tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/lectures-9122/articlesLectures – The Conversation2021-11-10T02:12:54Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1703782021-11-10T02:12:54Z2021-11-10T02:12:54ZWhy Australian uni students have a right to know class sizes before they sign up<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430952/original/file-20211109-23-yssrle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=561%2C0%2C2561%2C1697&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Proliferating metrics and rankings in recent decades have, for better or worse, reshaped the priorities of universities around the world. Despite this “<a href="https://responsiblemetrics.org/the-metric-tide/">metric tide</a>”, Australian universities provide little reliable, publicly available data on their class sizes. To this day, there is no mechanism for reporting how many students are allocated to the various types of classes at universities in Australia.</p>
<p>The result is a clear lack of systematic evidence on how universities organise their teaching in terms of class sizes. We also don’t know for sure how this may have changed over the years. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-to-look-for-when-choosing-a-university-as-the-digital-competition-grows-162766">What to look for when choosing a university as the digital competition grows</a>
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<h2>3 reasons we need to know about class sizes</h2>
<p>From a policy perspective, having reliable, publicly available data on Australian universities’ class sizes matters for a number of reasons. </p>
<p>First, class size metrics would provide prospective students with more meaningful information about a key aspect of their future learning experience. </p>
<p>University rankings such as the <a href="https://www.shanghairanking.com/">Academic Ranking of World Universities</a> are mostly geared towards research performance. They provide little guidance on how universities value and approach their teaching.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-statistics/resources/2019-staff-appendix-2-student-staff-ratios">Student-staff ratios</a> are part of <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best-universities/top-universities-best-student-staff-ratio-2021">some rankings at least</a>, but this information is similarly limited. These ratios do not provide accurate information on the actual sizes of the various classes students attend. They also generally <a href="https://www.gooduniversitiesguide.com.au/university-ratings-rankings/2022/undergraduate/student:teacher-ratio">do not distinguish between different fields of study</a>. </p>
<p>All this means student-staff ratios are a limited source of information. </p>
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<p>Second, class sizes could have impacts on students’ learning outcomes and levels of satisfaction. </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775707000271">studies</a> suggest student outcomes get worse as classes at universities get larger. Other <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0013189X20933836">studies paint a more complex picture</a>. These suggest the the effect of increasing class size on students’ achievement differs substantially between academic disciplines. It also depends on the student demographics. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/think-our-unis-are-all-much-the-same-look-more-closely-and-you-will-find-diversity-164319">Think our unis are all much the same? Look more closely and you will find diversity</a>
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<p>The picture of the relationship between class sizes and student satisfaction remains <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775711000641">similarly inconclusive</a>. </p>
<p>It is ultimately undeniable, however, that smaller classes provide students with better access to and more interaction with their lecturer or tutor. This is particularly important for tutorial classes, which are meant to <a href="https://www.student.unsw.edu.au/tutorials">enable high levels of interaction</a>. It is reasonable to assume smaller tutorial classes make it easier to provide students with more detailed and targeted feedback. </p>
<p>Third, publishing reliable information on class sizes would eventually lead to better understanding of trends and their potential impacts on students’ learning experiences. </p>
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<p>Ample anecdotal evidence suggests Australian universities’ class sizes have increased dramatically over recent decades. For example, tutorial class sizes of more than 35 students are not uncommon these days. Only a decade ago an upper limit of 20 students appears to have been the norm. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, these numbers are a long way from what tutorial classes looked like before mass higher education. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1475-5890.2017.12149">A 2017 study</a> has shown UK universities in the 1960s, for example, had tutorial classes of only about four students on average. The picture at Australian universities would probably not have been too different given the similarities of these two higher education systems. </p>
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<h2>How could class sizes be reported?</h2>
<p>To make university class-size data usable for prospective students and other stakeholders, consistent reporting standards would need to be agreed. Any published class-size metrics should clearly distinguish different modes of delivery, such as online or face-to-face, and different levels of education, such as undergraduate or postgraduate. </p>
<p>Metrics should also reflect the variety of sessions students typically attend. These include lectures, seminars, tutorials or lab classes. Information on class sizes is much more meaningful for group-based and highly interactive teaching activities such as tutorials than for less interactive activities such as lectures. </p>
<p>Logistically, collating class-size metrics should not be too onerous for universities. The information already exists in their learning management or business intelligence systems. The public reporting of data on class sizes could use existing mechanisms such as the annual Quality Indicators for Leaning and Teaching (<a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/">QILT</a>).</p>
<p>Overall, from a higher education policy perspective, publishing relevant class-size metrics would greatly enhance the transparency of Australian universities’ teaching offerings. It would provide students with meaningful information about what to expect at the university of their choice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Woelert does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>You’d think class sizes would be an important consideration for students when choosing a university, but universities don’t make that information public. They should.Peter Woelert, Senior Lecturer, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1630022021-07-13T20:11:10Z2021-07-13T20:11:10ZDigital learning is real-world learning. That’s why blended on-campus and online study is best<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410915/original/file-20210712-25-r3j9lg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C47%2C7951%2C5249&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/video-call-group-business-people-meeting-1752871988">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Social distancing and lockdowns have disrupted university study for the past 18 months. Students are understandably stressed as shown by a dramatic drop in student satisfaction across Australia reported in the annual <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/docs/default-source/ses/ses-2020/2020-ses-national-report.pdf">Student Experience Survey</a>. Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge has drawn attention to this in <a href="https://www.alantudge.com.au/latest-news/our-priorities-for-strengthening-australias-universities/">calling</a> for a “return” to on-campus study. </p>
<p>But the world is increasingly digital. Old notions of lecture halls will not help graduates to thrive in their careers. We need university study that supports students to succeed by preparing them for a digital future.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-killed-the-on-campus-lecture-but-will-unis-raise-it-from-the-dead-152971">COVID killed the on-campus lecture, but will unis raise it from the dead?</a>
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<p>Many studies have reported that work will become more <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2020/10/20/is-a-blended-office-model-the-future-of-work/?sh=4902ba2a1002">blended</a>, with less time spent in the office as working from home increases. The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/the-five-day-office-week-is-dead-long-live-the-hybrid-model-says-productivity-boss-20210706-p587d4.html">accelerated this trend</a>. </p>
<p>Diverse industries have found they can move online effectively, making it an authentic workplace. Telehealth has become the default option for consulting your GP, while the first place to find a service or product is an online search engine. Professionals need to translate their skills into any environment – physical or virtual – and have confidence to use new spaces and formats.</p>
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<img alt="Doctor consults with patient in a telehealth appointment" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410914/original/file-20210712-18-1s8yqru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410914/original/file-20210712-18-1s8yqru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410914/original/file-20210712-18-1s8yqru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410914/original/file-20210712-18-1s8yqru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410914/original/file-20210712-18-1s8yqru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410914/original/file-20210712-18-1s8yqru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410914/original/file-20210712-18-1s8yqru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Professionals in the real world, including doctors, must now be prepared to work in a blended environment of online and physical interactions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/telemedicine-concept-doctor-pharmacist-headset-during-1683782122">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>What about the impacts on learning?</h2>
<p>Learning is created through interactions – with teachers, peers and information. Decades of research show learners learn best when learning is <a href="https://library.educause.edu/resources/2017/9/7-things-you-should-know-about-research-on-active-learning-classrooms">active</a>, <a href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:155197747">engaging, relevant</a>
