Class lectures. I like giving them, but every year I know students don’t learn the material very well.
All professors know this, hundreds of years of history have shown this, and “[a] huge body of evidence2 suggests that [other] approaches are much more effective than lecture-and-drill-based techniques” (Waldrop, 2013, Nature).
I do not think I have a monopoly on hidden, specific knowledge that only by going to my class will you be able to learn it. I do not think I am the best lecturer in the world and I absolutely believe there are other people out there that can lecture better than I can. Knowledge is getting more and more accessible and cheaper and cheaper. With all of the world’s information at our fingertips in the form of online articles, books, audio, video, and forums, students now have the option of learning anything they want, very easily. So what are they paying money for, for their college education? Let’s look 20 years into the future where all lectures on all topics are freely available, delivered by the best orators, in high definition video and audio, along with the rest of the online resources available to look up any information; what’s the point of going to class? Of paying thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars for education? Here’s what I think students should be paying for:
1. The college experience (i.e., extending their education and broadening their horizons).
2. To lead a more examined life (i.e., learning how to think critically).
3. Access to their like-minded peers.
4. Access to professors.
5. Access to research.
6. The diploma.
The individual student knows best what type of learning they prefer for specific subjects. Visual? Hands-On? Auditory? Books? Nowadays we can accommodate almost anything, so that you don't “drop 150 grand on a … education you coulda gotten for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library!”
Again, I believe students should be paying for access to their peers and their professors. Certainly, upper-level discussion classes are awesome, but for broad lectures with more than 20 students? The progression of technology to enhance education seems to be: books -> audio -> video -> artificial intelligence. That is why I now always upload videos of all of my lectures with the lecture slides freely available beforehand for my students. Class time can then be used for group discussions of the material that the students have (hopefully) already prepared for. Prefer reading? Read the recommended readings in the handouts. Prefer audio or visual? Watch or listen to the videos. (Please watch my videos at 2X speed, I'm painfully too slow at 1X speed...) Prefer discussions? Come to class and discover the material with peers, and interact with me. Now students can really ask themselves “What am I paying for?”, and they can take more control over their education. In 20 years from now, all classes and lectures will be available, guaranteed. So why would anyone ever take my class? Why would anyone ever take any class? Why would anyone ever pay any money for education?
There should never be a monopoly on knowledge (shout out to GeneDig!!); what you should pay money for are things pure knowledge can’t provide.
