Strategies for effective communication with students during lectures, class discussion, and PowerPoint presentations. Topics covered included body language, use of gesture, layout of the classroom, use of the voice, and communication styles.

Why do some discussions succeed where others fail? In this interactive workshop we explored techniques that can help create classroom discussions that lead to deep and lasting learning – in small and large classes, from first-year to grad school. In particular, we examined the use of questions for initiating and sustaining productive discussions and the logistics of group formation in a variety of settings.

This presentation had two main goals: (1) to review the ways and means of ensuring an engaging and dynamic lecture, for both small groups but especially large; and (2) to examine in-house tools and methods to ensure we are getting our point across. In addition to lecture techniques, we reviewed technology, use of clickers in the classroom, and the order of lecture topics.

This workshop dealt with how to incorporate learning outcomes into the design of undergraduate courses. How are learning outcomes defined? What are the undergraduate expectations adopted for universities in Ontario? What learning outcomes has the University of Windsor adopted, based on the Ontario undergraduate expectations initiative? Through presentation, dialogue, and active learning, participants had the opportunity to reflect on and to develop strategies for the incorporation of learning outcomes into their course syllabi, teaching, and measures of student progress.