and <a href="https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/designing-learning-and-assessment-in-a-digital-age/approaches-to-learning-design">intentionally designed</a>. Those principles are true wherever the learning happens: on campus, online or in the workplace. </p>
<p>The real question is how to balance the best of online with the best of on-campus and workplace delivery.</p>
<p>Universities are already pursuing this path. University study has been blended for more than two decades as study resources, activities and assessments were moved to subject and course websites in <a href="http://www.educause.edu/ecar/research-publications/foundations-for-a-next-generation-digital-learning-environment-faculty-students-and-the-lms/ngdle-the-wave-of-the-future">virtual learning environments</a>. </p>
<p>At first, the aim was to organise learning for access anywhere and anytime. Today, digital learning environments have become far more sophisticated. They now also offer tools for group learning, projects and creativity.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-unis-eye-more-instagram-worthy-campus-experiences-they-shouldnt-treat-online-teaching-as-a-cheap-and-easy-option-156585">As unis eye more ‘Instagram-worthy’ campus experiences, they shouldn't treat online teaching as a cheap and easy option</a>
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<h2>‘Emergency remote teaching’ is not the ideal</h2>
<p>Online learning during the pandemic was often a compromise. Good learning design takes time as teachers create curriculum, resources and assessment to suit their learners and the discipline. In March 2020, like most Australian universities, academics at my institution, Deakin University, had one week to rebuild our courses to allow our 41,000 on-campus students to keep studying. Of course, many of the activities we had planned became impossible and online substitutes were quickly developed over following weeks. </p>
<p>This global rapid shift was dubbed “<a href="https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/3/the-difference-between-emergency-remote-teaching-and-online-learning">emergency remote teaching</a>” by US professor <a href="https://about.me/hodges.chuck">Charles Hodges</a> and colleagues. They warned we should be careful not to judge online learning by this experience.</p>
<p>Good online learning <a href="https://coronavirus.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2020/08/28/helping-online-communities-of-learners-flourish/">creates a sense of community</a>. It engages students with rich resources and activities. It helps learners to find study buddies and places for their independent work. </p>
<p>However, engagement looks different online. Instead of meeting in a café, students chat online to share ideas and solve problems as they do in their daily lives. Social learning can happen on campus or online.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-world-of-digital-bystanders-the-challenge-is-for-all-of-us-to-design-engaging-online-education-147195">In a world of digital bystanders the challenge is for all of us to design engaging online education</a>
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<h2>Some activities work best online, others in person</h2>
<p>Some activities should always be online. For a start, contemporary information is digital. Although we enjoy their physical spaces, university libraries are now essentially digital with the vast majority of books, journals and images provided and used online. Data sets, too, are largely digital and analysed with digital tools ranging from spreadsheets to sophisticated software. </p>
<p>Digital learning is great for exploration. The world is at your fingertips, and computers never get tired of practising foundation skills with you.</p>
<p>Other activities need to be in physical space. Using specialist equipment or experiencing a workplace often means being in a purpose-built space. Being in the field develops observation skills and provides more sensory inputs to consider. Collaborating with peers in the same room develops human interaction skills using different social cues from the ones we have online. </p>
<p>Online work can augment these activities with focused preparation and follow-up.</p>
<h2>Build on the best of recent experiments</h2>
<p>The emergency remote teaching response has pushed teaching teams to consider alternative ways to learn. They have trialled and refined new online activities. Many teachers report they will keep at least some of these. </p>
<p>Professor <a href="http://ericmazur.com/about.php">Eric Mazur</a> at Harvard is famous for his use of peer instruction to make classes active and social. He <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/teaching/2021-05-27">reports</a> his online model developed during 2020 has improved learning and support so convincingly that he intends to continue with that format. Breaking assumptions about what works best has opened the door to a better understanding of online teaching.</p>
<p>Students in all education sectors have struggled with emergency remote teaching and its backdrop of disrupted life. They have reported difficulties with <a href="https://www.teqsa.gov.au/sites/default/files/student-experience-of-online-learning-in-australian-he-during-covid-19.pdf?v=1606953179">online provision</a>, lack of motivation, loneliness and decreased <a href="https://theconversation.com/stressed-out-dropping-out-covid-has-taken-its-toll-on-uni-students-152004">mental well-being</a>. </p>
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<img alt="young male university student stares at laptop screen" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410913/original/file-20210712-26-vypoxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410913/original/file-20210712-26-vypoxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410913/original/file-20210712-26-vypoxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410913/original/file-20210712-26-vypoxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410913/original/file-20210712-26-vypoxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410913/original/file-20210712-26-vypoxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410913/original/file-20210712-26-vypoxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Universities must work to counter the negative impacts on students of emergency remote teaching by refining their online learning offerings.</span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stressed-out-dropping-out-covid-has-taken-its-toll-on-uni-students-152004">Stressed out, dropping out: COVID has taken its toll on uni students</a>
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<p>But universities are refining their courses. When students experience well-designed online learning over time, they build familiarity and confidence. We asked campus-enrolled students at Deakin about their experience of study during the pandemic with regular “pulse-check” surveys. Their feedback shows their confidence in online study and assessment has increased strongly over the past 18 months as they built skills and familiarity. </p>
<p>As we move to more sustainable models for today’s learners, universities are rethinking learning activities. Sitting and listening to the sage on the stage is being <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-killed-the-on-campus-lecture-but-will-unis-raise-it-from-the-dead-152971">replaced</a> by active learning using real-world information and scenarios. </p>
<p>We need to invest in intentional learning design that combines the best of online and on-campus delivery. This will show students they can learn, thrive and build the skills they need however they study.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163002/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Universities can best prepare students by teaching them in ways that reflect the realities of how professionals and the wider community now operate.Elizabeth Johnson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1582172021-05-20T19:52:44Z2021-05-20T19:52:44ZGood riddance to boring lectures? Technology isn’t the answer – understanding good teaching is<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401467/original/file-20210519-23-e9scot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C4315%2C2866&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bored-male-student-listens-lecture-university-1077839498">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With some universities returning to face-to-face teaching this year, ANU Vice Chancellor Brian Schmidt <a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/lets-it-hear-for-live-and-in-person-lecturing/">noted</a> that, while his university was one of them, lectures would be much less common and not a “crutch for poor pedagogy”. Since then many have <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=8996">discussed the issue of lectures</a>, including the deputy vice chancellor of University of Technology Sydney and the director of the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education in Western Australia, with ideas ranging from <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=8377">embracing the lecture to removing it entirely</a>.</p>
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<p>Condemnation of lectures is <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2014/may/15/ten-reasons-we-should-ditch-university-lectures">nothing new</a>. However, the sudden, massive shift to reliance on technology due to COVID has brought increasing calls for ending the venerable lecture. Lectures will, we are told, be replaced by superior, <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-killed-the-on-campus-lecture-but-will-unis-raise-it-from-the-dead-152971">technology-enhanced substitutes</a>. </p>
<p>Underlying these messages are two tacit assumptions: that lectures make for bad teaching and that using technology improves it. But are these reliable assumptions? Rather than simply rejecting lectures and embracing technology, perhaps we should be looking more closely into both, and their relationship to each other.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-killed-the-on-campus-lecture-but-will-unis-raise-it-from-the-dead-152971">COVID killed the on-campus lecture, but will unis raise it from the dead?</a>
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<h2>Our love-hate relationship with lectures</h2>
