Last changed 6 June 2004 ............... Length about 300 words (2500 bytes).
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Length and number of questions

(written by Steve Draper,   as part of the Interactive Lectures website)

How many questions? How long do they take?
A rule of thumb for a 50 minute lecture is to use only 3 EVS questions.

In a "tutorial" session organised entirely around questions, you could at most use about 12 if there were no discussion: 60 secs to express a question, 90 secs to collect votes, 90 secs to comment briefly on the responses gives 4 minutes per question if there is no discussion or detailed explanation, and so 12 questions in a lecture.

Allowing 5 mins (still very short) for discussion by audience and presenter of issues that are not well understood would mean only 5 such questions in a session.

It is also possible, especially with a large collection of questions ready, to "use up" some by just asking someone to shout out the answer to warm up the audience, and then vote on a few to make sure the whole audience is keeping up with the noisy few. It would only take 20 seconds rather than 4 minutes for each such informal use of a question. Never let the EVS become too central or important: it is only one aid among others.

Thus for various reasons you may want to prepare a large number of questions from which you select only a few, depending on how the session unfolds.

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