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Do you sometimes feel that the narrative of your course would be strengthened by having your students engage with someone *working* in the field you are teaching about? Here are some things to keep in mind when including a guest practitioner in your course. 1/
Most importantly: the practitioner's intervention should be *meaningful* four your students' learning journey. It needs to come at the right time, complement your teaching and provide students with access to *new* knowledge and expertise, or a different perspective. 2/
*Embedding* this activity in your course is equally important. Think about the timing & choose a topic where the expert can bring most added value. Make sure the dialogue with the practitioner is connected to the other course activities & make these links explicit to students. 3/
Think of ways to make sure that students *make the most* of this interaction. Announce it well in advance (building it in the syllabus is a great idea), build in time to prepare (& supporting materials/prompts) & don't forget to include a debriefing/reflection part. 4/
*Communication* plays an important part, both with students and with practitioners. The objective of the activity needs to be clear (and ideally not very broad) and the expectations made explicit. Also, try to be mindful of time and come up with a clear schedule in advance. 5/
*Technology* offers some advantages for including practitioners in your course. The flexibility in terms of time & location, as well as the multimodality provided by various platforms have the potential to make the interaction more accesible to students & practitioners alike. 6/
It does *not* necessarily need to be a webinar! Some asynchronous ways to interact can be as valuable (if not more)- like discussion forums or pre-recorded videos/podcasts. They provide students with more time to prepare and learn from each other as well as from the expert. 7/
One last crucial point: *be there*! Having a guest practitioner doesn't mean you take a day off. On the contrary: your role is very important, from the design of the activity to moderating the discussion & making sure you bring students back to your course through debriefing. 8/
To sum it up: this can be a very valuable activity but it definitely takes more than inviting a guest speaker to make it a *learning experience*. Try to make use of technology to your advantage to give students access to knowledge beyond the physical surroundings. 9/
For a practical example of a learning activity involving practitioners, watch this short video where I explain "Expert in residence", an asynchronous activity I've been using successfully in my EU policy-making courses @IES_Brussels. end/