<p>Discussions about getting rid of lectures follow predictable patterns. The most common complaints centre on lectures as <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/05/lectures-arent-just-boring-theyre-ineffective-too-study-finds">didactic, learner-passive and boring</a>. Accompanying these critiques is the oft-cited rule that students’ attention span has a limit of <a href="https://resilienteducator.com/classroom-resources/short-attention-span-class-structure/">10-18 minutes</a>. </p>
<p>While there is <a href="https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/advan.00109.2016">little to no evidence for this claim</a>, we can all identify with struggling to remain awake as we are droned at from a lectern. But most of us can also recall times we were spellbound by a lecture. Anyone who has attended a great TED Talk or even watched one on YouTube knows what it’s like to be captivated for that <a href="https://www.ted.com/participate/organize-a-local-tedx-event/tedx-organizer-guide/speakers-program/event-program">3-18 minutes</a>.</p>
<p>Can lectures hold people’s attention beyond 18 minutes, though? The late Professor Randy Pausch was well known for the power and quality of his lectures, especially his final one, “<a href="https://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/">Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture</a>”, which he delivered after receiving a terminal diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. That lecture comes in at a little over one hour and 15 minutes, and many consider it to be a masterwork of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/health/08well.html">powerful teaching and communication</a>. </p>
<p>Clearly, extended lectures can have great impact. Achieving that impact, however, requires understanding what makes for good lecturing and then committing to improvement. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture.</span></figcaption>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/videos-wont-kill-the-uni-lecture-but-they-will-improve-student-learning-and-their-marks-142282">Videos won't kill the uni lecture, but they will improve student learning and their marks</a>
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<h2>Push the boundaries and reflect on your practice</h2>
<p>Pausch challenges the stereotype of what a lecture is. He uses <a href="https://www.talkingaccounting.com/2019/01/07/using-props-in-the-classroom/">physical props, multimedia and other resources</a> to push the boundaries of the lecture beyond a typical, didactic engagement. The result is a lecture that periodically shifts how the audience is engaged and, in doing so, captures and keeps the audience’s attention.</p>
<p>Lecturing at this level requires more than just experience. We must <a href="https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/ReflectiveTeaching">reflect on our teaching practice</a>, evaluate the quality of our lectures in relation to our intentions, and then commit to developing both our lectures and ourselves. </p>
<p>Professor Eric Mazur describes how, while teaching physics at Harvard in the 1990s, he came to the painful realisation that <a href="https://harvardmagazine.com/2012/03/twilight-of-the-lecture">his lectures were failing</a> to keep his students engaged or serve the educational objectives of the subject. He used this realisation as a springboard to improve his lectures and develop his pedagogical knowledge and skills. </p>
<p>Since then, Mazur has become a recognised expert in improving student engagement. He has created a variety of solutions for academics to keep students actively engaged in lectures, even those that go beyond the apocryphal 18-minute limit. The techniques <a href="https://mazur.harvard.edu/presentations/keynote-twilight-lecture-peer-instruction-active-learning">Mazur advocates</a> range from <a href="https://youtu.be/Z9orbxoRofI">integrating peer instruction into lectures</a> to <a href="https://youtu.be/iisnPrQLcNU">using a high-tech, collaborative platform</a> to promote students’ pre-lecture preparation.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-tips-on-how-unis-can-do-more-to-design-online-learning-that-works-for-all-students-144803">5 tips on how unis can do more to design online learning that works for all students</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Lose the assumptions, not the lectern</h2>
<p>So then what about the claim that technology is making the lecture obsolete? This seems doubtful for a couple reasons. </p>
<p>Pausch and Mazur’s methods can be transferred to an online space, even if we don’t label the result a lecture. We see many examples of how this works in well-regarded online learning platforms like <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org">Khan Academy</a> or <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/">LinkedIn Learning</a> (formerly <a href="https://www.lynda.com">Lynda</a>). However we label these engagements, it’s obvious technology can actually help lectures rather than just supplant them.</p>
<p>Now let’s turn the question around: does using technology guarantee or even increase the likelihood of good teaching? Technology can make good practices easier, like the use of <a href="https://elearning.uq.edu.au/guides/virtual-classroom/using-zoom-tips">polls and break-out rooms and timers</a>. Technology can even <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6798020/">open new possibilities and paradigms</a> for teaching. But there are no guarantees. </p>
<p>The list of ed tech failures is <a href="http://hackeducation.com/2019/12/31/what-a-shitshow">long and dismaying</a>. Examining what goes wrong, we see some <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/why-most-ed-tech-fails">common misunderstandings</a>. </p>
<p>One of these is that adding technology equals enhancing teaching. Technology carries no inherent pedagogical value. Swapping an iPad for a lectern does not, in itself move learning from a boring, didactic experience to interactive, lively engagement. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Distracted student struggles to watch an online lecture" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401465/original/file-20210519-3808-mr67wn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401465/original/file-20210519-3808-mr67wn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401465/original/file-20210519-3808-mr67wn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401465/original/file-20210519-3808-mr67wn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401465/original/file-20210519-3808-mr67wn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401465/original/file-20210519-3808-mr67wn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401465/original/file-20210519-3808-mr67wn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A didactic, boring lecture is poor teaching whether delivered online or in person.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bored-unhappy-woman-watching-lon-online-1873189777">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Just like lectures, our uses of technology and the resulting impact must first come from thoughtful commitment to improving both teaching and teacher.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-unis-eye-more-instagram-worthy-campus-experiences-they-shouldnt-treat-online-teaching-as-a-cheap-and-easy-option-156585">As unis eye more ‘Instagram-worthy’ campus experiences, they shouldn't treat online teaching as a cheap and easy option</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>Be critical, be reflective, be better</h2>
<p>Technology can never substitute for critically reflecting on the pedagogical value of our practice. And while technology can assist a major transformation, it should never be a requirement for improving how we teach. Whether you’re a high-tech or low-tech teacher, you can give a good lecture or find useful alternatives if you remember to put the pedagogy before the technology.</p>
<p>We need to reject the notion that lectures will sink our students and technology will save them. Instead, let’s dig deeply and critically into both, reflect upon how to improve our practices, and apply sound teaching methods and practices to create learning engagements that are captivating and profound.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158217/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some students may wonder why they bothered returning to campus. Others are struggling online. But lecturers who do engage students think deeply about how they do it, using all available tools.Christopher Charles Deneen, Senior Lecturer in Higher Education Curriculum & Assessment, The University of MelbourneMichael Cowling, Associate Professor - Information & Communication Technology (ICT), CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1529712021-02-14T18:49:39Z2021-02-14T18:49:39ZCOVID killed the on-campus lecture, but will unis raise it from the dead?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383924/original/file-20210212-13-10bjxj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C41%2C3932%2C2570&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sleeping-student-414549313">Markus Pfaff/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://eprints.utas.edu.au/34123/">Throughout the world</a>, COVID-19 health regulations have made the on-campus lecture mostly defunct. And <a href="https://www.acode.edu.au/pluginfile.php/9235/mod_resource/content/7/white%20paper.pdf">most Australian universities</a> won’t be offering on-campus lectures in 2021.</p>
<p>The Australasian Council on Open, Distance and e-Learning (ACODE) recently published a <a href="https://www.acode.edu.au/pluginfile.php/9235/mod_resource/content/7/white%20paper.pdf">white paper on lectures</a>, based on survey responses from 43 member universities (91% response rate). About two-thirds indicated they would not be conducting on-campus lectures this year.</p>
<p>University of Southern Queensland (USQ), for example, sent a document to all staff and students announcing on-campus classes, such as tutorials, lab work and small-group seminars, will continue in 2021, with the notable exception of the traditional lecture. At USQ, when didactic content does need to be delivered, it will be done online, in smaller <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/more-universities-planning-drop-lectures-after-pandemic">chunks</a>, with student learning activities interspersed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="half-empty lecture theatre" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383927/original/file-20210212-15-1avrv5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383927/original/file-20210212-15-1avrv5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383927/original/file-20210212-15-1avrv5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383927/original/file-20210212-15-1avrv5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383927/original/file-20210212-15-1avrv5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383927/original/file-20210212-15-1avrv5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383927/original/file-20210212-15-1avrv5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Traditional lectures are often poorly attended and several universities have already decided to abandon them permanently.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/videos-wont-kill-the-uni-lecture-but-they-will-improve-student-learning-and-their-marks-142282">Videos won't kill the uni lecture, but they will improve student learning and their marks</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The lecture was ailing before COVID</h2>
