Making lectures interactive involves giving students, all of them, something to do during the lecture - answering a question, interpreting a graph, or solving a problem - and continuing such activities regularly throughout the term.

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Image of a fault in Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, in the Triassic Chinle Formation and the overlying Wingate Formation (cliff-forming unit). Photo by Chuck Bailey, College of William and Mary.

For example, you might begin a unit on faults by showing the image linked to the thumbnail to the left. Rather than telling the students that the image is an example of a fault, you could first ask the students to make observations and discuss their interpretation with a neighbor. Then, call on a few students to present their interpretation and discuss the responses with the class.

Content

As with many active-learning techniques, interactive lectures may take longer to cover any given topic than non-interactive ones. Mazur (1997) recommends that the lecturer save time by only going over more difficult and important material rather than duplicating the coverage of the textbook. Given that it is important in his classes that students actually do the reading, he gives frequent reading quizzes.

The Major Parts of an Interactive Lecture

An interactive lecture will include segments of lecture combined with segments where students are interacting with each other and the instructor. All of the activities used to make lectures interactive involve a learning curve for both instructors and students. For example, think-pair-share requires students to marshal their thoughts, present them clearly and succinctly, and synthesize their ideas with their partners. Instructors must learn how to develop good questions, analyze the student responses, and incorporate that information into the following lecture or lecture segment.

• Tips on lecturing
• Different types of interactive activities
• Structuring an interactive lecture
• Collecting feedback in an interactive lecture

Managing the Class

• Accept that your class will be noisy when students are discussing their work.
• Visit a few groups and make sure that they are on track.
• Find an effective way to bring the class back together. Some instructors flick the lights on and off. Some raise their hand, after explaining that when students see a raised hand, they should raise their hand, finish their sentence, and stop talking.
• Pick groups to report at random or have all groups report, depending on class size. The latter is helpful when each group has something different to say (for example, if each group is looking at a different aspect of a problem). It may be useful to have each group designate a spokesperson to speak for the group.
• Have each student write their response on a handout of the activity or a blank sheet of paper, have them write a short paper on an index card summarizing their group's findings and turn it in for a grade.
• For discussion or other group activities, it's often a good idea to ask open-ended questions with no single correct answer, because these are likely to provoke thought and encourage student participation.

Respond to the responses

One of the challenges of interactive lecturing is dealing with incorrect answers. Either the students don't understand, or you haven't explained it properly, or it's a very difficult topic. At least with an interactive lecture, you can address the situation before an exam.

Deal carefully with wrong answers. When many students have a misunderstanding it is important to address it in class and to consider how you might present material differently the next time you teach the course.