Using a Surface Pro/tablet for delivery of lectures

For more information contact: Alena Haddley .

Using a tablet, specifically a Surface Pro, proved to be very effective in the module delivery of MATH263 and has many advantages.

It is particularly suitable for large classes of students (500+), for lectures in the Sherrington LT2 (or other big lecture theatres) where no blackboard is available. However, it could be also used in rooms where the blackboard is not very well visible or if you prefer not to use a blackboard at all.

The Surface Pro allows you to effectively combine different delivery styles - hand-written notes, slides, videos, animations, websites, presentation of any software you use in your module, etc.

There are many software options available for hand-written notes using a digital pen (or just your finger), for example OneNote, which are very easy and effective to use. Hand-written notes look really nice and neat and are saved on your Surface Pro. You can save your hand-written notes as a PDF and distribute to students via Vital (See this example.)

Other advantages are:

• It is compatible with Lecture Capture - everything you do on your Surface Pro is captured so students have access to everything that was done during your lectures.
• You face the students at all times since you don’t have to turn your back to write on a blackboard.
• It is not messy like chalk and you never run out of a digital pen, unlike whiteboard markers. Moreover, you don’t have to do any blackboard cleaning which also saves time.