<p>Now that COVID-19 has forced universities to cease on-campus lectures, many report that they will not return after the pandemic. Only 23% of <a href="https://www.acode.edu.au/pluginfile.php/9235/mod_resource/content/7/white%20paper.pdf">ACODE</a>-surveyed universities said they would return to full lecturing. </p>
<p>Times Higher Education <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/student-profile-key-lectures-future-australia">reported</a> last month that Curtin, Murdoch and Victoria universities believe in-person lectures are a mode of the past.</p>
<p>Some universities started “killing off” lectures long before the pandemic. In 2012, for example, <a href="https://theconversation.com/lecture-theatres-to-go-the-way-of-the-dodo-9893">The Conversation</a> reported the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) was tearing down its lecture theatres. </p>
<p>Many new and redesigned tertiary campuses are not including blueprinted lecture theatres. The University of Tasmania, for example, is in the process of creating the <a href="https://www.utas.edu.au/northern-transformation/inveresk-campus/precinct-plan">Inveresk Precinct</a> with non-traditional teaching and learning spaces. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-tips-on-how-unis-can-do-more-to-design-online-learning-that-works-for-all-students-144803">5 tips on how unis can do more to design online learning that works for all students</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why are lecture theatres on the way out?</h2>
<p>Mostly this is happening because there are better ways to learn and to prepare for employment. In 2014, <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/partners-and-community/initiatives/city-campus-master-plan/campus-development-news-archive/2014-news/april-2014-news/its-whats-inside-counts-guide-new-learning-spaces-uts">UTS explained</a> its rationale for demolishing lecture theatres was not physical, but educational. </p>
<p>For universities, a primary reason for cancelling lectures is to improve pedagogy or teaching methods. In the <a href="https://www.acode.edu.au/pluginfile.php/9235/mod_resource/content/7/white%20paper.pdf">ACODE survey</a>, only 7% disagreed with this rationale. </p>
<p>Times Higher Education <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/lectures-dont-work-but-we-keep-using-them/2009141.article">reported</a> that, by 2013, more than 700 studies had all found lectures are an ineffective teaching approach. There is little <a href="https://pure.bond.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/27948857/Does_digital_scholarship_through_online_lectures_affect_student_learning.pdf">empirical evidence</a> to prove that lectures are an optimal way to learn or to develop graduate career skills.</p>
<p>Lectures are passive. They seldom get students to do anything, beyond listening and perhaps taking notes. Lectures fail to foster deep learning and student engagement. The purpose of the lecture is called into question.</p>
<p><a href="https://espace.curtin.edu.au/handle/20.500.11937/60852">Australian students</a> have been voting with their feet. They have continually chosen to <a href="https://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol3/iss2/3/">forgo lectures</a>, <a href="https://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol17/iss5/15/">preferring</a> content delivered online. </p>
<p>This learning mode particularly appeals to mature-aged students, who are working while studying and have difficulty fitting long lecture blocks into their schedules. And this <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/student-profile-key-lectures-future-australia">description</a> fits a high proportion of university students today. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="young woman takes notes as she sits in front of a laptop at home" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383926/original/file-20210212-21-xc98qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383926/original/file-20210212-21-xc98qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383926/original/file-20210212-21-xc98qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383926/original/file-20210212-21-xc98qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383926/original/file-20210212-21-xc98qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383926/original/file-20210212-21-xc98qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383926/original/file-20210212-21-xc98qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">University students with busy schedules clearly prefer to engage with much of the traditional lecture content online.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">fizkes/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lecture-recordings-mean-fewer-students-are-turning-up-does-it-matter-131988">Lecture recordings mean fewer students are turning up – does it matter?</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Are students or employers concerned?</h2>
<p>Early in the pandemic (June through September 2020), i-graduate conducted a <a href="https://www.ieaa.org.au/blog/i-graduate-covid-19-survey-results">survey</a> of Australian domestic and international students. Of the 24,000 respondents, 70% were satisfied with how the universities adapted to COVID-19 and 68% with their overall online learning experience. </p>
<p>While students expressed current satisfaction with online lectures (about 70%), only half thought they should remain. Notably, students were not surveyed about their preference for the online recorded long-form lecture versus alternatives.</p>
<p>A recent FutureLearn <a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/info/do-employers-value-online-learning">survey</a> of just over 1,000 American employers asked: “Are you more likely to hire applicants with online education since the pandemic?” While 75% responded yes, 63% said they would need to “rethink” the hiring process.</p>
<h2>But how will students learn what they need to know?</h2>
<p>The questions within these surveys are asked in a Shakespearean binary: to lecture, or not to lecture. On-campus or online. The reality is not so simple. </p>
<p>Lectures are not the only approach to university education. Furthermore, the choice of on-campus or online learning is now mostly redundant. </p>
<p>All students spend a lot of their time within online “learning management systems”. Even before the pandemic, curriculum without an accompanying website was rare. </p>
<p>The lecture is still the lecture, whether on-campus, or recorded and posted online. The lecture does not teach any better just because it is digital.</p>
<p>Searching for, planning and booking travel is flourishing online (or at least it was during non-pandemic times). Streaming services have radically changed how people watch television. It is time for universities to catch up to other industries and take full advantage of the opportunities of the internet. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-need-to-train-lecturers-in-online-delivery-or-they-risk-students-dropping-out-133921">Universities need to train lecturers in online delivery, or they risk students dropping out</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It might be time to let the lecture die, now that other modes of learning and interactions (<a href="https://learningportal.iiep.unesco.org/en/issue-briefs/improve-learning/teachers-and-pedagogy/effective-and-appropriate-pedagogy">pedagogies</a>) can thrive.</p>
<p>The University of Southern Queensland, for example, is rolling out a <a href="https://digitalfirst.usq.edu.au/">suite of alternative teaching approaches</a>. Most of these are available online. Examples include panel discussions, animated explanations, online experimentation, problem-solving demonstration videos and website hunts. </p>
<p>Such approaches are a sign of the nature of educational change brought forward by the pandemic, which was perhaps long overdue in the higher education sector.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152971/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>About two-thirds of Australian universities won’t be offering on-campus lectures in 2021. But that’s not all the pandemic’s fault – it simply accelerated a shift away from the traditional format.Shelley Kinash, Professor of Higher Education, University of Southern QueenslandColin Jones, Associate Professor and Senior Academic Developer, University of Southern QueenslandJoseph Crawford, Lecturer, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1422822020-08-10T20:07:30Z2020-08-10T20:07:30ZVideos won’t kill the uni lecture, but they will improve student learning and their marks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346999/original/file-20200712-189224-1tnealh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C0%2C6000%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are university lectures better on YouTube?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/peLs78VbU50">Kon Karampelas/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In response to COVID-19, almost every university has scrambled to move its teaching online.</p>
<p>To do this, academics have been choosing between two approaches: live videoconferencing using tools such as Zoom, or pre-recording videos and posting to platforms such as YouTube.</p>
<p>Previous reviews have shown <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6787.2012.00241.x" title="A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Videoconference‐Based Tele‐Education for Medical and Nursing Education">videoconferences are an okay substitute for classes</a>, but what about videos?</p>
<h2>What do students say?</h2>
<p>Previous reviews have looked at student preferences for online learning as opposed to face-to-face lectures and <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/182536" title="Internet-Based Learning in the Health Professions: A Meta-analysis">they do not find any differences</a>. Even when teachers make monumental efforts to create flipped classrooms, where they provide online videos before interactive workshops, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2019.05.003" title="Effects of flipping the classroom on learning outcomes and satisfaction: A meta-analysis">there are no differences in student satisfaction</a>.</p>
