h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

1.Do NOT read your lecture notes or the entire lecture. You ought to know enough about the subject to be able to manage to expand from short notes.
2.If you are using the blackboard/whiteboard practise printing (your handwriting is not legible from the back of the room)WRITE LARGE.
3.Do not talk to the board or your feet. Speak to your audience. Look at their faces so that you can see if they understand.
4.Smile sometimes. Greet the students at the beginning and wrap up somehow at the end.
5.Give an outline (eg Today I'm going to talk about X and I shall deal with A, B and C)
6 Signpost (use words like "firstly", "in conclusion")
7. If you are using Powerpoint or an OHT, more than 3 points per slide is too many.
8.Make sure the machinery works and that YOU know how to operate it before you go into the lecture room(especially if you have to use a microphone)
9.Put some examples, anecdotes etc in the live performance that aren't in the notes you will make available. Make it worthwhile for the students who do bother to get up and come to your lectures.
10. Keep to time. If you've got 50 minutes that's how long you've got - not 46 or 60.

[General for waiting so long to respond]

You've got some good points there, I'll definitely put some in for the next draft.

Some thoughts to bounce around:
I'm not personally sure about 3 as the absolute maximum for points per slide - although I guess it depends how "big" the points are. Perhaps 3 should be a kind of target figure: the further away you are, the more your lectures will suffer.

Your point on notes is I think a rather good kind of compromise: put something value-added in the lectures that makes people *want* to come, rather than simply having to because your printed notes aren't up to much.

for your thoughts
[IMSoP]