Even the most fascinating subject matter can fall short of grabbing your audience’s attention when it doesn’t evoke some sort of emotion. It’s possible to present topics that aren’t inherently emotional by using creative delivery techniques to engage students on a deeper level. Once you discover the right angle, your online module can produce a more significant impact than you ever thought possible. Here are some tricks of the trade from presenters who managed to get it right.
Let Your Passion Come Through
Let’s face it. If you’re not excited about what you’re teaching, you can’t expect your students to be either. Enthusiasm has to start with the presenter. When you’re delivering a lesson online instead of in person, be even more intentional about your approach. Find ways to translate your passion through the barrier of the screen. If you’re struggling to find that passion, or you’ve lost the spark you once had, it’s time to rework your curriculum. Don’t fake it. Instead, incorporate a new approach to liven up an old lesson. When you get stuck in a rut, reach out to your colleagues, brainstorm with your mentors, and challenge yourself to experiment with different teaching styles.
Don’t Forget Non-Verbal Cues
Unless you’re hosting a podcast or audio-only lecture, don’t forget the essential elements of good communication. Eye-contact, hand gestures, and facial expressions are crucial, perhaps even more so when you’re veiled behind a computer screen. Don’t just think about what you have to say; contemplate how you’re going to say it. Imagine the experience your students are going to have on the other end.
If you’re struggling to create a natural-sounding delivery, try standing up. Instead of sitting at your computer screen on Zoom or PowerPoint, get up and move around. Wearing a headset is an easy way to ensure that your voice gets picked up without relegating you to one spot. Set your camera to capture you at a distance, so you can move freely without going off-screen. Reading a script isn’t okay just because you’re not meeting in person. Treat online modules like a regular discussion infused with genuine energy and excitement.
Videotaping a trial run is perhaps the best way to evaluate your delivery. What you think you sound like might be completely different than what’s coming through. Videotaping presents a rare opportunity to view our tone and delivery objectively.
Involve Your Students
Invite your students to participate in your online module actively. Build a sense of buy-in to prevent them from zoning out. Give your students opportunities to contribute to the lesson. Enlist them as co-teachers rather than just passive observers.
You’ll never know what your students have to offer on your topic if you don’t invite them to share. Consider starting your first day by asking your class to think about how they can contribute to the class. Take polls, ask open-ended questions, and allow enough time for discussion. Some groups are more open than others. If your students are tight-lipped, don’t pressure individuals by putting people on the spot. Instead, lead by example. Offer personal, relatable anecdotes and see if that helps to elicit better participation.
Go with the Flow
Plan, but don’t over-prepare. Allow room for a little freedom in every class. While you should always have a general structure outlined for the course, you also want to be flexible enough to meet the needs of your audience and take things in a new direction when the mood strikes. Sticking too rigidly to your lesson plan can stifle the valuable back-and-forth interactions that make learning fun.
To successfully balance spontaneity (while avoiding chaos), you’ll have to be able to recognize the difference between a tangent that has worth and one that doesn’t. If exploring an off-topic idea has the potential to yield a greater understanding of the topic at hand, then go with it. However, if your audience is veering off track to nowhere, gently guide your students back to class.
Every teacher’s worst nightmare is an oversharer who monopolizes lesson time with personal stories. However, if your lesson ends up getting co-opted by a distracted class, take a more proactive approach next time to nip it in the bud. Read your audience and adjust your level of flexibility depending on the group dynamics. Some classes are better with free discussion, while others need more structured sharing time.
Facilitate Small Group Discussions
If your students don’t feel comfortable speaking up in front of a large group, perhaps smaller groups will work better. Give your participants a chance to connect with others in the class, establish meaningful contacts, and learn from each other. Plan group experiences with enough direction so students who don’t know each other aren’t left sitting in awkward silence. Provide each group member a job to do and a clear objective to contribute. If you can, structure this into a game or competition.
The purpose of group work should be to break up the class with a light activity that everyone will enjoy and foster a sense of community. But, overdoing group projects can create an unnecessary burden for independent learners. If you can, keep the groupwork limited to class time rather than forcing people to arrange a time after class to meet. Not sure if you’re providing the right balance of groups and solo learning? Poll the class. Ask if they’d prefer to tackle the next activity on their own, in teams, or with a few others.
Don’t Be Afraid to Stir the Pot
Switch up the format of each lesson slightly to keep your class from getting stale. Start with a (non-offensive) joke or an icebreaker. Show a relevant video clip or bring in a guest speaker. Build anticipation and give your audience a reason to show up at each class to see what will happen next. Your students should work harder in class than you do. Instead of talking at them, facilitate diverse engagement opportunities.
While a multifaceted approach has become the keystone of a great class, choose the media you use carefully to bring the subject material to life. For instance, if you show a video clip, don’t be afraid to pause it in the middle to point something out. We all remember those times in grade school when the teacher would roll in the video cart and phone it in for the day. Media in class should serve a clear purpose, not waste time. Your students can tell the difference.
Finally, embrace a little bit of controversy and edge. Fear of controversy too often leads to a forgettable lecture. There’s a respectful way to balance your lesson with provocative enough material to spark curiosity and emotion without turning off your students. Be sure to preface controversial topics with your intention to start an open dialogue.
Leave enough space for both sides of an argument to be explored and, if needed, give some ground rules to guide a productive discussion. Ground rules can help avoid alienating students or, worse, a screaming match. When done right, a little controversy goes a long way towards setting your class apart and cultivating a memorable learning experience that moves your audience.