<p>So students don’t mind whether they learn online or face-to-face. We academics care about satisfying students, but we also want to make sure students learn new things. </p>
<p>Student learning is totally <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2016.08.007" title="Meta-analysis of faculty's teaching effectiveness: Student evaluation of teaching ratings and student learning are not related">unrelated to student satisfaction</a>. Student satisfaction is more closely related to their <a href="https://doi.org/10.3200/GENP.133.1.19-35" title="Hot or Not: Do Professors Perceived as Physically Attractive Receive Higher Student Evaluations?">teacher’s physical attractiveness</a>. So we wanted to see whether videos increased or decreased student learning for mugs like us.</p>
<h2>Videos improve learning</h2>
<p>We did a <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/kynez" title="Are you better on YouTube? A systematic review of the effects of video on learning in higher education">systematic review</a> to see what happens when videos replace classes. We searched for every best-practice study that measured learning after university students were given videos.</p>
<p>To make sure we were looking at real learning differences, not just student preferences, we excluded studies that only asked for opinions and those that were not randomised.</p>
<p>We found more than 100 studies. A quarter gave videos in addition to existing content. As you’d expect, students who got extra content learned more.</p>
<p>This means teachers giving face-to-face lectures can significantly improve student learning by also offering videos (before or after class). When videos accompanied existing methods, there were huge benefits for student learning.</p>
<p>But what about when we swapped existing face-to-face learning for videos, as many teachers are now having to do?</p>
<p>We found 83 studies that replaced some type of teaching with videos. About 75% of the time students learned more when given a <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/kynez" title="Are you better on YouTube? A systematic review of the effects of video on learning in higher education">video instead of a class</a>.</p>
<p>On average, the effects are small (about +2 marks) but consistently favour videos. Effects are much larger when videos replace books (+7 marks), or when videos are used to teach skills (+6 marks) instead of knowledge.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1262934771002339328"}"></div></p>
<p>It didn’t matter if the videos were swapped for lectures or tutorials. It didn’t matter if the videos were used for one lesson or a whole semester. And it didn’t matter if the exam was right after the video or at the end of the semester.</p>
<p>We found videos were consistently good for learning. There are several reasons for this and they can help us give better face-to-face classes too. Here are a few video tips from what we discovered.</p>
<h2>Tip 1: videos use multiple forms of media</h2>
<p>Students have two main channels for learning: what they see and what they hear. This is why videos worked much better than books, websites or podcasts, because these only use one channel whereas video uses both.</p>
<p>On video, teachers can edit themselves to best use both channels, by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvSeo4-B-agV3yExA_jNderX6g5_BsP17">showing useful visuals</a> that are perfectly timed to the spoken explanation. Great teachers do this in lectures as well, but it’s harder when you can’t edit out your mistakes.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/anM6wy-RibI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This video shows how academics can improve their classes with well-time uses of multiple forms of media.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tip 2: videos give students control</h2>
<p>Videos allow for students to control how fast they learn. They can speed us up, slow us down, stop to take notes or have a break for a coffee.</p>
<p>This lets students master content without getting overwhelmed (good lecturers do this too).</p>
<p>Mastery learning – where students progress at their own pace once competent – has been around for a long time and been <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/00346543060002265" title="Effectiveness of Mastery Learning Programs: A Meta-Analysis">shown to improve learning in higher education</a>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l83Rgrjn_Lk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Khan Academy is an excellent example of mastery learning in schools.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tip 3: videos make learning authentic</h2>
<p>Videos can show things more authentically than lectures can. In person, lectures can make learning authentic through <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0034654320933544" title="Simulation-Based Learning in Higher Education: A Meta-Analysis">role playing and simulation</a>. Lectures can be authentic by bringing in guest speakers: for example, we used to bring in clients who had Parkinson’s to talk to students. </p>
<p>But videos help achieve even this kind of authenticity. Instead of burdening clients every year, we recorded interviews with clients so students could learn from them for years to come.</p>
<p>On video lecturers can also show real situations not possible in class, such as CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), surgery or construction. Making learning authentic helps motivate students and stimulates learning.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/G10m2ZZRH4U?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Only some physics students were in the right place at the right time to see the 2017 solar eclipses, but all of them can study it on video.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tip 4: videos make learning interactive</h2>
<p>Interactivity is also <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2014.965823" title="The ICAP Framework: Linking Cognitive Engagement to Active Learning ">critical for learning</a>. Lecturers can make classes interactive through open-ended questions, pop quizzes and small-group discussions.</p>
<p>But we found video is usually as interactive, or more interactive, than most lectures. That’s because most lectures aren’t that interactive. There are many technologies (try <a href="https://edpuzzle.com/">EdPuzzle</a> or <a href="http://h5p.org/">H5P</a>) that let staff easily embed questions and feedback in videos.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-L62wAxCzEM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Edpuzzle is one of many free platforms for adding interactivity to videos for online learning.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-need-to-train-lecturers-in-online-delivery-or-they-risk-students-dropping-out-133921">Universities need to train lecturers in online delivery, or they risk students dropping out</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>When things get back to normal (whatever that is)</h2>
<p>Academics shouldn’t feel like they’re wasting their time by making lots of videos this year. Students are probably learning more, and when face-to-face classes get back to normal, the videos will be a great asset for years to come.</p>
<p>We don’t want to be replaced by a YouTube playlist, but parts of our teaching are probably better that way.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mepeRPFvf3E?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Are university classes better on YouTube?</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142282/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Noetel receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Sport Australia, and NSW Department of Education. He is a committee member for the College of Sport and Exercise Psychologists.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Borja del Pozo Cruz has received funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Lonsdale receives funding from the Australian Research Council, National Health and Medical Research Council, NSW Department of Education, Movember Foundation, and Sport Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip D. Parker receives funding from the ARC and NHMRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Taren Sanders receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Sport Australia, and the NSW Department of Education.</span></em></p>In response to the coronavirus pandemic, universities are using video for so much of their teaching. Some worry this will hurt student learning, but that’s not what we found.Michael Noetel, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Australian Catholic UniversityBorja del Pozo Cruz, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic UniversityChris Lonsdale, Professor, Institute for Positive Psychology & Education, Australian Catholic UniversityPhilip D Parker, Professor and Deputy Director, Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic UniversityTaren Sanders, Research Fellow, Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1319882020-02-23T19:57:43Z2020-02-23T19:57:43ZLecture recordings mean fewer students are turning up – does it matter?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315852/original/file-20200218-11005-16obyk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/leacture-room-many-chairs-53152054">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2017, a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6290302339660292096/">business lecturer</a> posted a photo on LinkedIn showing a completely empty university classroom, 15 minutes after the class had been scheduled to start.</p>
<p>This is not an isolated incident. Anecdotally, lecture and tutorial attendance has been <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/LegEdRev/2010/3.html">declining steadily</a> in Australian universities and faculties for many years.</p>
<p>Declining attendance may <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/50219670_If_You_Teach_It_Will_They_Come_Law_Students_Class_Attendance_and_Student_Engagement">affect students’ academic performance</a> and their <a href="https://figshare.com/articles/What_Have_We_Here_The_Relationship_between_Law_Student_Attendance_and_Wellbeing/11826789">sense of connectedness</a>. University doesn’t only teach content but develops attributes such as oral communication and interpersonal skills including teamwork. </p>
<p>Students are less likely to develop these skills if they don’t physically attend class.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03069400.2019.1697578">conducted a large-scale study</a> in our law school to uncover whether lecture recordings are responsible for declining student attendance and what motivates students to attend or miss class.</p>
