Lectures

- Ever wanted to play 'ask the audience' in Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
- Ever wanted to be on a jury?

During your lectures at Essex, you may have the opportunity to be involved in activities such as these, which give your lecturer instant feedback about your understanding and your opinions, and allow you to engage and express yourself. Lectures are not just sermons that exist for the sake of tradition: they are still the staple for learning on most University courses because they are an extremely flexible medium for teaching.

Lectures:

Give you the opportunity to learn directly from experts in your field, who can give you the most current information and answer your questions;
Help you to understand the key concepts of the course;
Teach you what you need to know, when you need to know it, when you are ready to know it;
Set the context for seminars and classes, and direct you to important reading to support independent learning;
Motivate and inspire you;
Give you the opportunity to interact and participate, and through this process reinforce your learning and gain new perspectives.

In short, lectures are crucial, and often exciting. In order to get the most from them, it is essential that you effectively engage but also find some effective way of recording them for future reference. The advice on note-taking will help you to do this.