Improving learning experience in lecture theatres!
Since it is an ethnography assignment, my group (Yvonne, Xiaofen and I) carried it out by sitting in lectures (LT32) and observing LT11 and 12.
In the course of observing, we came up with several possible factors that may affect Lecture experience:
Possible factors
- Environment – eg. the size of the LT
- Human
- Teachers – eg. boring, interesting…
- Students – eg. Bored, interested, hungry…
- Timing – eg. Too early (like 8am), too late (like 6pm)
Methods employed for the study (although due to time constraints most of the video recordings were omitted)
- Observation in a big (LT11) vs. small (LT12), lecture hall structures
- Video recording of lectures,interviews
- Interviews with fellow students, professional
Observations Made
Main problems:
- Environment & technology:
- too big
- bad lighting
- unable to hear the lecturer from the back
- unable to see the front of LT clearly
When lecture halls are too big, the lecturer is situated too far infront. Students tend to squeeze right at the back so either they will tend to chitchat or zonk out or are unable to connect with the lecturer.
- Human:
- Lecturer:
- Interactivity of the lecturer
- Incentives and repercussions of listening to lectures
- Students:
- Personal motivation/ attitudes towards learning
- Lectures too early
- Lecturer:
We also did several interviews with 3 students and 1 professional working at Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning (CDTL) for their views on lectures.
Laddering Interview: Ms. Alanna (student)
Question: Do you listen to lectures in LT?
“Yes but I will go only if I want to listen.”
“Sometimes lecture hall are too big for the class and the lecturer doesn’t know how to utilize the big LT.”
“Sometimes the mike is too soft for people to hear what he is talking about”
“Students don’t inform lecturer when they cannot hear him and they start talking among themselves and people who want to listen cannot hear properly”
Observations in LT32
Sitting incognito (by trying to hide at the back) in one of the GEM lectures held in LT32, I realized that even though it was an early morning lecture who started at 8am, the students were pretty much attentive. What was so peculiar about it? It was the fact that the lecturer walks around and randomly picks on students to answer his questions! Even though it was a huge LT, nobody was “safe” and so students were likely to be paying attention. Also, the lecturer was humorous and brought along many props and tools to help further illustrate his points on his powerpoint presentation.
So some plus points include:
- humorous
- good use of technology – wireless mike, powerpoint
- walks around asking students questions
- = motivation for students to listen
Possible downside for students:
- unable to “hide”
- possible embarassment if picked on to answer while “stoning”
With all that in mind,
Possible solutions
- Adopt better technology to aid lectures
- E.g. Wireless headset – Ease of movement and clarity of sounds
- Hook up microphone to LT speakers
- Education
- Lecturer should be educated on how to present properly – in our interview with Mr How who works in CDTL, we learn that actually such courses are available for teaching staff
- Lecturer should attend workshop on how to utilize the equipments.
- Regular workshops to update themselves (or if time does not permit, at least get the basics right
)
- Incentives
- Interactivity of lecturer
- posing questions during lecture
- discipline enforced by lecturer
As with any study, it is unable to capture all angles of the issue so more reviews to come of the other groups’ presentations when it’s all wrapped up~
A few interesting concepts include,
- the Fengshui concept by YanYan, JingYing and Chung Hau, which focused on changing and improving the environment
- the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs concept by Peili, Leon, Andre that relates to the motivations of students
- Cultural rather than technological considerations that affect lecture experience by Amirul and Warren
- and so on…
