How To Craft An Attention-Grabbing University Lecture To Keep Your Students Hooked

Whether you are a newly minted university lecturer, or an old hand eager to find ways to improve your delivery, the great news is there are simple but effective techniques you can use to help. Read on, and discover how to create informative and compelling university lectures that will hopefully keep your students gripped – and wide awake! – from start to finish.

Be Enthusiastic About Your Material

While the quality of the content you will be presenting in your lecture is undeniably an essential ingredient for a successful presentation, it’s also important to think about the way in which you deliver it. The most fascinating facts imaginable can come off as tedious and mundane if they are recited in a bored monotone.

In other words, if you are not passionate about your chosen topic – or, at the very least, good at feigning passion – then it’s highly unlikely that your students will be interested either.

On the other hand, a dynamic and lively lecture, delivered with genuine enthusiasm, is sure to appeal to even the most reluctant of listeners.

Don’t Rely Too Much On Technology

While technology can be of great assistance when it comes to creating entertaining and educational lectures, you have to be careful not to rely on it too heavily.

Just switching on a PowerPoint presentation and letting it run for half an hour won’t result in a particularly edifying experience for your students. You also need to play a more active role in proceedings, share your insights, and interact with your audience, especially if it’s a long lecture.

Even the most dedicated students can begin to flag after a while, so keep things lively with a debate or even some kind of relevant activity. An engaged audience is more likely to absorb more information than a passive audience forced to sit and watch a seemingly endless parade of slides.

Find Out What Your Students Think

To help you come up with the most intriguing and informative lectures, it helps to get some insight from your students.

One of the best ways to do this is with live audience polling, which you can easily achieve with the help of Vevox. Their convenient and varied live polling options allow you to analyse audience results in real-time and get the valuable feedback you need to perfect your lecture structure and technique.

Don’t Try And Cover Too Much Ground

If you have a lot of complex material to cover in your course, it can be tempting to try and rattle through it in each lecture. However, this will quickly result in your students feeling overloaded and struggling to process the different ideas you are throwing their way.

Instead, take a more measured approach, and encourage their participation in your lectures, so you can be sure they are absorbing what you are trying to teach them.

Take A Flexible Approach

If you tend to prepare your lectures by sitting down and writing them all out from start to finish in great detail, this can help you to feel more confident about what you have to say – but it can also result in a rigid and possibly even boring delivery. As a result, you may be better off taking a looser and more flexible approach to your lecture preparations, leaving some parts unscripted and open for student participation. You may even have your very own memorable moments a la Rowan William’s controversial John Keating.