Professor Jetson, I Presume?
Canada's The Globe and Mail newspaper reports that increasingly more universities and colleges in the province of Ontario, as well as the rest of Canada, are offering electronic lecture options for students. Depending on the school and the program, these options include a live satellite link on a large screen, cable TV programming, and now even podcasts and downloadable video files of the lectures.
Back in the early 1990s, when I was attempting to get my Master's degree, the school I was at had just started experimenting with live satellite feeds on a large screen, in a specially-designed, brand spanking new lecture hall. The had an agreement with Waterloo and other universities to simulcast certain computer and science lectures. Podcasting wasn't even an option, as the Internet hadn't even gone public at the time.
My general feeling was that I'd rather sit in a lecture with a real, live professor, whom I can asking questions of, and even interact with more comfortably after the lecture. I often found that the questions I asked after the lecture, while only taking 2-5 minutes of the professor's time, taught me far more than answers given during the lecture. What's more, for undisciplined people like myself, if I had the option of downloading a lecture the next day, I'd probably end up the dropping the course because I'd fall behind from procrastination. (At least in the courses that I was taking against my will. I always prefer studying on my own for subjects I like.)
This latter problem has yet to manifest significantly at the schools offering podcasts and downloadable videos of lectures, but some universities are reporting increasing levels of dropped courses for those students registered for the "video" options of courses. There is, however, an interesting generational e-gap appearing, where the parents of students registered in such programs are expressing their doubts over the benefits of consuming downloaded lectures a few days later over sitting in class during the actual lecture.
I think that the benefits of podcast professors really depends on the person and the course. For example, in 1999 and 2000, I signed up for distance education in two well-known American programs. (I'm Canadian.) One was for photography, the other for composing soundtracks for commercial use. Neither had an electronic version of lectures, although some of the composing course's study materials were on CD.
Ultimately, due to unfortunate circumstances, I ended up wasting several thousand dollars on both courses and either didn't get all my study materials or couldn't get a representative to return my angry emails. But I'm thinking that had both courses had an online (Internet) component which involved me from the beginning, I probably would not have lost interest.
So what's the difference here compared to a university course? Maybe it's just a matter of perception, but with the university course, there's a degree (and a career) on the line. Whereas the photography and composing courses were a supplement to taking my own computer science career towards multimedia. I didn't feel as much pressure, and I could thus study at my own pace.
Technorati Tags: tech watch, video courses, electronic learning, podcast professors, distance education
Back in the early 1990s, when I was attempting to get my Master's degree, the school I was at had just started experimenting with live satellite feeds on a large screen, in a specially-designed, brand spanking new lecture hall. The had an agreement with Waterloo and other universities to simulcast certain computer and science lectures. Podcasting wasn't even an option, as the Internet hadn't even gone public at the time.
My general feeling was that I'd rather sit in a lecture with a real, live professor, whom I can asking questions of, and even interact with more comfortably after the lecture. I often found that the questions I asked after the lecture, while only taking 2-5 minutes of the professor's time, taught me far more than answers given during the lecture. What's more, for undisciplined people like myself, if I had the option of downloading a lecture the next day, I'd probably end up the dropping the course because I'd fall behind from procrastination. (At least in the courses that I was taking against my will. I always prefer studying on my own for subjects I like.)
This latter problem has yet to manifest significantly at the schools offering podcasts and downloadable videos of lectures, but some universities are reporting increasing levels of dropped courses for those students registered for the "video" options of courses. There is, however, an interesting generational e-gap appearing, where the parents of students registered in such programs are expressing their doubts over the benefits of consuming downloaded lectures a few days later over sitting in class during the actual lecture.
I think that the benefits of podcast professors really depends on the person and the course. For example, in 1999 and 2000, I signed up for distance education in two well-known American programs. (I'm Canadian.) One was for photography, the other for composing soundtracks for commercial use. Neither had an electronic version of lectures, although some of the composing course's study materials were on CD.
Ultimately, due to unfortunate circumstances, I ended up wasting several thousand dollars on both courses and either didn't get all my study materials or couldn't get a representative to return my angry emails. But I'm thinking that had both courses had an online (Internet) component which involved me from the beginning, I probably would not have lost interest.
So what's the difference here compared to a university course? Maybe it's just a matter of perception, but with the university course, there's a degree (and a career) on the line. Whereas the photography and composing courses were a supplement to taking my own computer science career towards multimedia. I didn't feel as much pressure, and I could thus study at my own pace.
Technorati Tags: tech watch, video courses, electronic learning, podcast professors, distance education
