I'm curious if anyone else has experienced this. You spend all week preparing for your lecture and developing a PowerPoint; during your lecture, you forget to discuss some of the information you prepared for. I find this very frustrating! Using a PowerPoint throws me off. Any tips?
I guess my first question for you would be, what are you using the PowerPoint for? I'm in engineering and sometimes I have to give the same lecture/demo more than once to different sections of the same course, especially if I have multiple lab sections, so to make sure I tell everyone the same thing with perhaps slightly different mildly off topic tangents brought up by student questions, and me telling slightly different mom jokes, that's how I ensure that every class receives the same content and I don't leave anything important out.
Not everything I say during lecture is on the slides word for word, and even though I change up my lectures from semester to semester, not a lot changes about the basics of engineering so by now (am just starting my 11th year out of industry into academia), I have the lectures pretty much memorized and could do them without slides. I still use PowerPoint to keep me on track though, and to give students a basic outline. The slides have the major topics with graphics where applicable, and sometimes equations or definitions I have lifted straight from the book. When I'm doing a demo of software or equipment, depending on the sort of lab I'm in, I skip the PowerPoint and have a handout that students also have, and I go through the steps one at a time doing a demonstration. Again, that helps make sure students in different sections get basically all the same info.
When I first started teaching, I would worry a lot about getting every key point into the lecture and then beat myself up if I didn't cover things comprehensively or left some crucial piece out. But somewhere along the line I realized that students don't retain 90% of what I say anyway and that sometimes less is more in terms of class content. Now I just do my lecture, with some power points that work for me essentially as EdnaMode described, and if I leave something out, then so be it.
I also don't spend much time preparing these days, although I once did. I've been teaching the same array of classes for years and I can give these lectures in my sleep.
So I guess my point is that you shouldn't worry about it so much. Just do your best and it will be fine.
Thank you for the response, and it makes sense. I need to quit beating myself up, and I realize that I will not be able to memorize everything and explain everything. I know some teachers who cover one or two topics out of the textbook, and that is it.
I script my lectures for just this reason.
If it's important, I have a prompt for myself in the slides. Otherwise, I just try to remember it the next time I teach that class.
I became convinced that live lecturing is just not a great way for students to learn or how I want to teach, so I flipped my large class. It was a TON of work to do the first time (don't decide to do this lightly!), but now the lecture segments are online, honed and scripted to say exactly what I want them to learn clearly and concisely, and we use the class time for discussion and in-class assignments that let them dive deeper, interact, and apply concepts, and let me be much more free-wheeling and interactive (I do have slides for those, to guide discussion, but it isn't lecturing).
Quote from: Puget on September 06, 2023, 06:36:39 PMI became convinced that live lecturing is just not a great way for students to learn or how I want to teach, so I flipped my large class. It was a TON of work to do the first time (don't decide to do this lightly!), but now the lecture segments are online, honed and scripted to say exactly what I want them to learn clearly and concisely, and we use the class time for discussion and in-class assignments that let them dive deeper, interact, and apply concepts, and let me be much more free-wheeling and interactive (I do have slides for those, to guide discussion, but it isn't lecturing).
That sounds like a good idea. I have never thought about that, and it sounds like something worth exploring.
Quote from: Hegemony on September 06, 2023, 04:57:58 PMI script my lectures for just this reason.
How much time do you spend doing this? Thanks
Quote from: HigherEd7 on September 07, 2023, 04:01:19 PMQuote from: Puget on September 06, 2023, 06:36:39 PMI became convinced that live lecturing is just not a great way for students to learn or how I want to teach, so I flipped my large class. It was a TON of work to do the first time (don't decide to do this lightly!), but now the lecture segments are online, honed and scripted to say exactly what I want them to learn clearly and concisely, and we use the class time for discussion and in-class assignments that let them dive deeper, interact, and apply concepts, and let me be much more free-wheeling and interactive (I do have slides for those, to guide discussion, but it isn't lecturing).
That sounds like a good idea. I have never thought about that, and it sounds like something worth exploring.
There's a huge pedagogy literature on flipped classrooms-- I'm sure you can find something on this model specifically in your discipline to get you started.
Quote from: Puget on September 06, 2023, 06:36:39 PMI became convinced that live lecturing is just not a great way for students to learn or how I want to teach, so I flipped my large class. It was a TON of work to do the first time (don't decide to do this lightly!), but now the lecture segments are online, honed and scripted to say exactly what I want them to learn clearly and concisely, and we use the class time for discussion and in-class assignments that let them dive deeper, interact, and apply concepts, and let me be much more free-wheeling and interactive (I do have slides for those, to guide discussion, but it isn't lecturing).
