50 Alternatives to Lecture

Looking for techniques to replace lecture in your online class? Ever feel like you might be talking too much and not hearing student voices enough? Want to make your course content more student-centered, active, inclusive, and/or interactive? These 50 Alternatives to Lecture can help you find strategies that can help you escape the "sage on the stage" paradigm.

Pick What Works

Some of these strategies can be used in the live classroom, while some are appropriate for an asynchronous discussion, and others may work better in other situations. Look for methods that work with your content and class management style. Or... be more daring and try out something that is vastly different from how you would normally present a lesson! Adding this type of new experience can make learning more vibrant for the instructor as well as the students. Some of the exciting ideas among the 50 Alternative...

• Paradox: It helps students move beyond either/or toward both/and thinking. A paradox presented online to a student, a small group, or to the class can be a very effective discussion starter, written assignment, or small group activity -to problem solve.
• Puzzles: These cover all disciplines and may be verbal (written), mathematical, conceptual or concrete. A puzzle presented online to a student, a small group, or to the class can be a very effective discussion starter, written assignment, or small group activity -to problem-solve.
• Symposium: An ancient Greek instructional technique. It is a discussion in which the topic is broken into its various phases; each part is presented by an expert or person well informed on that particular phase, in a brief, concise speech....
• Panels: An online discussion among a selected group of students with an assigned leader, in front of the class that joins in later. It is used as a technique to stimulate interest and thinking, and to provoke better discussion. With setup and explanation this can be done online using online discussion....
• Guest Speakers
• Skits
• Simulations
• Case Histories

Explore More

• Open or download the complete list of 50 Alternatives to Lecture - PDF This resource was prepared by Alexandra M. Pickett of SUNY (State University of New York) and is provided with permission. Further, this PDF document has been assigned the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

---