LAUSR

1. Create a safe learning environment. Decades past, there was emphasis on learning through humiliation or ‘pimping’, where learners were pinpointed and questioned in an often hostile fashion. For educational talks to be beneficial in today’s setting, it is worthwhile creating a safe learning environment. Allow your learners to understand no one will be unfairly picked on in the audience and expected to answer questions. Instead, ensure they are aware that every learner will have different perspectives and that each one has something valuable to contribute. 2. Keep sessions short. Don’t expect today’s learners to maintain their focus during a prolonged educational session. Instead, ensure didactic learning is focused and delivered in short bursts. Millennials may be engaged in reviewing and searching for additional learning material on their phone or laptop or responding to social messages whilst an educational session is being delivered. Therefore, delivering a prolonged talk may be ineffective and lose their interest. Ensure the session is focused and delivers the necessary learning points as they multi-task. Of course, that is not to say you should allow the audience to set the agenda – if overuse of their own technology during your talk becomes off-putting, set boundaries. You can always request that learners have a personal device-free moment when you are emphasising key points. 3. Make it interactive through multimedia. Today’s learners engage heavily with videos. Ensure your talk is not just a single speaker, but rather a combination of the speaker and video-based material. In gastroenterology, this could comprise videos focused on how best to undertake a consultation or perform endoscopy. The options are numerous. Learners will find it of little value if the talk is simply based on a speaker without material with which to engage. They want to see all educational platforms incorporated and videos can do just that. 4. Achieve best practice. Often, preparation of educational talks is left to the last minute. In order to achieve best practice, it is important to understand the above points and start preparation early. Experiment with sample talks to your fellow faculty members. What works and what doesn’t? Is there too much multimedia or too little? Does your line of questioning come across as hostile? Is there too much interactivity or not enough? The best way to assess how effective your talk may be is to practice and showcase your efforts before the day. After the talk, aim to achieve feedback. Again, what worked well and what didn’t? It is difficult to please everyone, but usually audiences achieve consensus on how things can be improved. It is useful to adjust your talk soon after you gave it. This way you can also recall more accurately what worked effectively.