Interactive lecturing techniques

Methods and experiences of interactive teaching in signal processing courses are described in this paper. The main purpose is to activate the students and to make them take responsibility for their own studies and learning and make studying a continuous event throughout the course. I have used this method in the course Digital Linear Filtering for Finnish students. The theoretical basis of the method lies in a way in the pedagogical theory of humanism. It can be seen as a mixture of student-centered and teacher-centered learning. According to this theory a lecturer is a coach and guide; the students participate actively. Thereby, the lectures are interactive conversational learning events. The course starts by giving a knowledge test, which tells both the student and the lecturer if the students have the pre-requisites on an acceptable level to successfully participate in the course. The lecturer sees what problems are ahead and where the knowledge obtained earlier is not on an adequate level. The method itself is as follows: Lectures are based on the information the students obtain beforehand of the topic of the lecture the next week. This is done by giving the students tasks to prepare for the next lecture. The information found by the students forms the basis of the lecture. The lecturer tops up the missing information during the lecture and explains the students the importance and meaning of the information. Thereby, the lecturer encourages the students to study throughout the course and makes them learn how to find information and participate during the lectures.