[opendtv] Re: Connected classrooms
- From: "McDonald, J Douglas" <jdmcdona@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 9 Mar 2013 00:14:58 +0000
________________________________
My school, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in my Chemistry
department,
tried a system involving videotaped lectures by professors, played back to
small classes
with TAs present to answer questions. This was for freshman classes for
nonmajors. It lasted more than two decades. But now its gone.
It was finally decided that just have TAs teach the classes worked better for
teaching non-majors, who are generally not well prepared. The students were not
picking up the nuances provided in lectures by top professors. Thoughts have
been given to multiple classrooms with one professor and
TV connections, but nobody likes the idea so it can't even be tried.
Apparently tests here have shown that the majors do pick up
things better hearing real professors. In any case, for them its a moot
question: you can't get the best students to come to a school
unless you have real professors teaching them.
All this web stuff is far better than nothing, but will never be high-end. I've
learned
theoretical particle physics from books and the web, but I of course had a big
head start, since I taught the "next step down" for decades. But I still don't
get
all the nitty gritty details. Even a few face to face talks with the
appropriate physics
professors have not alwars answered my questions: not having heard their
lectures to
get "their way" of telling things, they often can't understand my questions. One
needs the context of talking to other students all the time.
Doug McDonald
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