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Monday, October 18, 2010

Students say video lectures allow for more napping?

Liz Exo’s Blog Post:

This article describes the ins and outs of video lectures. InterCall did a survey on college students and in their results, over half said they “learn more effectively and improve their grades” when lectures are posted online. This seems to make sense; if students can review the material online again, they can better absorb the information. However, the online lectures have turned into an excuse for skipping class altogether. InterCall also reported that a majority of the students said they would only go to class that day if there was an exam scheduled or if they had to borrow notes from a classmate. This means that online lectures are allowing for students to be lazy by doing a minimal amount of work for their classes.
What really disturbs me about this trend is its implications for the future; if college students would rather take a nap to skip class, how are they going to fare in the real world when they have real jobs? I think this shows the immaturity of a lot of college students.
So, although I do think there are many advantages to the online lectures, I think we need to find a way to keep students in class and only using video lectures as a supplement to their classroom participation.

2 comments:

Annie Tillmann said...

I feel the same way about video lectures only being used as a supplement to aid in reviewing a lecture that one actually attended. Maybe there could be some sort of password protection for lectures, that the professor could say in class so only students present could access it.

Then again, if a student does attend class, but doesn't pay attention, what's the point? If the lecture is too long for example, it would be more beneficial for them to be able to watch and pause a video lecture then to sit through a whole lecture if they're not getting anything out of it while it's going on. It's kind of backwards way of thinking about it, but it's better that they watch the lecture on their own time then not watch it at all. If the absence in actual class begins to be too much, maybe more assessments could be given in class as well in order to encourage students to attend.

Don't get me wrong, I do agree that reflects a lot upon a student's character whether they choose to attend class or not. In a perfect world it wouldn't cross students minds not to attend class if they're well, but that's just not the case.

I'd also be curious to know whether the use of video lectures and the absence in class is only reflecting data from larger universities. Just from what I've hear from friends, it's not uncommon for students that are in large lectures to not attend class.

eschmidt said...

I agree with both Liz and Annie. Posting lectures online can be an invaluable resource to students when it is time to start studying for exams. Being able to hear every word and detail that was spoken in class can be extremely helpful when trying to learn large quantities of information.
On the other hand, if students are skipping class because they know that the lectures will be posted on line they are not taking full advantage of their education. Listening to a lecture simply does not provide the opportunity to ask questions.
If anything, we need to find ways to incorporate this technology without promoting laziness and skipping class.