In a previous blog post the importance of creating breaks within a lecture in order to provide student-centered learning tasks was described. This not only allows students opportunities to actively process the lecture material, but also helps overcome lapses in maintaining attention. Another method for sustaining student’s attention and improving understanding is to incorporate different forms of media into the lecture format.
Designing periodic pauses during the lecture to offer different media representations of the content can help grab the learner’s attention, as well as enhance comprehension. Adding variability to the delivery of the lecture material by including media such as images, graphs, tables, audio, and video clips creates a new sensory stimulus that requires a shift in perception and awareness. This can arouse additional attention, and also presents information in various formats that can accommodate diverse learning styles (e.g. auditory, visual, and verbal).
Besides inserting media, linking to an outside speaker can also help focus and increase attention. Including an external presentation about the lecture content provides a new “voice” and point of view that can be engaging and promote further student interest. This outside speaker could be connected as part of a Zoom session (either live or recorded), and might also be provided by linking to a TED Talks session, or a YouTube video of an expert in the field making a presentation. Integrating assorted media materials and other speakers into your lecture, will help chunk your lecture into more manageable portions, as well as stimulate added attention and perception about the content that is being delivered.
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