content and
brainstorming.
Movement—Have people get out of their seats and find others across the room or aisle (as space
permits). Use for re-energizing the group (particularly after lunch or end of day) and creativity
exercises—applying content in new ways with people from differentbackgrounds and organization.
Change your delivery technique—every 10-15 minutes, use different ways to deliver your content.
Don’tread the textfromeach slide,create anopportunity to use role-plays to spur discussion, create a
blank ‘top 5’ list of content suggestions that attendeespopulate, or offer other incentives to keep
learners engaged in your presentation.
Try some other options like:
Bingo—createsBingo cardsas part of yourhandoutthat capture keypointsinyourmini-lecture.Divide
the group into teams of two or three players. Have prizes for winners. Use for introducing topics and
motivating learners to actively use and apply the content.
Brain Frame —create a matrix withvertical andhorizontal axisasone page inyour handout. Divide the
group into teams and give them a topic from your session content to use for creative thinking or
problem solving. Use for creating multiple options for the topic to brainstorm and to spur creativity.
Q & A Cards—give learnersindex cardstowrite questionsandpasstothe front.Redistribute the cards.
Tell learners to get up and move around the room exchanging cards. After 30 seconds, ask them to
return to their seats. Use this exercise to help participants generate and consider new questions, or
have them work in pairs or groups to answer the questions and stimulate discussion. Invite a group to
share.
MORE TIPS to make your session interactive:
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Limit PowerPointPresentations—If you must use a PowerPoint presentation, limit it to highlight key
pointsand post instructions for activities. DO NOT use your PowerPoint presentation to list all of your
content.
Interspersed Tasks—stop periodically and ask learners to perform a task that requires recall and
application of what they heard earlier.
Active Summary—atperiodicintervals(oratthe end),askteamsto summarize the key learning points
by using different combinations of words and pictures.
Idea Sharing—conduct a structured activity to help learners share their experiences,knowledge and
best practices related to your topic.
Debriefing Discussion—conduct an activity that provides a metaphor for a concept, skill or principle
coveredinthe presentation.Facilitate adebriefingdiscussionto encourage learnerstoreflect and share
their insights.
Participant Control— permit participants to control the content and sequence of the presentation,
when feasible.
Coachingand Feedback—demonstrate askill to a small group; ask them to teach others through one-
on-one coaching.
Post-SessionAssignment—giveparticipants an assignment to complete after the session --something
that will ground the learning and help them apply it at work.
Effective Handout—develop a handout that captures the key information in a format that allows the
learner to incorporate their own insights, results of group discussions and exercises, and serves as a
resource for future use
AdvantagesandDisadvantagesofInteractiveLearningEnvironment
Interactive learninginthe classroomhelpstudentsprepare more successfullyforthe outside worldthan
those who do not. Engaged learners who actively participate in their own education are more apt to
remember more from a lesson and then transfer newly acquired skills to different situations.
Interactive learning in a classroom is to maintain a teaching style, like the Socratic Method, that
encourageshealthydebatebetweenstudentsandthe teacher. Although it may sound simple, it is hard
to actually foster an atmosphere in which students feel free to question authority because they fear
reprisal orembarrassment.The developmentof true critical-thinkingskills, however, requires just such
an open and honest exchange of ideas.
Discussion in class is one of the interactive learning during lectures. When the lecturer ask his/her
students to discuss about a specific topic in class, it will helps to motivate students toward further
learning,toallowstudentstoapplyinformationinnew settings, or to develop students' thinking skills,
then discussion is preferable to lecture.
Students are able to express out their own opinions during the class. They will have chance to talk in
front of their friends and lecturer. So it will help them to gain self confidence to talk. Interactive
environmentisgoodforthe learnerstopresentthemselves in front of everyone where this is the time
to train them to be courage enough for their future work or career presentation.
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It motivatesstudentsandhelpsthemtoimprove theircommunicationskillswithpeople. So they can be
more active duringclass.Furthermore,itallowslecturerstomake effective use of classroom resources.
Lecturers will be able to analyze his/her students learning capacity easily. The feedback from student
will be as fast as possible.
CONCLUSION
Conducting interactive lectures in large enrollment courses can pose a unique set of challenges that
require additional managerial strategies.Instructorsneedtopayextraattention to being organized and
prepared,the disseminationof course materials, encouraging student participation and incorportating
pedagogical technologies. With careful planning, even classes with hundreds of students can have
interactive lecture segments with engaged students.
REFFERENCE
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