Lectures (aka death by PPT?)
By Murray Bourne, 13 Dec 2004
Definition of a College professor: someone who talks in other people's sleep...
(W. H. Auden)
So how long can students concentrate in a lecture? A brilliant speaker, giving a one-off lecture (and this is important), can hold the attention of a group of interested adults for an hour, easily. But the same person going to a weekly lecture with disinterested students may not have the same effect.
From my observations, key issues are...
- Is the lecturer involving the students in the learning (or just raving on in his own world)?
- Is the lecturer entertaining (not necessarily funny, but certainly interesting)?
- Does the lecturer give activity and reflection breaks so that students can engage in what they are being told?
- Is there variety (use of images, case studies, videos, music) or is it "death by PowerPoint"?
- How many 'factoids' are there? In some cases, 70 PPT slides in one hour with 5 dot points on each - how can you learn?
See the 1 Comment below.