This.
Try using Canva (https://www.canva.com/). Setting up an account is free on the website and it's user friendly. Slides are among the products offered.
I did the flipped thing for awhile. It was a TON of frustration when students showed up to class having not watched the videos, rendering the in-class portions useless. I ended up lecturing as I went along anyway, in order to salvage the in-class portions. (This, in addition to students not doing the reading.)
Thank god I don't teach those classes anymore. Today, I joke about Flipped Classrooms as Supervised Homework.
Y'know why students still want lectures? It's because live lectures circumscribe the amount of info that they are responsible for knowing.
Y'know why some faculty still lecture? It's because flipped classrooms expose faculty with gaps in their knowledge (amongst the few students who actually engage with the content in flipped classrooms--but it only takes one know-it-all student to expose an unprepared faculty member).
Y'know why some administrators like lectures? So, they can blame the content delivery on the format and introduce their nouveau top-down teaching innovation, and have a reason to exist. Also, the supervised homework yields a motherlode of data that makes data administrators look good on Assessment reports.
Quote from: HigherEd7 on September 07, 2023, 04:02:31 PMQuote from: Hegemony on September 06, 2023, 04:57:58 PMI script my lectures for just this reason.
How much time do you spend doing this? Thanks
I spend a 2-3 hours writing each lecture, but I have the kind of classes where I only lecture once or twice per semester.
Quote from: lightning on September 09, 2023, 04:20:40 PMI did the flipped thing for awhile. It was a TON of frustration when students showed up to class having not watched the videos, rendering the in-class portions useless. I ended up lecturing as I went along anyway, in order to salvage the in-class portions. (This, in addition to students not doing the reading.)
Yes, as much as I like my students and as much as I trust a handful of them to come to class prepared, I think it would work out like this in practice.
Quote from: Sun_Worshiper on September 09, 2023, 06:51:38 PMQuote from: lightning on September 09, 2023, 04:20:40 PMI did the flipped thing for awhile. It was a TON of frustration when students showed up to class having not watched the videos, rendering the in-class portions useless. I ended up lecturing as I went along anyway, in order to salvage the in-class portions. (This, in addition to students not doing the reading.)
Yes, as much as I like my students and as much as I trust a handful of them to come to class prepared, I think it would work out like this in practice.
Did you have significant points attached to doing the pre-class work? You absolutely have to make the online work a substantial part of the grade- you can't just throw lectures online and expect them to watch them. This is flipped classroom 101.
My online lectures are in short segments with ~5 multiple-choice "learning check" questions between each segment. These are automatically graded in the LMS and they can try repeatedly until they get the right answer. They must complete these before their in person class every week, along with a "thought question" (about 1 paragraph prompt response, based on the lecture and assigned reading). Together, these are worth 25% of the course grade. Not only does this force them to prepare, but it helps them identify key points, reinforces their memory for them, and can be used as practice for exams.
With this, at least 90% of the students complete the online work every week. The remaining 10% are generally really struggling for all sorts of reasons, but having this work flags them for me well before the first exam, so I can try to see what's up and either get them help or encourage them to drop before the deadline as appropriate.
Quote from: Puget on September 10, 2023, 07:18:19 AMQuote from: Sun_Worshiper on September 09, 2023, 06:51:38 PMQuote from: lightning on September 09, 2023, 04:20:40 PMI did the flipped thing for awhile. It was a TON of frustration when students showed up to class having not watched the videos, rendering the in-class portions useless. I ended up lecturing as I went along anyway, in order to salvage the in-class portions. (This, in addition to students not doing the reading.)
Yes, as much as I like my students and as much as I trust a handful of them to come to class prepared, I think it would work out like this in practice.
Did you have significant points attached to doing the pre-class work? You absolutely have to make the online work a substantial part of the grade- you can't just throw lectures online and expect them to watch them. This is flipped classroom 101.
My online lectures are in short segments with ~5 multiple-choice "learning check" questions between each segment. These are automatically graded in the LMS and they can try repeatedly until they get the right answer. They must complete these before their in person class every week, along with a "thought question" (about 1 paragraph prompt response, based on the lecture and assigned reading). Together, these are worth 25% of the course grade. Not only does this force them to prepare, but it helps them identify key points, reinforces their memory for them, and can be used as practice for exams.
With this, at least 90% of the students complete the online work every week. The remaining 10% are generally really struggling for all sorts of reasons, but having this work flags them for me well before the first exam, so I can try to see what's up and either get them help or encourage them to drop before the deadline as appropriate.
