So, "RM" sends an interesting piece that "an overwhelming 82 percent of students said they would prefer courses that offer online lectures over traditional classes that do not include an online lecture component."
It is neat that my gut instinct is validated by the results of this survey. "When asked why they prefer courses that offer streaming lectures online, most students cited making up for missed classes, convenience, improving retention of materials covered, improving test scores, and help with material review prior to class."
I suppose my only warning bell here comes from the fact that "The research, it should be noted, was sponsored by Sonic Foundry, a developer of streaming media technologies." Perhaps it is because of what my graduate school professor, Martin Krieger, drilled into my head--to always watch out for who funded the research, or which think-tank sponsored the distribution of the study, .....
In any case, even if turns out the data exaggerated the trends, I am willing to believe that there is a significant percentage of learners who would like to have access to the lecture, online and when the lecturer is usually asleep. I.e., in the regular classroom the lecturer is awake and the students are asleep, which means that it is only a matter of shifting the time curve a tad with lecture capture. No? :-)
BTW, the lead researcher in this was a Professor Raj Veeramani. Guess what? Either he is from Tamil Nadu--the state in India where I am from--or his parents or grandparents came from there. It is a distinctly Tamil name. I tell you, we Indian-Americans are now beginning to show up everywhere. Need proof? Read this.
2 comments:
Sriram:
Keep the material coming. It is enlightening. :-)
Is that not a bit circular, for the "proof" to point back to an article written by you?
But what does come to mind -- if too many people are missing classes and then catching up at home, do we at some point lose the critical mass that makes FTF teaching fun?
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