<p>By manually counting how many students were in lectures across sixteen different subjects, we found attendance rates averaged just 38% of total enrolments across the semester.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315829/original/file-20200218-11000-1en1xo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315829/original/file-20200218-11000-1en1xo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315829/original/file-20200218-11000-1en1xo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315829/original/file-20200218-11000-1en1xo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315829/original/file-20200218-11000-1en1xo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315829/original/file-20200218-11000-1en1xo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315829/original/file-20200218-11000-1en1xo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315829/original/file-20200218-11000-1en1xo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Deakin University lecturer’s empty classroom 15 minutes after the class was due to start.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6290302339660292096/">Adrian Raftery/LinkedIn</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There was a natural ebb and flow of lecture attendance throughout the semester. There was peak attendance at the beginning (57%), a significant drop in the middle as assessments became due (26%) and a rebound at the end of semester as exam season hit (35%).</p>
<p>We also asked students to self-report their lecture attendance. The most common answer given, by far, was “almost all of the time” and 59% of students said they attended lectures the majority of the time. </p>
<p>Clearly there is a dissonance between this self-perception and reality.</p>
<h2>Are recordings to blame?</h2>
<p>Lecture recording is now common in Australian universities. Anecdotally, it’s often <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03069400.2019.1697578">held responsible</a> for declining attendance rates. But there is little research on the relationship between student attendance and lecture recording.</p>
<p>While lectures are usually recorded and available to students in streamed or downloadable format once the class ends, tutorials and other smaller classes are not usually recorded. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-lectures-a-good-way-to-learn-26905">Are lectures a good way to learn?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our study found students aren’t ditching tutorials, seminars and workshops as much as they are lectures. Tutorials averaged a whopping 84% attendance rate. This could partly be explained by the fact teachers assess students on their participation in tutorials.</p>
<p>We also surveyed 900 students to find out their reasons for attending and not attending lectures, tutorials and workshops.</p>
<p>Availability of lecture recordings was the most common reason students gave for not attending lectures (18% of students said this). But work commitments were a close second (16%). Then it was timetable conflicts (12%), the time and day of lectures (11%) and assessments being due (8%).</p>
<h2>Students lead complex lives</h2>
<p>Universities <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03069400.2019.1697578">provide students with lecture recordings</a> for several reasons. These include giving students an alternative study tool and supporting students with disabilities or from non-English speaking backgrounds (who can slow down or pause recordings if necessary).</p>
<p>Our survey and focus groups showed students lead complex lives often balancing work, family and other commitments alongside their studies.</p>
<p>One student said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] if some [lectures] are so early as 8am, that would involve waking up at 6am, which is difficult as I work in hospitality at night and if I’ve worked the night before I wouldn’t be getting to bed until after midnight. </p>
<p>I likely would be fatigued during that lecture and have difficulty concentrating and taking in the content, compared to if I watched the recording and took notes later that afternoon.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Other students said they relied on lecture recordings to enhance their learning. One said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I find I get more out of the lecture by listening to it in my own time and at my own pace […] I prefer to be able to pause the recorded video to research more in-depth into cases and theories to add to my notes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some students with additional learning needs said the option not to attend class, and to access lecture recordings, was an important equity measure.</p>
<h2>What should we do?</h2>
<p>Lecture recordings bring important benefits for students. They can also be necessary for students with personal, work or health difficulties.</p>
<p>But recordings are clearly contributing to declining lecture attendance, too. We propose three possible paths forward for universities and teachers, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.</p>
<p>First, we can simply persist with the traditional model of recorded lectures. Teachers will need to accept attendance will likely be low and student learning, experience and wellness should instead be the focus of tutorials and other small group classes.</p>
<p>Second, we can introduce more active learning into lectures to encourage greater attendance. This could include small group exercises, in-class polling or role-plays.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-not-abandon-the-humble-lecture-quite-yet-44501">Let's not abandon the humble lecture quite yet</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But this would mean lecture recordings would be less useful for students. It would undercut the flexibility recordings offer and may cause equity concerns.</p>
<p>Third, we can change our teaching methodology to a “flipped” approach. This means the main way students would get information would be through online resources and activities. Face-to-face classes would then be dedicated to engaging students in deeper learning through collaborative activities.</p>
<p>Though this frees up lecture time for more effective learning, it would require appropriate support and training for teachers. Teachers, many of whom already work under significant time constraints, would need to invest more time and energy into their lessons.</p>
<p>Unfortunately there is not a one-size fits all answer to the conundrum of declining lecture attendance. But learning and teaching policies, such as mandatory lecture recording, should be informed by an evidence-based understanding of the likely consequences for staff and students.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131988/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona McGaughey has previously received funding from Graduate Women (WA).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Offer, Liam Elphick, Murray Wesson, and Natalie Skead do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In our law school, lecture attendance averaged just 38% of total enrolments across the semester.Natalie Skead, Professor, Dean of Law School, The University of Western AustraliaFiona McGaughey, Senior Lecturer, Law School, The University of Western AustraliaKate Offer, Senior Lecturer in Law, The University of Western AustraliaLiam Elphick, Adjunct Research Fellow, Law School, The University of Western AustraliaMurray Wesson, Senior Lecturer in Law, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1179702019-06-18T19:57:46Z2019-06-18T19:57:46ZThe three things universities must do to survive disruption<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279755/original/file-20190617-118497-11qf926.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More people are learning what they want, wherever they want.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wes Mountain, The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This essay is part of a series of articles on the future of education.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The nature of global communication (for better and worse) has changed. Virtually all young people in Australia <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/729928/australia-social-media-usage-by-age/">spend an average</a> of <a href="https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/medibank-survey-adults-spend-nine-hours-a-day-in-front-of-screen/news-story/cc7252754ef395b2da16401eaad500db">nine hours a day online</a> and about three hours of that interacting on <a href="https://wearesocial.com/au/blog/2019/02/digital-report-australia%20https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2019/01/how-much-time-do-people-spend-social-media-infographic.html">social media</a>. That means they spend more time online than sleeping. </p>
<p>Smartphones and smart technologies are our <a href="https://www.technology.org/2019/04/10/why-smartphones-play-such-a-crucial-role-in-our-lives/">personal assistants</a> with diary, shopping, research, translation, social and telecommunications capabilities all a swipe away. As you read this, or have Siri read it to you, people are solving problems, writing music, dating, visiting a tele-nurse and conducting business – all online. It is the new normal.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, massive open online courses (<a href="https://www.classcentral.com/report/mooc-stats-2017/">MOOCs</a>) offer tens of thousands of opportunities for people to be exposed to the best researchers, practitioners and university talent in the world. MOOCs are one example of our <a href="https://www.bestcolleges.com/perspectives/annual-trends-in-online-education/">interconnected world</a>, which allows expertise to be <a href="https://www.trainingjournal.com/blog/global-village-technology-helps-us-connect-and-communicate">universal and accessible</a> – <a href="https://cdn.ey.com/echannel/au/en/industries/government---public-sector/ey-university-of-the-future-2030/EY-university-of-the-future-2030.pdf">anyone can learn what they want</a>, where they want, when they want and how they want.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mooc-and-youre-out-of-a-job-uni-business-models-in-danger-9738">MOOC and you're out of a job: uni business models in danger</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279748/original/file-20190617-158917-hhdb96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279748/original/file-20190617-158917-hhdb96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279748/original/file-20190617-158917-hhdb96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279748/original/file-20190617-158917-hhdb96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279748/original/file-20190617-158917-hhdb96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279748/original/file-20190617-158917-hhdb96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279748/original/file-20190617-158917-hhdb96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279748/original/file-20190617-158917-hhdb96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Our world is online and universities need to get with the times.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If you want to study psychology, master computer coding or complete an MBA, why would you pay big fees to a large university to support its infrastructure costs and hear someone lecture in a huge hall, when you could watch the world’s best experts from the comfort of your apartment or on your phone, wherever you are?</p>