^ This. Making them do tangible work that they bring to use in class is essential to making flipped classrooms work. Sometimes they push back in the beginning "but you didn't teach it to us yet so how do we know what to doooooooooo?" but once they get into it they really enjoy being engaged during class time.
It also really helps students stay on top of the work, instead of waiting until the last minute to cram the midterm and pull an all-nighter on the papers/projects.
Quote from: lightning on September 09, 2023, 04:20:40 PMY'know why some faculty still lecture? It's because flipped classrooms expose faculty with gaps in their knowledge (amongst the few students who actually engage with the content in flipped classrooms--but it only takes one know-it-all student to expose an unprepared faculty member).
And this is why discussion is so interesting. Students find new sources of information and bring in new insights all the time.
As faculty, we don't know everything about our subject areas. I taught business and my students had way more knowledge of their own industries, countries, cultures, etc than I ever could. My job was to help them frame and apply their knowledge.
Quote from: Puget on September 10, 2023, 07:18:19 AMQuote from: Sun_Worshiper on September 09, 2023, 06:51:38 PMQuote from: lightning on September 09, 2023, 04:20:40 PMI did the flipped thing for awhile. It was a TON of frustration when students showed up to class having not watched the videos, rendering the in-class portions useless. I ended up lecturing as I went along anyway, in order to salvage the in-class portions. (This, in addition to students not doing the reading.)
Yes, as much as I like my students and as much as I trust a handful of them to come to class prepared, I think it would work out like this in practice.
Did you have significant points attached to doing the pre-class work? You absolutely have to make the online work a substantial part of the grade- you can't just throw lectures online and expect them to watch them. This is flipped classroom 101.
My online lectures are in short segments with ~5 multiple-choice "learning check" questions between each segment. These are automatically graded in the LMS and they can try repeatedly until they get the right answer. They must complete these before their in person class every week, along with a "thought question" (about 1 paragraph prompt response, based on the lecture and assigned reading). Together, these are worth 25% of the course grade. Not only does this force them to prepare, but it helps them identify key points, reinforces their memory for them, and can be used as practice for exams.
With this, at least 90% of the students complete the online work every week. The remaining 10% are generally really struggling for all sorts of reasons, but having this work flags them for me well before the first exam, so I can try to see what's up and either get them help or encourage them to drop before the deadline as appropriate.
Yup! All that. I spent a lot of time doing all of that.
Whether it's flipped Classroom 101 or Traditional lecture 101, you can't honestly force truly unprepared and/or unmotivated students to become prepared and motivated. As much as Flipped Classroom was supposed to be better at motivating the un-motivated and remediating the un-prepared, it really didn't. Sure, you can fake it and dumb down the course and drown the course with a lot of assignments to make it look like the course isn't dumbed down and embed the measures into the easy baseline in-class homework assignments guided by teachers in-class so you can get even the most unprepared and unmotivated group of students to look like they are learning something--IOW the typical Assessment maneuvers.
My 5-year run in a freshman level course using Flipped Classroom, was mostly a charade, and I regret spending the extra time preparing those courses. The stipend for the Flipped Classroom course design was not worth it, because it wasn't very much money considering the extra work involved and in the end, even though Flipped is a lot more work, traditional lecture would have achieved more or less the same results. But, it made the admins who were leading the whole Flipped Classroom movement at our campus, look like they were earning their money.
All the Flipped Classroom admins are gone, so I rarely hear the term around my campus anymore.
YMMV.
Well, I'm sorry you had a bad experience Lightning. My milage does indeed vary.
One of the problems I have, and it was mentioned here that students don't read. If you don't read, you can't respond to or ask questions. I do not think any faculty member knows everything about a subject and there are going to be times you will find a student that knows something you don't know just like anything else in life. I take this as a learning experience.
Quote from: HigherEd7 on September 11, 2023, 12:30:06 PMOne of the problems I have, and it was mentioned here that students don't read. If you don't read, you can't respond to or ask questions. I do not think any faculty member knows everything about a subject and there are going to be times you will find a student that knows something you don't know just like anything else in life. I take this as a learning experience.
Of course no faculty member can know everything.
However, a faculty member should know all the knowledge that is baseline standard in their field, and usually this baseline standard is higher than what students know.
And, maybe I should add something important:
We get educated as undergrads but towards the end of our senior year, we realize we can't know everything, so we feel no shame in not knowing everything and we don't judge others for not knowing everything.
We get educated as masters students to internalize the common baseline knowledge--the starting point at which the currently unknown knowledge can be much more easily discovered later.
We get educated as PhD students and learn what we can be confident in what we know, but even more importantly,
we can be confident in what we do not know. And, this point plays into how we design curriculum, when we decide what to include and what to leave out.