Giving a lecture to a class of 300-odd students is hard. With a class of that size, knowledge tends to be shared in a flat, stream of words accompanied by scribbles on a whiteboard. And with every turn to the board, you tend to lose sections of your classroom to distractions.
The question is, "How do I capture the imagination of my class?"
The answer takes shape in the form of Zoho ShowTime. Here are five ways ShowTime can help you turn your classroom from a monologue into a dialogue:
Engage
Entertaining content is engaging. Create engaging presentations with images and audio snippets; these will supplement the context and meaning your content already has, and your students will appreciate the liveliness of your lecture. In addition, you engage each student, both the visual learners and the auditory ones. Plus, there's no possibility of the back row missing out because they can view your slides in the Viewer app.
Interact
ShowTime shifts lectures from a one-sided monologue to a two-way dialogue because your students get to interact with your presentation. They can like a slide that they find interesting or informative. They can drop questions when a slide seems confusing or leaves them with doubts. So, even the distracted and the back row can interact in class. And the quiet ones, afraid of embarrassing themselves, may speak up.
You can also track where your class is focusing their attention using the Gauge Meter in the Presenter app. If it wavers to the left, perhaps an anecdote or example will brighten things.
Get feedback
At the end of your lecture, gather your students' thoughts. If you want, divide your class into groups, and use the feedback form to gather information about their needs and their suggestions for the next class. You can also request a rating of your presentation. You can keep tabs on the duration of your talk.
Share
Don't leave students hanging after class; share your presentations with them so that they can do what you want them to do: review the material before the next class. Your speaker profile page will act as a repository of all your classroom lectures. Students can review them again before their assignments and exams.
Measure
Look at your analytics page to understand how your students respond to your lectures and how you can improve them - an ability that's not present in other presentation tools. You can experiment with your slide deck and try different lecture styles: use fewer words, craft a story around your content, have a smattering of hand-drawn sketches, extend your Q&A sessions, etc.
So tomorrow when you get to class, stop scribbling. Enough with the whiteboard. It's ShowTime.
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