Lecturebook

 

Use examples in Lecturebook


Advantage

  The numerous examples are an excellent resources provided by the Lecturebook.

“I get a lot of example problems from it, so I think that’s the most valuable thing to me as an instructor.”
“It certainly helps from a time management standpoint because I’m not spending a significant amount of lecture prep time building on examples.”

Strategy

  It’s not necessary to explain all examples. Customize based on your needs:

  • how much you can get done in a lecture (how long it takes you to explain the example)
  • what the students’ foundation is
  • where students can have questions.

“I think because the examples were handed to me in a way that was well flushed out, I was able to better estimate how long they would take me in a class period, which allowed me to help with some of that time management.”

“I now try to consciously think about what are the sticking points and how could they have questions. And I recalibrate that as now I begin to understand what their foundation is and what they maybe don’t have as big of a background on.”

Alternatively, encourage students to study some examples by themselves outside the classroom.

“And I try to frame it to them as, ‘Don’t just go watch it and then regurgitate,’ and ‘If you are struggling with this component, this resource would help you.’”


  Instructor using Freeform for the first time may have less time for the examples.

“I spend more time to cover every topic because I promote the participation in class from the students. It means that I have less time in class to solve some problems.”


  Uploading example solutions after class rather than before class.

“I switched to upload the slides empty without the solutions the day before, and then I upload the solved examples afterwards. They really liked that. I got feedback that they thought that [slowly going through the problems on an empty page] was useful.”



Using Lecturebook for presentation
Challenge

  The abundance of information on PDF pages can be problematic.

“I decided to use the PDF of the lecturebook as my notes. In doing this, I felt a disconnect with the students which is odd because I typically teach with slides. My best guess is that I animate my slides, prompt my students for answers, and keep the info on the slides to a minimum. With the PDF, I think there was too much information in front of them.”


Strategy

  Focus on the keys areas when presenting the PDF.

“I decided to teach on the board more and use the PDF only for image support. I increased the size of the PDF in order to limit the clutter on the screen and to focus on key concepts. The material covered in the class was considerably less which allowed us to work through more examples.”