Participants frequently complain about the lecture as a training tool. However, the lecture has several advantages:

It permits efficient coverage of the training content in a limited period.
It can reach a large group of learners at the same time.
It inspires the listener.
As a trainer, you can control the scope and sequence of a lecture.
Most participants are familiar with this training technique.

Of course, the lecture has a few critical disadvantages:

It tends to be dull and boring.
It focuses on the content coverage.
It focuses on the lecturer and not on the listener.
It is pitched too high or too low for most participants.
I have been working on the lecture as a training technique in corporate settings for the past two decades. As a result of my explorations, I have synthesized a technique called interactive lecture by combining effective elements of lectures with training games.

Here are a few different types of interactive lectures:

Integrated Quiz combines tests with the presentation,
Interspersed Tasks uses periodic participant activities that requires processing of the content.
Active Summary requires periodic summarizing of the key training points.
Diagnosis and Prescription uses criterion tests to identify gaps in participants’ skills and knowledge.
Teamwork uses collaborative activities to help the participants learn with each other and learn from each other,
Participant Control permits the learner to modify the content and sequence of the lecture.

For the past decade, I have been offering my training session in online virtual classrooms. Transferring interactive lecture techniques to the online environment has enabled me to design new training tools. Here’s a partial list of alternative lecture LOLAs (Live Online Learning Activities).

1. Alternative Audiences. After your presentation, organize four teams of participants and send them to separate breakout rooms. Tell the teams to prepare a presentation of the same content but to a different audience (such as 7-old children, aeronautical engineers, or Peace Corps volunteers). Invite a volunteer from each team makes its re-formatted presentation.

2. Artistic Summary. After your lecture, form different teams of participants and send them to separate breakout rooms. Ask each team to prepare a graphic poster that summarizes the key points of the lecture without any words. Ask each team to display its poster by using the camera. Later, send each team to its breakout room to revise the poster to incorporate effective ideas from the other posters.

3. Best Summaries. At the end of your presentation, ask each participant to independently writes a summary in less that 100 words. Organize the participants into teams and send to different breakout rooms. Ask each team to evaluate a set of the summaries from another team and select the best one. Finally, ask the participants vote for the best of the best summaries.

4. Concept Analysis. Ask a series of questions about a concept (such as what the critical characteristics of this concept are, what are synonyms of the label for the concept, and what is a clear example of this concept). After listening to the participants’ responses comment on them, correct any misconceptions, and provide additional information.

5. Closed and Open. After your lecture, ask the participants to write a closed question about the content of the lecture. Send groups of participants meet in separate breakout rooms. Ask the participants to listen to one question at a time and write down an answer. Each correct answer earns 1 point. Next, ask the participants to write an open question, Send groups of participants to the breakout room. Ask everyone to write an answer to a randomly selected question. Ask the participants to select any two of the answers and randomly read them. The better answer receives 3 points. At the end of the activity, identify the winner with the highest total number of points as the winner.

6. Definitions. Present a key term related to your training content. Send teams of participants to separate breakout rooms to come up with real or imaginary definition of the term you presented. Collect the definitions from different teams through private chat messages. Insert your own definition to this set. Read the definitions and challenge the teams to identify the correct one written by you. Use the participants’ definitions to identify training needs. Repeat the process until you have covered all the terms related to the training content.

7. Essence. After your presentation, send teams of participants to breakout rooms to collaboratively prepare a 16-word summary. Ask the teams to return to the main room and read their summaries. Send the teams back to the breakout rooms and ask them to prepare a summary of your lecture in exactly 8 words. Repeat the process by asking the teams to successively reduce the length of the summary to 4 and 2 words.

8. Fifth Sentence. After your presentation, send teams of participants to separate breakout rooms. Ask each team to write down five sentences to summarize the key points of your presentation. Ask the teams to return to the main room. Randomly select a team and ask this team to read four of its five sentences in a random order. Ask the other teams to guess the fifth sentence that was left out. Identify the team that made the closest guess as the winning team.

9. Four Questions. After your presentation, send four teams of participants, each to a different breakout room. Ask the team in the first room to make a list of useful ideas from the lecture. Encourage the team members to also come up with probable answers from other participants. Instruct the other three teams to come up with lists of confusing, interesting, and disagreeable points. Bring the groups to the main room and ask each team to present its list. Ask the other three teams to add any relevant items that are missing.

