Structuring an Effective Class Session or Presentation

The start should be welcoming and set the tone for an interactive learning experience. You might begin by playing music from a shared playlist, asking learners how they are feeling, encouraging them to check in with one another, or posing a lighthearted icebreaker question. Creating this welcoming atmosphere helps support learners’ social-emotional learning.

It is common to share outcome(s), purpose, goals, and/or an agenda at the start of a class session or presentation. In addition, set aside intentional time to “warm up” to the topic, establish context, and connect to learners’ prior knowledge and experiences. An interactive warm up also sets the expectation that the session will be collaborative and interactive. You can engage learners at the start by capturing their attention and curiosity with a “hook”, helping them make connections to prior experiences (academic or personal), or asking them to share beliefs and expectations about a topic. Some examples include:

• What do you know about [Topic]? What do you want to know?
• What do you think is going on in this picture?
• What are your personal thoughts about [topic]?
• What experience do you have with [topic]?

Lecturing (i.e., direct oral presentation of information) is efficient and can be effective when the background information is not available or accessible, the facts or problems are conflicting or confusing, or your experience as the presenter will contribute to clarification. Be sure to ask yourself if the best way to understand the content is through oral presentation, or if the content could be explored some other way (e.g., small group exercises or individual reflection). Consider how much of your time will be devoted to lecture, which may depend on how much of the information you want to share will come from the lecture versus assigned course materials (e.g., readings, videos). Is the goal of lecture to supplement the information from course materials, highlight major points, or present separate information?

When designing a lecture-based class session, or any type of presentation, aiming for interaction and engagement will support deeper comprehension and greater retention of information. “We need not abandon the lecture because of its liabilities; rather, we need to find ways to make it work better” (Silver & Perini, 2010). Once you’ve determined what content is best presented through a lecture, there are many ways to improve the lecture presentation:

• “Chunk” the content, or break it up into smaller, focused sections. Aim to speak for no more than a few minutes straight without checking in, even if just with a rhetorical question for learners to ponder as they listen.
• Intersperse active learning activities such as informal discussion, think-pair-share, minute paper, polls, or quick quiz questions ensure that learners are actively processing the information as you present it.
• Use multimedia (e.g., images, audio, video, infographics) throughout your lecture to enhance comprehension and accessibility. However, keep in mind that your multimedia should be focused and related to the course content; avoid .gifs or overly illustrative materials, as these take learners’ focus away from the content and can contribute to extraneous cognitive load.
• Clarify for learners how they should approach taking notes, information they need to commit to memory, and how you expect them to apply the content in the future.
• Allow learners to ask questions at different points within a lecture. Pause periodically to ask, “What questions do you have?” or “What’s on your mind?” After you pose a question, allow “wait time” for a response, giving time for learners to formulate ideas. We may be used to asking, “Do you have any questions?” but students may feel that they are being intrusive or not paying attention if they do have a question. Asking “What questions do you have?” normalizes the fact that students are likely to have questions when learning new content.

Either before or after presenting content, provide opportunities for learners to interact with the content at a deeper level through individual or group activities. Individually, learners could engage in independent work time or reflection. In small or large groups, learners could discuss the topic in more detail or engage in peer review opportunities. Other ways to encourage reflection, critical thinking, and problem solving, which could be done individually or in groups, include case studies, debates, concepts maps, or game-based instruction.

At the end of a class session or presentation, be sure to save time to tie everything together and assess learning. It is very common to run out of time and rush to conclude, but end-of-class reflection supports retaining information and helps to clarify what comes next. At the end of a session, you might summarize, or ask learners to summarize, key takeaways, especially in conjunction with revisiting the learning outcomes. Other options include asking learners to submit a written reflection on what they’ve learned, how they might apply what they’ve learned and/or what questions they still have or which concepts were unclear.

Lastly, if teaching a course, you can wrap up by previewing what’s to come, connecting the material to assignments or other work to be completed, or asking questions you want learners to think about before meeting again. You can also provide context on the homework assigned for next class, such as guiding questions for a reading or viewing, or leave time to answer student questions about an upcoming assignment.