Instructional Materials

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Lecturing is another common method for delivering course content in person or online, during synchronous or asynchronous sessions. However, research shows that students lose attention after 10-15 minutes (Richardson, 2010), at most.
 

Accordingly, it is recommended to use some of the following practices to make your lectures more engaging (Zimmerman & Steinke, 2015):

• “Chunk It”
• Break your lecture into key concepts/topics and create lectures (live or recorded) of no more than 10 minutes
• Review your lecture slides/notes, and ask:
• Do I need to say all of this? 
• Can students read or watch a video about some of it instead? 
• Create a cycle of listening and doing
• After each ‘chunk’ of new material, give students an opportunity to participate in a learning activity: discussion, Q&A, debate, reflection, small-group assignment, practice examples/problems, etc. 
• Use illustrations and real-life examples
• Concepts are better understood and ‘stick’ when applied to a real-life situation
• Illustrate concepts with actual images/videos and examples
• Be personable and use humor
• Be yourself and allow your personality (and some humor!) to shine through while you are lecturing 
• It’s okay to make mistakes; your video lectures don’t need to be polished Hollywood productions
• Take a “less is more” approach on the slides
• Use minimal text on your presentation slides and enhance with photos, images, etc.
• Use simple, sans-serif fonts and contrasting colors, so your text is easily readable

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OER are created by individual educators and institutions that seek to provide an alternative to the rising costs of education—and the create a more participatory, collaborative and global approach to teaching and learning.

APPLY to your course

Review your course, asking yourself: 

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