Lecturing Online

Lecture is a staple teaching technique in higher education. All right, it's probably a staple teaching technique at every grade level. (Though in elementary grades we might prefer to call it "direct instruction" instead.) There is a time and a place for the teacher simply conveying the key concepts of the lesson to the students directly, and a lecture can be an efficient way to do this.

Image by Sergey Zolkin via Unsplash

The problem--for teaching online, anyway--is how we lecture. A live class meeting via webconference certainly can work for this. (Though I have a few reservations about this approach, and I encourage folks teaching at a distance to use webconferences judiciously.) Alternatively, a teacher might record the lecture ahead of time, and share the recording with students to view on their own time. As I generally am a proponent of asynchronous distance teaching (that is, not requiring students to all log in at the same time for class) you are probably not surprised to hear this! 

There are a few rules of thumb that you can use to make for a stronger pre-recorded lecture, however. Here are a couple of promising practices I would encourage you to consider:

• Using visuals is typically a good idea, but be thoughtful in the way you do this. I think many of us (okay...me...) use powerpoint to prop up possibly-shoddy instruction. I like HaikuDeck as a presentation tool because it helps me limit the amount of text I put on screen at any given time.
• If you are going to have text onscreen, don't just read it to your students. (Don't do this in a face-to-face lecture either, for that matter.) But do match your verbal presentation to the slides, if you're using slides! (We can't really focus on two different pieces of information simultaneously, so it's important that the auditory and visual messages match up.)
• Think about using a tool that allows you to show your face along with your visuals. This boosts social presence for you as a presenter--and can help students feel more connected to a real, caring human being who is presenting this lecture.
• I can't stress this one enough: Keep. It. Short. Seriously, some research I've read on this suggests that if the video is more than six minutes (SIX MINUTES!) in length, students won't watch it anyway--and then why are you creating the video?

Now you might be saying, "I can't give an entire lecture in just six minutes!" That might be true, but without live interaction with students asking questions, etc., you might be surprised how much more quickly you will present the material. Still, six minutes might be pushing it. So consider using chunking to help break up your longer lecture into shorter segments. As a benefit, I think it's easier to record several shorter videos and string them together instead of having to get it right in one long video: how stressful to be 20 minutes into recording a video lecture and then go completely off the rails! That takes some more editing to fix it, for sure. :-)

To chunk a lecture, think through the overall structure of the content. Where are the logical breaking points? See if you can split a 20 minute lecture into four 5-minute segments instead, and record them as separate videos. You can then put them into a playlist (I like YouTube playlists for this.) Or you might break it up something like this:

• Begin with an introduction video that sets the context for the lesson and prompts students to read something. (3 minutes)
• Go off and read the chapter/article/website/what-have-you. (As long as it takes them to read it.)
• Come back to a video in which you gloss over the main ideas and elucidate a few key ideas, giving examples to illustrate. End with 2 key questions that students should be able to answer. (5 minutes)
• Students write their responses to those 2 key questions. (5 minutes)
• Come back to a video in which you explain the answers to those two key questions, so they can check their understanding. (5 minutes)
• Use a video to introduce an assignment for synthesizing their learning. (2 minutes)
• Students do the synthesizing assignment. (As long as it takes them to complete.)
• Come back to a video in which you recap the key ideas from this lesson, and let them know when you'll have feedback for them on their work. (5 minutes)

While this is just a suggested lesson structure for an example, it might be something you could consider doing--or tweaking to make it work for you!

Here is an example of a playlist-based lecture I created some time ago to give advice on how to create better online discussions. It is a playlist of five shorter videos--it is about 15 minutes in total--that will automatically play one after the other. But the easy pause-ability of this approach makes it perhaps more appealing for students. Give it a watch, if you like:

The big take-away here, I hope is that you certainly can lecture, even in an asynchronous online course. But with a little extra planning and preparation, students will get the most out of this learning experience, which is what it's all about anyway!

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(This post is part of a series offering tips on distance teaching. You can read more about this project here: Distance Teaching Tips. You can also read all of the posts in this series here: Distance Teaching Tips Series.)