Learning Objectives

Module 3, Delivery, is designed to provide you with ideas you can apply immediately in the classroom to improve your teaching. At the end of this module, you should be able to do the following:

• Use objective methods to analyze your learning audience
• Identify your teaching style
• Select teaching methods appropriate to your teaching style and your students’ unique characteristics
• Plan to deliver an effective lecture
• Facilitate an engaging class discussion (online and face-to-face)
• Explore the use of social media tools and microblogging as added aids to facilitate class discussion
• Integrate a new technology, or a technology-driven medium, in a class you teach
• Reflect on students’ use of ICT and new media tools for teaching and learning via blogging/microblogging
• Discuss the growing use of mobiles and m-Learning in both formal and informal learning environments

Introduction

As a teacher, you know how valuable it is to be fully prepared when you enter the classroom and when you engage with students. One starting point for delivering a quality learning experience is understanding who your audience is. When you have clear information about learners’ backgrounds, interests, and needs, you have added assurance that your students will be satisfied with the learning experience you facilitate.

Reflection

How to better understand your A.U.D.I.E.N.C.E.

• Analysis—Who is your audience?
• Understanding—What is the audience’s knowledge of the subject you are teaching?
• Demographics—What is their age, sex, education background, etc.?
• Interest—Why are they participating in your course?
• Environment—What is the teaching and learning environment?
• Needs—What are the audience’s needs associated with your topic?
• Customization—What specific needs/interests should you address relating to your specific audience?
• Expectations—What does the audience expect to gain from this learning situation?

Your teaching style, format, and information—all encompassed in your delivery—can be tailored to meet learners’ needs and interests.

Activity

1. Take a short quiz in the online course to test your basic understanding of audience analysis concepts.
2. Think of a course you teach or a specific learning activity you conduct. Then -

• Open the Checklist for Learner Characteristics by downloading it from the Learner Characteristics section of "Analysis of Instructional Environments" from the Association of College and Research Libraries and American Library Association. This checklist was designed for U.S. universities. Take a look at the checklist and design a Checklist for Learner Characteristics that would be appropriate to learn more about your students.
• Identify the characteristics of your learners. How do you factor these characteristics into your delivery? How might you further tailor the learning experience to suit your specific audience?

Emerging Learning Technologies

We've been talking about how learning for today's students involves communication and connections. We have looked at how our students are using emerging technologies for their personal learning and how are they using these ICT tools for teaching their peers. In this Emerging Learning Technologies session spend some time reflecting on your observations and create a blog post. Also continue to contribute to our ongoing participatory discussion online.

Online Library

Teaching With Style