From Pitch to Lecture: 5 Tips to Keep Students Engaged

Friday afternoon, a packed lecture hall: how do you keep students from tuning out? PhD student Sam asked himself that question after reading our book The Floor is Yours. He emailed us: “Do your presentation tips also apply to teaching?”

Our answer? Yes. The principles work for lectures too, though you’ll need to apply them a little differently.

Differences and similarities

At a conference, you present to convince. In a lecture, you teach to deepen understanding. But in both cases, the challenge is the same: you want your audience to learn something new and stay engaged.

5 tips to make your lectures engaging and effective

Many of our presentation tips also work well in a teaching context. Here’s how to adapt them:

1. Choose one main message

Don’t drop students in halfway through (“let’s continue with section 2.5.3”). Instead, define one central question or problem that your lecture builds toward.

Example: In a microbiology lecture, you could centre everything around “Why are antibiotic-resistant bacteria such a big problem?”

2. Use a clear structure

Follow the intro-body-conclusion model:

• Intro (2–5 min): connect to something familiar, frame the problem or question.
• Body: work towards an answer in a maximum of three clear steps. Remind students where you are in the journey.
  Example: “We’ve now seen why plastic floats in the ocean, how it gets there, and what impact it has. Let’s now zoom in on possible solutions.”
• Conclusion: wrap up and show what students can do with the knowledge.
  Example: In a statistics lecture, you might end by showing students how to apply the techniques to their own dataset.

Repeat your main message at several points. Research shows that repetition, through visuals, words, and interaction, helps students retain information better.

3. Start with a hook

The first minute is crucial.

• Refer to a current news story
• Ask a provocative question or use a contrast
• Show a short experiment

Just make sure your hook connects directly to the lecture’s topic.

Example: Sam plans to start his lecture with a photo of an incubator in a neonatal intensive care unit. Imagine there’s an outbreak of the bacterium Serratia marcescens. What do you do?

A strong opening? Absolutely. It’s concrete and emotionally engaging.

4. Build in interaction

Listening alone is boring. Alternate with exercises, quizzes, or short discussions. Students process information more actively and remember it better.

Example: ask students to stand up for the answer they believe is correct (A, B, or C). Or let them solve a short case in pairs.

5. Use slides wisely

If everything is already on the slide, students think: “I’ll read it later.” Result: they stop listening.

A few golden rules:

• Less info per slide: better one clear graph than five crammed together.
• Build step by step: let elements appear as you speak, using simple animation.
• More visuals, fewer words: images stick much better than text.

Yes, it takes time, but it’s worth it

Treating a lecture like a presentation takes preparation. That time is rarely paid, but the impact on your students is huge. With good preparation (and smart use of AI tools, e.g. for generating examples), you can create lectures that really stick.

Are you, like Sam, teaching soon? Pick one tip from this article and try it out. Chances are your students will notice the difference: they’ll stay awake, remember more, and you’ll find teaching much more rewarding.

Do you have a question too? You might find the answer in our book. If not, make use of our always-an-answer guarantee.