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Higher education regularly uses seminars as a way to get students to discuss their work with their tutors and extend their knowledge. Problems arise because tutors cannot get students to open up, but if students are involved in the running of the seminar these problems can be overcome.

Engineering and science students often find practical projects undertaken in their third year of university are much more stimulating and a good source of learning than the two previous years of practical work. Some universities have tried to tackle the problem by giving their students more interesting project work earlier in their courses. Lancaster and Liverpool universities, England, have both devised new types of projects for their second year students where they work independently in teams but with the support of their tutors.

There are a number of techniques that university lecturers can use to ensure that they retain the attention of large groups of students over a long period of time. They can use a range of methods for presenting ideas and information, and can consider ways to encourage the involvement and participation of students. It may be appropriate to ask students to work with an incomplete or partial handout, or students can divided into small groups for activities such as analyzing a case study.

Advice for postgraduate demonstrators is presented. Postgraduate demonstrators should not feel that they must be able to answer all the undergraduates' questions, but must try instead to encourage and guide. There are various techniques that can be useful in avoiding excessive marking time, including using a model answer or worked example.

The passivity of students in lectures and large group teaching sessions has long been observed and criticised. In response some have argued for the abolition of this form of teaching. However, expansion in Higher Education, increases in student numbers and a desire to maintain face to face contact does seem to be a little at odds with this view. In fact, it seems that, for the foreseeable future, the lecture will remain a cornerstone of the tertiary education experience and many students will continue to spend considerable amounts of time sitting amongst, perhaps hundreds of, their classmates in a tiered lecture theatre, as an important part of their studies. The view expressed in this article is that most of the good things about lectures can be extended and expanded upon and most of the bad things can be reduced or erased by getting the students to play a more active and interactive role in the larger group teaching sessions they attend. Although this sounds a very simple idea the practice usually turns out to be a little more difficult to achieve. In particular, a simple thing such as introducing a quiz, or a discussion task, into a lecture actually challenges both learners' and lecturers' attitudes alike on three important questions:∎What are lectures for?∎What should good teachers do?∎What should good learners be doing? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]