10. Key Points. Make your presentation, advising the participants to take notes. At the end of the presentation, ask the participants to review their notes and announce what they consider to be the most important point in your presentation. Instruct the participants to unmute their mics and give their response. After hearing from several participants, ask additional questions using different adjectives (such as the most useful, the most controversial, the most unexpected, and the most obvious).

11. Mixed-Up Sentences. After your lecture, ask the participants to pick up a pdf document with seven sentences that presumably summarize the key points. Organize teams of participants in different breakout rooms and ask them to identify an unrelated sentence from the list. Then ask the teams to come up with an additional sentence that summarizes a key point from the lecture that is missing from the list. Finally, instruct the teams to collaboratively identify the top two summary sentences.

12. PDQ Lecture. Make a condensed presentation about the training topic in just a few sentences. Clarify the content by responding to questions from the participants. Repeat the question-and-answer sessions as many times as needed.

13. Press Conference. Introduce the training topic through a brief presentation. Divide the participants into teams and send each team a breakout room. Ask the team members to brainstorm a set of questions related to the training topic. Bring everyone back to the main room. Play the role of an expert and invite the participants to question you. At the end of this press conference roleplay, send the participants back to their team breakout rooms. Ask each team to list five or six key points from your answers.

14. Question Cards. Give a lecture on the training topic after advising the participants to listen carefully and take notes. After your lecture divide the participants into four or five teams and send each team to a separate breakout room. Ask the teams to type in the chat area several questions about the content of your presentation, each question as a message sent only to you. Bring all the participants to the main room and conduct a quiz contest using the questions generated earlier by the teams.

15. Rapid Reflection. After your lecture, ask each participant to type one or more key sentences in the chat area, related to the content from your presentation. Later, ask the participants to scan the chat messages and read a message that appeals to them.

16. Repeated Scoring. After your presentation, ask an open-ended question. Invite the participants to type their answers in the chat area. Pick any two answers and ask a random participant to distribute seven points between them to reflect their relative merits. Repeat this process with other pairs of answers in chat. Finally, identify the answer that received the most number of points.

17. Selected Questions. Introduce the training topic. Divide the participants into teams and send them to separate breakout rooms. Ask the team members to jointly come up with three questions that will be of use to most participants. Bring all teams to the main room and ask each team to say the question it considers to be the most useful one. Give a complete and correct answer. After responding to each team’s question, conclude the session. Finally, ask each participant to identify the most useful question among those from different teams.

18. Skill Sets. Present a segment of your lecture. Organize the participants into teams and send them to separate breakout rooms. Invite each team to compose a song to emphasize the key points from your lecture. Ask teams to present their songs. Continue with your lecture. During the succeeding segments, give new tasks that require different skill sets: Write a memorable sentence about the training topic in chat. Draw a picture on the whiteboard to illustrate a key point. Ask two participants to conduct roleplay. Visualize successful application of a newly learned skills.

19. Shouting Match. Make a very brief presentation about a controversial training topic. Divide the participants into three groups (positive, negative, and neutral) and send them to different breakout rooms. Ask the positive group to type chat statements that support the topic, the negative group that reject the topic, and the neutral group unbiased factual statements. Ask the participants to independently decide which team typed more credible statements.

20. Team Quiz. Stop after 10 minutes of your presentation. Divide the participants into teams and send each team to a separate breakout room. Ask the members of each team to come up with three or four closed questions and one or two open questions. Bring all teams to the main room and select one of the teams. Invite this team to ask a closed question and select a participant from another team to give the answer. Later, invite different team to ask its open question. Repeat your presentation segments and questions as many times as needed.

21. True or False. Before your presentation, prepare a list of statements related to common misconceptions about your training topic. Display these statements, one at a time, on the screen. Ask if each statement is true or false. Explain why the statement is true or false and provide relevant background information.

22. Two Experts. Briefly present a training topic and introduce two experts. Invite the participants to open their mics and ask questions about the topic. Let the two experts take turns to give their personal answers. Continue with additional questions until the topic is comprehensively covered.