2.3 Varied engagement
All of this leads to an important conclusion about the kinds of engagement activities that should be designed for students: they should be varied. If the lecturer does nothing but lecture to students, those students who do not respond very well to lectures - because they have difficulty paying attention for long periods of time, for example - are at a disadvantage.
Likewise, if the lecturer does nothing but have students engage in debates, those students who like to have the opportunity to read or listen quietly to an expert are at a disadvantage. As you are putting together plans to teach any of the Modules, you should consider how to offer varied methods for students to engage actively with the learning material.
One example of how to do this is given below.
Activity 2.3 How to uncover community corruption 
This exercise is from E4J Anti-Corruption Module 6 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] . It includes the following components (the time allocation is a guideline only and you can adapt it according to the circumstances):
- Initial information provided to students via presentation and handout, accomplished by video and reading materials (10 minutes)
- Small groups discuss and come up with recommendations (15 minutes)
- Presentations by small groups on recommendations (15 minutes)
- Students vote on best recommendation (5 minutes)
- Debrief by facilitator (5 minutes)
You start this session with the following video and news article to set the scene:
Watch this clip which provides an example of how an artificial intelligence software (AI) could be used to detect corrupt activities within the civil service. The video also discusses the various ways of how such information could be used.
Read this article exploring nine ways to use technology to reduce corruption.
Afterwards, students are presented with the various means of reporting, including self-reporting and citizen reporting as well as the role of the new technologies to facilitate reporting of corruption, based on the relevant parts of the Key issues section of Module 6.
The general flow of the session is as follows:
- The groups should come up with suggestions for new ways to use technologies to combat corruption in their community.
- You should capture the feedback from the groups, for example on a flipchart or by using online poll tools such as Mentimeter or Slido. This will also facilitate the voting at the end of the exercise.
- You wrap up the session with additional examples of new technologies used for anti-corruption purposes. You may wish to show similar videos and articles from local media that might be more relevant and interesting to the students. Then, the students can vote on the best suggestion from the groups.
What challenges do you envisage in delivering this exercise and how could you overcome them?
Answer
Depending on the time available, you could decide to make the video compulsory preparatory work. Use the first part of the class to give clear instructions, and – whenever small groups are engaged in discussion – move from group to group to answer any questions they might have.
2.2 Learning styles