I think part of the issue is how we learn differently. For some students the lecture is important, for others it’s a time where your mind wanders and then you’re sort of “left behind” because you didn’t pay attention. So it’s likely always going to be a complicated mix of things where you can’t really get it right for every student if you sort of follow traditional learning.
I’m an external examiner for CS students as a side gig. Now that I’ve been one for 8 years, it’s a relatively easy task for me because I’ve been through their curriculum twice every year. I remember the first time, however, and how I subsequently decided I’d better refresh my own… I’m not sure if learning is the right word here, but my own “what I had been taught in CS”. I did so with edx.orc where I took a few Harvard and MIT courses on CS. What struck me about those courses was just how good the video lectures were for me. I have ADHD and bipolar type 2, and I can honestly say I didn’t really do well with CS lectures when I attended university. But these video lectures were so good, that it honestly taught me the first year of introduction and parts of the later courses in a couple of weeks. Sure… I had the foundation with me, but it also made me wonder if you couldn’t just use these lectures everywhere English speaking. Now, I don’t mean to disrespect my own professors but they were terrible at lecturing by comparison. Which isn’t too weird I guess, I imagine it’s natural for some of the top universities in the world to have some of the best lecturers. In this modern age, we can frankly share these awesome video lectures. Lectures you can pause, rewind a bit, rewatch and so on. All the things I would’ve personally benefited from immensely. Then you could have your local professors do the active learning and so on.
> it also made me wonder if you couldn’t just use these lectures everywhere English speaking
Having educators is essential for the health of any society. Educators who constantly revise the material, learn it themselves, and teach it to others. Who themselves become informal or formal teachers. This is one of the ways societies deal with change. The educational requirements change with time and place. The teachers themselves are learning all the time. Some are temporarily bad. Some are permanently bad because of bad job incentives or bad evaluation systems.
Replace all this with centrally produced lectures and your society will seriously deteriorate because of the gaps between what needs to be taught at different places and times and what is taught at those places and times will widen considerably.
Please understand that societies are intricate trees and vines, not machines.
> Having educators is essential for the health of any society. Educators who constantly revise the material, learn it themselves, and teach it to others
I’m not sure a lot of our educators really fall into the latter category. But even if you’re not corporation for the lecture part, at the very least our own educators could do video lectures and make those available. Maybe that might even make some of them improve their teaching styles. When they get to see themselves teach.
Many professors are indeed bad. The reasons for this are almost entirely incentive structures in academia. How universities get their money, what professors are hired for, what they get salary increments for, etc.
Fix those incentives and you won't have to do any of the things you suggest [1]. Good teachers want to teach well, the same way good musicians is always itching to play good music.
[1] Though more but not all lectures should be recorded.
I’m an external examiner for CS students as a side gig. Now that I’ve been one for 8 years, it’s a relatively easy task for me because I’ve been through their curriculum twice every year. I remember the first time, however, and how I subsequently decided I’d better refresh my own… I’m not sure if learning is the right word here, but my own “what I had been taught in CS”. I did so with edx.orc where I took a few Harvard and MIT courses on CS. What struck me about those courses was just how good the video lectures were for me. I have ADHD and bipolar type 2, and I can honestly say I didn’t really do well with CS lectures when I attended university. But these video lectures were so good, that it honestly taught me the first year of introduction and parts of the later courses in a couple of weeks. Sure… I had the foundation with me, but it also made me wonder if you couldn’t just use these lectures everywhere English speaking. Now, I don’t mean to disrespect my own professors but they were terrible at lecturing by comparison. Which isn’t too weird I guess, I imagine it’s natural for some of the top universities in the world to have some of the best lecturers. In this modern age, we can frankly share these awesome video lectures. Lectures you can pause, rewind a bit, rewatch and so on. All the things I would’ve personally benefited from immensely. Then you could have your local professors do the active learning and so on.
I know it’s not likely to happen, but it should.