As much as possible, they use hands-on experiences of course content, demonstrations, models, handouts with a lecture, discovery methods, and perhaps best guided practice which models a process and then gets students to practice it with feedback from the instructor and peers. Posting an agenda for the day on a classroom board or course website can set the stage and help students get organized. Alternatively, copying the day's outline to all students can mitigate the divided attention problem that arises when students try to listen and to take notes at the same time. Giving announced quizzes, particularly after a group review, can motivate more studying. For writing on task, a journal assignment can get students to elaborate, perhaps, as can having peers read a rough draft and ask questions, give praise, and seek clarifications.
Practical examples help, of course.
In general, some combination of brow-beating and bribery may be needed to get the more reluctant students to put in enough time on relevant course tasks so that as many students as possible can meet course standards. Extra-credit tasks and chapter review sessions also foster additional student learning and give more students access to the high grades for the course. In general, the students were intelligent in their critiques of the course and honest about what they did and didn't do and why. The student who was taking a full load of classes and working 50 hours or more on a night shift resolved to continue looking for other employment but also certainly to take fewer courses in subsequent semesters. Starting the course by alerting students to the course skills that will serve them well in later courses, after they transfer, or on the job is a necessary mercy.