<p>To remain relevant, Australia’s universities will need to transform into very different entities, with new business models that foster innovation and embrace the interconnection technology offers. And they will need to do so quickly. </p>
<h2>The old university model is becoming obsolete</h2>
<p>The American business academic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clayton_M._Christensen">Clayton M. Christensen</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Innovative-University-Changing-Higher-Education-ebook/dp/B005C776E4">used the term</a> “disruption” to discuss the implications of the massive changes to the student base of universities. </p>
<p>He likened the situation to how discount stores such as Target disrupted the business models of department stores like Myer and David Jones, capturing an increasing chunk of middle-class spending on everyday personal and household goods. Christensen challenged universities not to be like the big steel mills that are mostly relics of the past.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/former-ambassador-jeffrey-bleich-speaks-on-trump-disruptive-technology-and-the-role-of-education-in-a-changing-economy-73957">Former ambassador Jeffrey Bleich speaks on Trump, disruptive technology, and the role of education in a changing economy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Similarly, US scholar <a href="https://www.cathydavidson.com/">Cathy N. Davidson</a> has <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/New-Education-Revolutionize-University-Students-ebook/dp/B06XS4WBNJ/ref=pd_sim_351_2/357-4598083-4438631?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B06XS4WBNJ&pd_rd_r=4e73f3a1-8033-11e9-b44e-f76fb66d5db1&pd_rd_w=x0t3C&pd_rd_wg=8k32p&pf_rd_p=f09e5598-fbdb-4712-af44-62e0022496fc&pf_rd_r=MN5WCKWTPMWN0BGJETE6&psc=1&refRID=MN5WCKWTPMWN0BGJETE6">urged universities</a> to abandon generic degrees and impersonal forms of teaching, to make university education more accessible and relevant.</p>
<p>In most university programs, a student completes courses in large facilities at mandated times. In the first year of many degrees, learning is primarily passive and assessment is typically in the form of easily marked exams.</p>
<p>The current university funding model is <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/education-plus-development/2019/01/10/top-6-trends-in-higher-education/">mainly based on the assumption</a> completing multi-year undergraduate and postgraduate coursework degrees, broken into semesters or terms of 10-15 weeks, is still a relevant measure of learning. </p>
<p>This mode of “seat time” as learning is becoming obsolete. Learning in courses made of <a href="https://www.fya.org.au/2018/09/21/lifelong-learning-and-reskilling-the-promise-of-microcredentials/">short chunks</a>, certificates, or <a href="https://evolllution.com/programming/credentials/microcredentials-micromasters-and-nanodegrees-whats-the-big-idea/">micro-credentialled</a> <a href="https://www.obviouschoice.com.au/what-are-micro-credentials">mini units of study</a> is growing as the preferred method for this generation of students and industry.</p>
<p>Some will say <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/the-source/the-future-of-learning-and-teaching">Australian universities are already on it</a>, with <a href="https://landing.smartsparrow.com/digital-learning-innovation-report-2017">innovation hubs</a>, <a href="https://www.monash.edu/about/structure/senior-staff/vice-chancellor/profile/vice-chancellors-speeches/how-will-australian-higher-education-change">new academic products</a> including <a href="https://www.candlefox.com/blog/micro-credentials-the-opportunities-for-education-providers/">micro-credentials</a> and increasingly online delivery.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279745/original/file-20190617-158958-d7m8eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279745/original/file-20190617-158958-d7m8eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279745/original/file-20190617-158958-d7m8eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279745/original/file-20190617-158958-d7m8eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279745/original/file-20190617-158958-d7m8eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279745/original/file-20190617-158958-d7m8eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279745/original/file-20190617-158958-d7m8eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279745/original/file-20190617-158958-d7m8eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The passive, seat-mode of learning is becoming obsolete.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But these features are generally bolted on to the status-quo funding model, based on teaching the first year of a program cheaply to drive profit that can be spent on more engagement-oriented upper-level courses, and to support research and infrastructure. </p>
<p>These pop-up innovations are mostly used to drive the marketing of university brands and promote reputations rather than as sustainable ways of doing business. They are mostly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader">loss leaders</a>, similar to sales at your local supermarket.</p>
<h2>What are the three pillars of a future-focused university?</h2>
<p>With a population of 25 million people, <a href="https://www.studyinaustralia.gov.au/english/australian-education/universities-and-higher-education">does Australia need</a> 40-plus universities? Probably not if it means 40-plus big stores whose business models require mass lectures in the first year, bolstered by increasing international student enrolments to fund high infrastructure and staffing costs.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-regional-universities-are-at-risk-of-going-under-109374">Why regional universities are at risk of going under</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But there is a bright future ahead if universities redefine themselves beyond the rhetoric of value propositions and marketing schtick, and fully embrace the below three key pillars: </p>
<p><strong>1. Promote engagement and impact</strong> </p>
<p>Virtually every academic program should be formatted to embrace new ways of learning. Students of any short course, module, certificate or degree should have meaningful opportunities to do real work for real purposes as part of their experience. Students should <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Mind-Brain-Education-Neuroscience-Implications-ebook/dp/B0046W6UDY">learn by doing</a> and learning should connect theory with practice. </p>
<p>While this seems obvious in nursing and teaching, it is just as critical in English or biology. Likewise, assessment should <a href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb03/vol60/num05/How-Classroom-Assessments-Improve-Learning.aspx/">primarily be <em>for</em> learning</a> more than <em>of</em> learning.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279753/original/file-20190617-118526-1afhywq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279753/original/file-20190617-118526-1afhywq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279753/original/file-20190617-118526-1afhywq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279753/original/file-20190617-118526-1afhywq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279753/original/file-20190617-118526-1afhywq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279753/original/file-20190617-118526-1afhywq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1196&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279753/original/file-20190617-118526-1afhywq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1196&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279753/original/file-20190617-118526-1afhywq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1196&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">STEM.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>2. Enhance humanity</strong> </p>
<p>The complexities of interconnection are leading us quickly toward a machine-based world. Decisions we make about our future interconnections will not just be about driverless cars, but about <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/04/relying-on-technology-could-be-eroding-our-core-principles">handing over moral decisions</a> to smart tools.</p>
<p>To preserve humanity, our STEM-focused career tracks should embed multiple opportunities to integrate ethics, history, arts, philosophy and morality.</p>
<p><strong>3. Expand student access</strong> </p>
<p>To this point, most universities have been sorting institutions. High marks and test scores from school leavers have equalled access and opportunity. Yet, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/apr/30/will-you-drop-out-of-university-report-reveals-australian-students-at-risk">high failure rates in first year</a> driven by poor assessments lead to a large exodus of students.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-students-are-going-to-university-than-before-but-those-at-risk-of-dropping-out-need-more-help-118764">More students are going to university than before, but those at risk of dropping out need more help</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>With lifelong learning required for all of us to stay flexible both intellectually and professionally, we must shift our attention to opportunity, knowledge promotion, and flexible entry and access points for the new-fangled chunks of learning experiences we offer. </p>
<p>Maintaining high expectations, rooted in fairness and widening opportunity coupled with flexible designs, will be a challenge for large universities that pride themselves on <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-21/atar-relevance-under-fire-as-report-says-fewer-students-admitted/9569052">accepting high-ranking students</a>, or that assume entrance requirements such as the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) are predictors of future success in the interconnected world.</p>
