A few days ago I took a half-day class in a new technology. The instructors presented some excellent material but fell short in other areas. During suboptimal segments I thought about how the course could have been taught better.

• Know your students.

Develop a mental model of the types of people in the class. * Identify and categorize your pupils — their backgrounds, experiences, current jobs, motives in taking the course, etc. * Figure out what they already know, what they need to learn, and how you can teach them most effectively.

* Provide "Elevator Speeches.

For each category of student, give a postcard's worth of material — one vugraph, half a dozen key points, 30 seconds worth of things to remember. * Capture the essence what you want them to take away. * Give it to them at the start and again at the end of the lecture.

* Use "Toy Problems".

Devise simple examples, if possible involving individual student participation. * Lead the class through them to teach the material.

* Highlight important concepts.

Point out what's hot right now, what's likely big for the next few years, and what's going to be relevant "forever" such as fundamental discoveries, cross-cutting principles, etc. * Identify trade-offs, risks, uncertainties, and downsides associated with techniques and technologies. * Talk about what types of problems novel methods work well on, and what they can't effectively solve.

(cf. Riot Act point #5, "The Professional is not a Passive Learner" (2010-07-07) for thoughts on how the student can optimize learning) - ^z - 2012-09-14