Lectures are an economical and effective way to convey information to large groups of participants. They can provide an overview of a difficult topic or different perspectives on a subject. They can be used to provoke thought and deepen understanding. Lectures can be used to give structure to the students’ reading or to cover material not easily found in textbooks. When lectures are delivered well, the lecturer motivates the students and can become an inspirational role model
1 Planning the Lecture
Know your subject and have a good command of what you have to talk about. Then know your audience, their background, needs, and prior knowledge.
Lectures can be taken as a feature film and with an identifiable beginning, middle, and end. Structuring the lecture this way makes it easier for the audience to follow and also provides a framework for preparing the flow of the lecture
If your lecture is part of a series, it is good to know the content of the other lectures particularly those just before and after yours to avoid repetition.
2 Preparing the Lecture
Just like success in decorating or culinary skills, successful lecture delivery is characteristically dependent on its preparation. If you prepare appropriately for a lecture, delivering it is easier [4].
The essential ingredients for the preparation of a lecture are:
Knowing the purpose of the lecture—formulate the learning objectives.
Content.
Organization.
Preparation of audiovisual aids.
3 Developing the Lesson Plan
Lesson planning is the crucial step to make life easier in delivering a lecture. Although it requires patience, discipline, reflection, and time, however, the payoff is boundless: a clearly organized lecture that is easy for you to deliver, and for your audience to follow.
A lesson plan is the sketch of a sequence of activities engaged in by both the lecturer and the audience to achieve the desired objectives together with a schedule for the lesson and a list of instructional resources. The quality of planning affects the quality of results. For the lecturer it is important to consider the three basic elements when planning a lecture; the introduction (bridge-in, objectives, pre-assessment), the body (participatory learning), and the conclusion (post-assessment and summary).
