Making the most of a 3 hour session.
Hi!
I'm teaching a series of courses relating to Marine Services. It had previously been determined that about half the time would be lecture, and half the time hands-on. The lecture is fine, but I have eight students that have to have a meaningfull work session during that 1.5 hr. period allocated to hands-on.
I end up running around like a nut trying to respond to each persons needs quickly enough to not waste a big part of his night's experience.
I've been reluctant to change the format to a 3 hour lecture one night and a 3 hour class the next night. It just seems that 3 hours of non-stop industry standards would be pretty dry.
any suggestions?
Instead of splitting the two class times in half (either 1.5 hours of each or three hours of each), why not have a two hour lecture the first night with an hour of hands on work. Then the next class meeting, take an hour to lecture followed by a two hour hands on session. Depending on the information, it might work! Good luck.
Hi Geoffrey,
The answer to your questions depends upon how much freedom to make changes in how you deliver the course content. Sue Kinney make a good suggestion.
Another would be to have work sessions, lecture, work sessions, each lasting about 30 minutes. Lecture and application would create a tie between theory and practice. Also, it depends on what the hands-on activities are in the course.
Is it possible to group the students so they help each other with the hands-on so you don't have to spend so much time with each student?
Any other information you can share with me about this situation will be appreciated.
Gary
My medical classes are being taught in 2 hour blocks with a 10 minute break in the middle. I thnk this is an ideal set-up.
Hi Leigh,
Sounds like you have a good approach to your teaching plan. Do you have activities that you use to help keep the interest of your students during the hour long sessions?
Gary
I also teach a 3-hour evening class. Topic is the business of music. By breaking up the class into 3 sections:
- current events including info from newspapers, magazines and the Internet
- lecture/topic of the day
- some kind of visual, usually a cd or dvd illustrating the topic of the day
Students are required to submit current events so that they have the opportunity to provide content that appeals to them.
Hi Patrick,
Well done. Through your use of segments you are clearly telling your students when you are in a segment and when that segment is over. This helps keep the time frame manageable. It is like the old story about how do you eat an elephant. The answer, one bite at a time.
Since I teach evening classes as well. I try and think about my student coming into my class at 7 and facing three hours. That is a long time after they have worked all day. If I have them work on one topic or activity for a while then another and then another the evening goes by quickly. It is simply a matter of perspective. Your segments do that for your students.
Gary
I just finished grad school in writing and the program was taught entirely in 3 hour courses. I took two courses, each 3 hours in length held once per week. I think the key to my success in this program was both knowing there would be a break midway through to caffeinate :) as well as having instructors that taught in segments. Whereas we were in the same classroom for three hours, our tasks changed to keep my interest level up.
I also taught a 3-hour Saturday afternoon bookclub to high schoolers! Talk about a challenge... What worked here was the same format. I combined interactive games, lectures, and student discussion in order to make the time chunk more bearable. Variety is the spice of life...
I teach computers and found it useful to give extra credit to the advanced students to help out with classmates who are stuck. It keeps them busy when they would be sitting around waiting for the slower classmates to catch up.
every class is going to respond differently of course. our class times are 5 hours. we have started to do the majority of our lecture at the beginning of the rotation and try to get through it before any labtime. we have found that this will give the students more lab time in the end. although it can get a little 'dry', we will lecture for about 50 minutes and give a 10 - 15 minute break in between. we normally have lecture for 2 - 3 nights and then have about 2 1/2 weeks of lab. there are a few times, depending on what we cover to split them up but this works well for us.
