The Handout Students expect and deserve a paper record at the outset that captures all that you will say and show. You may post it on the web for later browsing, but it is the paper on which notes are taken and thoughts stored. The handout contains the transparencies and graphics that you plan to display, and then some. In researching corporations, I am frequently awed by how many executives personally know the five hundred top people in the firm. Though our student encounters are far briefer, learning the names and mastering their identities early in the term is absolutely critical, even if their numbers are daunting.
Face cards help.
You can create these from the class lists with pictures that are now available to most instructors on the web. Add student photographs, and you are set for cold calling in the classroom and warm encounters outside it. During the present semester, I face a combined 326 students in four courses, and by mid-term I've managed to master most of the names, especially if I review the face cards early on every teaching day. But my storage system is fragile, and my biggest fear now is that I hit a killer pothole on driving to campus and scores of names are knocked free. The Presentation Stage actors and opera singers face their audience, and lighting crews ensure they can be seen.