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Podcasts of University Lectures?
theslashdot asks: "I'm working at a major university in the US, and have been charged with posting pod-casts of class lectures on the internet. The problem is whether or not posting the videos would allow students to skip class and just download the lecture, instead. I guess the problem is trying to strike the right balance between allowing good students to take advantage of this resource, but discourage bad students from staying at home all the time and watching all the lectures right before the exam. So what methods can be used to provide these pod-casts for the students who actually attended class? In terms of when the lecture should be posted, what would be a good time-frame? Immediately after the class? 24 hours? One week? One class behind schedule?"
"In terms of trying to prevent this, here are some possible solutions I've come up with:
- Post the lecture with authentication based on the class list for those enrolled in the course, although this would not really discourage truancy.
- Post the lecture with authentication based on those who attended the class (student cards would have to be barcode-scanned at the beginning of class); this would prevent those who missed the class from downloading the lecture, but presumably they could receive a copy from a student who did attend the class. Additionally it would create a major hassle for all students to ensure that their attendance is registered.
- Post the lecture with a single password that the professor distributes to the class during the lecture. This would discourage students from missing the lecture, but likely those students missing class could simply obtain the password from another student who did attend the class."
- Post the lecture with authentication based on the class list for those enrolled in the course, although this would not really discourage truancy.
- Post the lecture with authentication based on those who attended the class (student cards would have to be barcode-scanned at the beginning of class); this would prevent those who missed the class from downloading the lecture, but presumably they could receive a copy from a student who did attend the class. Additionally it would create a major hassle for all students to ensure that their attendance is registered.
- Post the lecture with a single password that the professor distributes to the class during the lecture. This would discourage students from missing the lecture, but likely those students missing class could simply obtain the password from another student who did attend the class."
A-fucking-men.
This would fix one of my biggest annoyances with my university: professors teaching Gen Ed-required classes that no-one really wants to be in (nor cares about in the least) at 8:00AM and 9:00AM *only*, every semester. These are truly lecture classes, where you would get *exactly* the same experience from watching the video, except that you could sleep in that extra hour or two.
As you can tell, I don't have too many gripes about my university, for something like that to even be an issue. Still, it'd be cool to have a solution.
There have been SO many classes where I could have skipped through the lecture videos, pausing every 5 minutes or so to make sure that the topic hasn't changed, then just done 30 minutes of web research on the topic, and been fine. Repeat for every exam, and only go to class for the exams. GREAT.
I'm thinking especially of "Intro to Psychology" and "World Religions", the former of which told me NOTHING that I hadn't learned by the end of high school (and much of it I'd learned in junior high science classes... but yet, most people in my class did poorly on the tests... WTF?) and the latter of which could be completely replaced with ~2 hours of reading Wikipedia.
Obviously, it'd be better if they'd either make the classes worthwhile (probably draw complains from people who don't care about the class because it's not part of their major, but damn, if you're paying for it it might as well teach you something) or not require that we take the classes at all, but video lectures online would be a decent alternative.
As a univeristy lecturer, I can say that the response of the class affects the nature of the lecture. you look for signals to see if students 'get it' and you hone your presentation to that.
Allowing the student to observe the lecture without being observed reduces the quality of teaching and the quality of the leanring experience.
Attendance should be compulsory as it improve the quality.
A great many colleges and universities do allow general public access to their lectures. These mostly depend on the professor, as in the case of Professor Gerald Cizaldo at the College of St. Scholastica. His postcasts, from a wide variety of biology and physiology courses are available through his website (or this xml page).
Many more can be found at http://directory.edufeeds.com/
Disclaimer: While I don't attend classes at CSS (great acronym, eh?), I did work there this summer as part of an internship.
In this case, a podcast would be better. At least the student would have the chance to rewind parts of the lecture the student did not understand and review them until understood.
All data is speech. All speech is Free.
The reason you want people come to class is that good (even decent) professors react to their audience. While it's not practical in a 200 person class to answer every question during lecture, I (in my calculus teaching) am constantly monitoring the faces of those who are paying any attention at all. Do I need to give another example, or can I skip through this topic quickly and spend more time on the next?
Some could make the argument, I suppose, that since calculus doesn't change much, there should be some Platonic "Ideal Lecture" out there, and once that has been recorded, no lecture need ever be given again. However, the fact is that although calculus doesn't change, students do. The mathematical knowledge of entering students changes from quarter to quarter (the students who are "on track" typically need less review of the previous course's material), from year to year, and quite noticably from decade to decade.
Most professors do react to students, although it never occurs to them to let the students know that. This is a fundamental reason for having a human teacher as opposed to just books. Students who consistently do not attend class, or who attend without paying attention, are impairing the ability of the professor to do exactly this, and the class as a whole suffers.
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Think! It ain't illegal yet!
George Clinton
Think! It ain't illegal yet!
George Clinton