It is a well-known situation that students lose attention during class. However, there are some methods to gain students' interests to get back. Instead of using traditional teaching techniques, I use technology as much as I can during my lectures. Using a tablet with note-taking applications is one of the methods I prefer. It is easy to capture students' reactions while solving example questions since I sit in front of the students face to face. As is known, some students might be shy and do not want to ask questions about the lecture. Face-to-face interactive example problem solving is a way for me to observe the classroom and those students and, re-solve the question if necessary.
In general, I follow these methods explained below;
First 5 minutes of the class:
Video time: Before starting the class, I open some videos related to topic of the day. This is one of the most successful methods I have ever tried. Because engineering students want to learn real-world applications as well as academic approaches of engineering.
Discussion about the video: This is a small discussion that includes some questions related to the video to increase students' critical thinking.
In the middle:
5-minute brain relaxation session: This is a method that helps students to wrap-up what I taught during the lecture.
Last 5 minutes of the class:
Speedy questions: I ask lecture-related questions to the students and expect to get fast answers. Students who give me the fast answer within 10 seconds get an extra point which I consider to add on his/her grade at the end of the semester.
Aforementioned teaching strategy is a great way to encourage students' participation. Dividing a full time lecture into smaller parts refreshes students' mind and helps students to focus every part of the lecture since every lecture has sessions in it.
There are other methods such as inviting a guest lecture, organizing a field trip, and making laboratory experiments. A guest lecture invitation is a good way for students those who want to ask some question about real-world engineering applications. It can also be a life-changing situation for some students who cannot decide which field in engineering they are going to pursue. Moreover, a field trip organization is another way for students to make them excited about engineering. Finally, making laboratory experiments using engineering-related materials and showing these materials' interactions with each other increases students' three-dimensional thinking capability.
As a conclusion, these techniques for teaching that I prefer for my lectures in Turkey and in the U.S. has shown me that there is always a way to encourage students to participate in the class.