Large enrollment classes have always been a challenge for instructors who try to implement active teaching and learning strategies and activities. Lectures, often contrasted to active learning, appear to dominate large size classrooms today. From the conversations that I had with some instructors, I have the impression that a lot of instructors would try a new teaching method but eventually go back to lecture-based course delivery style, either because that new method does not work very well or it involves too much work. As much as we advocate alternative teaching methods besides lecturing, I happen to think that lecture can also be effective if we can “move beyond monologue”. There are online workshops and tutorials of designing smart lectures on the website of Center for Teaching and Learning of University of Minnesota, with three major components of planning lectures, delivering lectures and evaluating lectures. The link to the website is provided below:
http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/lectures/overview/index.html
