Inviting a Guest Presenter to your classroom

Encouraging an active learning environment

Purpose

Inviting a guest speaker to your classroom/lecture can be an important experience for students. Guest speakers expose students to real-world life experiences from the context of the workplace, and students get to experience the insights and perspective of an expert who is in their field of expertise (Riebe et al., 2013).

RMIT Industry Engagement Unit

The objective of RMIT”s College of Business Industry Engagement Unit is to enhance the delivery of industry engagement and improve student experience outcomes, by embedding industry and enterprise throughout the student journey and by supporting academics to connect to industry for teaching and research. We are here to assist connect you with industry, including alumni, to provide guest lecturers, industry challenges, WIL projects and mentors. Our team can also support you to deliver industry events, campaigns and communications

Use the contact form to help us understand your requirements and a member from the Industry Engagement Group will be in touch with you shortly.

Contact the industry engagement team

Learning Context

Research suggests several positive benefits of inviting a guest speaker to the classroom/lecture as a pedagogical tool. The use of guest speakers can encourage an active learning environment. Students are prompted to use critical thinking and will benefit from hearing how to apply the theoretical concepts to which they are being exposed. (Riebe et al., 2013).

Strategies

Select a speaker who is credible
Ensure the guest lecture fits into the flow of the class ( the topic covered by the guest lecturer, is consistent with what that is being taught to students in the course)
Brief the speaker
Ask the speaker to use personal examples or narratives
Seek feedback from students on the value of the guest lecture

References

Riebe, L., Sibson, R., Roepen, D. and Meakins, K. (2013). Impact of Industry Guest Speakers on Business Students’ Perceptions of Employability Skills Development. Industry and Higher Education, 27(1), pp.55-66.