Are the days of the live university lecture numbered? Or is it time for universities to use their facilities to create a much more collaborative and engaging learning experience for their students?

This has been a real hot topic of discussion in universities I’ve been visiting since we asked a panel of academics from University College London to share their views on the subject in a live webinar.

It was a fantastic event where the academics from UCL spoke about their vision of the lecture of the future and offered some great examples of the changes they were making to ensure students were engaged in what they were learning.

Parama Chaudhury teaches economics at UCL to as many as 400 students in a single class. She said that “To capture the imaginations of large numbers of students and monitor their progress more accurately, I give my students as many opportunities as I can to debate topics and work together on problem-solving tasks.” She has found this to be an effective way to keep levels of interest up in the room.

As experienced users of Echo360, the academics have found some really interesting ways of using the tools available to them to gauge students’ understanding as a lecture progresses too. Even in a large teaching group, voting tools and the ability for students to ask questions anonymously help tutors to spot those who might be struggling so action can be taken to prevent them from falling behind. The academics also saw a future where data analytics would become increasingly valuable for helping lecturers engage with students more effectively in class.

I was particularly struck by the importance the academics placed on championing the true value of higher education and bringing people together to learn was at the very heart of this. At UCL, coffee mornings give students the chance to interview academics and the university hosts a number of social events where students and lecturers can chat and get to know each other. This is a great way to encourage students to see academics as approachable people that they want to engage with.

Find out how the UCL academics are amplifying the face-to-face contact students have with their tutors and sparking an evolution in the university lecture – watch the webinar or download the whitepaper below.

Download Whitepaper

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