How your lecture or course is structured has an important effect on how well your students learn. A variety of formats are used by the most successful lectures and courses to deliver each topic in the most interesting way possible.
There are three main formats: video, article, and quizzes. For the video format, you can choose from screencasts, slide presentations, or talking head videos.
Choose the format that suits well the material you are delivering while preparing each lecture. All available formats are listed here, along with advice on when to utilize each one. Although it's not necessary to employ every format, switching things up might help students stay interested and avoid boredom by refocusing their attention.
Talking Head
- Goal: It increases credibility and trust while showing students support and empathy. Finally, it offers diversity as well.
- Use this when you would otherwise stay on the same slide or screen page for a longer period of time (more than 30 seconds), such as an entrance video, section summary, or when you share a story or your point of view.
Slides
- Goals: Pay close attention to important details, create intricate mental models, and confirm spelling knowledge
- Use to: clarify terminology, emphasize important points, display models, and explain multi-step concepts. Remember that slides can also contain images.
Please remember to use a large font size for students viewing your course on mobile devices!
Screencast
- Goal: Proceed through several steps in a process
- Use to: Provide instructions on how to use software, locate pertinent online examples, encourage students to follow along, and demonstrate the use of certain applications or programming languages
Remember to enlarge the image for students viewing your course on a mobile device!
Article Lecture
- Goals: Offers variety, self-directed learning, and a simple method for combining text and graphics.
- Use to: Outline concepts and instructions in detail so that students may work through them independently; content that must be viewed in writing; introductions or summaries of sections; additional information; and introducing activities.
Quiz
- Goals: Engage students, offer variation, and assess understanding.
- Use to: Pre-test knowledge of a topic, section intro, chance for students to determine their understanding and retention of the material