Activities, assignments and assessment/Recorded lectures, seminars and presentations
Suggestions[edit | edit source]
Chunked presentations. Break your typical one hour presentations into three to six chapters that are no more than ten minutes long each. Not only will it help you review and reinforce points in the live lecture, closing off each chapter with a concluding remark or activity, it will make for more usable recordings, where a listener may be in a highly distractible environment, or where they need to review just one or two points from your lecture. Consider the pros and cons of video versus audio alone. Audio makes for smaller files, and less battery drain. Can you deliver a lecture to the audio format only? If your lectures are designed for the live performance alone, consider preparing a version of the lecture for online audiences, and one that promotes the live experience!
Recorded guest lectures. With technology like Voice Over Internet Protocol (Skype and Google Hangouts) it is much more feasible to arrange for field experts to deliver live lectures, and record these for review. Adopting the chapter format described above is more difficult however. If you have the resources to invite the guest to physically deliver the lecture, be sure to broadcast and/or record it.
Recorded panel discussions. Again, with Skype and Google Hangouts it is feasible to convene a live panel discussion of commentators, professionals and experts. Equally, a few people crowded around a webcam, laptop, or phone camera can record engaging discussions to video. Extract the audio if that's all that is needed.
Field recorded interviews. Consider your favourite radio program, how the producer has arranged for field interviews, and brings them back for the week's content. Might your lecture series become more like a radio program, with regular recorded interviews with people in the field, talking about the week's topics?
Collaborative group lecture notes. Some of the most valuable knowledge a teacher has is the keywords to use in search. If a teacher prepares a slide presentation with only the keywords on each slide then speaks to those concepts in a lecture format, then small groups in the class can be asked to produce notes from the presentation. If a collaborate authoring platform like Wikiversity is used, these notes can be made useful for others, and evaluated by other groups. One or two members of the note-taking group make initial text notes, others follow up with links to useful resources and extended information, and others add diagrams, images, videos and other illustrative media. If a new group takes on the task each week, the others in the class can rate their work, as a form of peer assessment. Over time, valuable lecture notes can be created that may even replace a textbook, or produce a text that is contextually more relevant to the course.