Comment by kebsup
19 days ago
I've finished my Bc. in computer science before AI, but even then, sitting through a 1.5h long lecture and reading a textbook was just not the way to learn.
a) better quality lectures were available online - it's much easier to learn linear algebra from top MIT Professor than a random one at my university
b) the text books were absolutely terrible compared to what was available online
I can understand that 20 years ago people were captivated with the physical lectures because it was the only way. Today however, professors are competing with 3blue1brown, Khan academy, pre recorded lectures from top universities and many more great resources. Standing in front of a blackboard slowly going through an unintuitive math proof is just not going to cut it and people will get bored.
I doubt many were “captivated” by large in-person lectures. But you didn’t really have options.
In my experience in-person lectures have been a terrible way to actually learn (compared to recorded ones or other ways of learning):
1. Lectures are often not held in front of just a handful of students, but hundreds, where frequent interaction and questioning between student and lecturer becomes practically impossible, awkward and socially intimidating. Sitting between many other students is incredibly distracting, and I've more than once seen students bring binoculars to class, because they sat so far away from the blackboard!
2. Only a small fraction of lecturers are actually good at teaching, of being engaged and engaging, clear and concise, understandable and empathetic. Not to mention nice handwriting or powerpoint style. Being "forced" to listen to someone whose style of teaching you don't understand or don't vibe with sucks.
3. If you lose the thread in a deep in-person lecture, you might as well just leave. If you watch a recorded one, you can rewind as often as you want until you understand it.
4. Lecture hall rooms are often not the beautiful, comfortable, nice places you love to go to that they ought to be (but dilapidated, broken, uncomfortable, tight, stuffy and dirty).
In these contexts, sitting in a lecture hall becomes more hell than heaven. And professors shouldn't expect their students to find their passion while having to endure this.
>1. Lectures are often not held in front of just a handful of students, but hundreds, where frequent interaction and questioning between student and lecturer becomes practically impossible, awkward and socially intimidating. Sitting between many other students is incredibly distracting, and I've more than once seen students bring binoculars to class, because they sat so far away from the blackboard!
Where on earth did you go to school?
Any big school over 10k students
Not all learning is about being captivated. You have to eat your vegetables
Vegetables can taste good if you cook them properly. Healthy food doesn't have to taste bad, and lectures don't have to be boring either