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Choosing the Right Lecture Format
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Your lecture format has a big impact on how your students will process information. The most effective courses use a mix of
different formats to convey each message in the most engaging way. The three high level formats are video file, text article,
and quiz. And within the video format, you can choose to create a talking head, screencast, or slide presentation.
Depending on the content you are teaching in an individual lecture, you should pick the lecture format that will provide the
best visual accompaniment to your message. Below you will find a list of all the possible formats and tips when to best use
them. You don’t have to use all types, but mixing it up provides variation to students, which helps guard against boredom and
helps refocus attention!
Talking Head
Purpose: Build trust and credibility, demonstrate support or empathy for students, provide variation
Use for: Intro video, intro or summary of section, when you share a story or share your perspective, when you would
otherwise stay on the same slide / screen page for a longer time (more than 30 seconds)
Slides
Purpose: Focus attention on key points, visualize complicated mental models, ensure spelling is known
Use for: Multi-step concepts, highlighting key points, defining jargon, visualizing models. Don’t forget you can include images
in slides too!
Tip: Use large font for students watching your course on mobile!
Screencast
Purpose: Walk through multi-step processes
Use for: Describing how to use software or find relevant examples on the internet, get students to follow along, showing how
to use particular programs or programming languages
Tip: Zoom in for students watching your course on mobile!
Article Lecture
Purpose: Provide variation, self-guided learning, easy way to combine text & images
Use for: Concepts/step-by-step guides that students can work through on their own, materials that need to be seen written,
intro or summary of section, supplemental material, introducing an activity
Quiz
Purpose: Test knowledge, provide variation, engage students
Use for: Opportunity for students to assess if they understood and remember the content, section outro, pre-test knowledge
about a topic, section intro
Updated 2 days ago
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