<h2>Universities must change their KPIs</h2>
<p>University leaders use metrics such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-kpis-on-university-engagement-need-more-thought-78026">key performance indicators</a> (KPIs) to evaluate their performance. KPIs can be counting the numbers of website hits, noting the number of students who complete the first month of a new semester, or increasing the number of international applications. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-kpis-on-university-engagement-need-more-thought-78026">Why the KPIs on university engagement need more thought</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Each faculty and supporting division at each campus will need new key performance indicators (future-focused KPIs) to launch the transformation necessary to rethink learning outcomes:</p>
<p><strong>Prepare for an interconnected world</strong> </p>
<p>Most future life and work will be housed in interconnectedness locally, nationally and internationally. For our younger students it already is.</p>
<p><strong>Become transdisciplinary experts</strong> </p>
<p>Most knowledge does not reside in separate disciplines as we have typically chunked them in universities. Instead, experiences should cross the dotted lines of discipline and expertise, mixing the arts and sciences in truly human ways.</p>
<p><strong>Be life-ready more than work-ready</strong> </p>
<p>Unlike in the past, most of us will <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeannemeister/2012/08/14/the-future-of-work-job-hopping-is-the-new-normal-for-millennials/#78c0d32b13b8">shift our career paths</a> multiple times across our lives. University experiences should provide multiple opportunities for takeaways that help graduates of programs of whatever duration be nimble and continue to learn. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279933/original/file-20190618-118518-13ngvyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279933/original/file-20190618-118518-13ngvyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279933/original/file-20190618-118518-13ngvyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279933/original/file-20190618-118518-13ngvyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279933/original/file-20190618-118518-13ngvyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279933/original/file-20190618-118518-13ngvyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279933/original/file-20190618-118518-13ngvyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279933/original/file-20190618-118518-13ngvyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Semesters will be replaced with personalised learning on demand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/SYTO3xs06fU">Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Promote well-being</strong></p>
<p>Most universities provide multiple reactionary systems for students in crisis, but they do little to frontload well-being and <a href="https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1790&context=jutlp">mental-health support</a> into their formal offerings. </p>
<p>Our lack of effective self-care threatens our day-to-day human health and happiness. We often succumb to the stressors of modern life because we don’t proactively address social, emotional and physical well-being as <a href="https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/2302603/MCSHE-Student-Wellbeing-Framework_FINAL.pdf">part of our formal learning</a> to prepare for life’s challenges. </p>
<p><strong>Change ‘seat time’ as the default learning measurement</strong></p>
<p>As we shift to flexible learning formats and durations, seat time in lectures and tutorials will no longer effectively determine completion. Learning will. </p>
<p>Semesters of 15 weeks will be replaced with personalised learning on demand. This is <a href="https://itali.uq.edu.au/files/1279/Discussion-paper-Personalised_learning_an_overview.pdf">already the norm</a> in military education and corporate training. </p>
<p><strong>Share expertise across the world</strong></p>
<p>Faculties will merge forces to share talent in creative ways, not for financial efficiency but to provide learners with access to the best and most knowledgeable teachers and scholars in the world. </p>
<p>Mediocre offerings will be replaced by gold-standard teaching and learning, allowing local staff to support student engagement and impact while promoting excellence and equity. </p>
<p><strong>Embrace smart tools</strong></p>
<p>Smart tools and mixed-reality learning experiences will make the lecture model nearly redundant. Artificial intelligence and virtual reality systems, which continue to grow in sophistication, will render didactic teaching irrelevant. </p>
<p>Smart tools can <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20190116094437946">personalise learning</a> in dynamic, interactive ways across all disciplines. These systems will require infrastructure to support them. </p>
<p>Picture <a href="https://www.studyinternational.com/news/how-the-integration-of-new-technology-is-changing-the-higher-education-landscape/">lecture halls refurbished</a> as engaged learning centres for artificial intelligence platforms, with smart tutors and mixed-reality experiences. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-ways-artificial-intelligence-will-shape-the-future-of-universities-94706">Five ways artificial intelligence will shape the future of universities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Over the next few years there will likely be mergers and closures across the university sector in response to the multiple disruptions facing tertiary education.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, every Australian will need to be part of post-secondary learning many times in their lives to remain viable. That includes retraining for new work, new learning for jobs we haven’t even thought of yet, and engaging in university experiences to help us become smarter and better people.</p>
<p>Disruptive innovators should be the rule, not the exception. If we come together as learners in a community of well-being, kindness and keenness to solve problems and create knowledge in flexible ways, using emerging smart tools to reinforce learning, we can fully embrace the opportunities and challenges of the interconnected world.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>What is the purpose of education today? Read another essay in this series <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-the-point-of-education-its-no-longer-just-about-getting-a-job-117897">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117970/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Fischetti does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Technology has disrupted the way universities offer courses, the types of skills we will need, and the duration for which we will need them. Here are three things universities must do to survive.John Fischetti, Professor, Interim Pro Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Education and Arts; Dean/Head of School of Education, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1143832019-04-15T09:32:48Z2019-04-15T09:32:48ZWhat robots and AI may mean for university lecturers and students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269008/original/file-20190412-76843-gjsiz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The number of robots around the world is increasing rapidly. And it’s said that automation will threatening <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42170100">more than 800m jobs worldwide by 2030</a>. In the UK, it’s claimed robots will replace 3.6m workers by this date, which means <a href="https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2018/01/one-in-five-uk-jobs-threatened-by-automation-by-2030-report-warns/">one in five British jobs</a>
would be performed by an intelligent machine. </p>
<p>Jobs in higher education are no exception – with <a href="https://telrp.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41039-017-0062-8">recent studies</a> showing a rapid advancement in the use of <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2018/09/26/academics-push-expand-use-ai-higher-ed-teaching-and-learning">these technologies in universities</a>. The full potential of these disruptive technologies is yet to be discovered, but their impact on teaching and learning is expected to be huge. This means that higher education might be affected by these technologies earlier than other sectors. </p>
<p>Artificial intelligence is set to have a significant impact. And not just on teaching and learning, but also on the whole student experience – innovation infused with <a href="https://education.cioreview.com/cxoinsight/artificial-intelligence-in-highereducation-nid-25668-cid-27.html">traditional academic processes</a>. This will change the classroom experience and how universities communicate with students, with lectures and marking potentially done by robots. </p>
<h2>Robot teachers</h2>
<p>For academics, this rise in artificial intelligence, robotics and intelligent tutoring systems, may well mean that having the required experience and teaching skills are no longer enough. <a href="https://theconversation.com/gender-pay-gap-at-universities-could-get-even-worse-heres-why-107456">And the already apparent lack of digital skills</a> among some academics may make it easier for universities to look to robots as an alternative.</p>
<p>“Yuki”, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amfrm2V_KO0">the first robot lecturer</a>, was introduced in Germany in 2019 and has already started delivering lectures to university students at The Philipps University of Marburg. The robot acts as a teaching assistant during lectures. He can get a sense of how students are doing academically, and what kind of support they need. He can also have them take tests. Some students have found Yuki useful – despite the fact he still requires some significant improvements to be fully functional.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Amfrm2V_KO0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Robots, combined with artificial intelligence, are expected to improve teaching by providing greater levels of individualised learning, objective and timely grading, as well as having the ability to identify areas of improvements in degree programmes. This may very well leave less room for actual humans to carry out the job – and will no doubt have a major impact on the job description of academics in universities.</p>
<p>It may also mean that when the robots move in, conducting research and contributing to knowledge creation might be the only way for academics to sustain their jobs and increase the chances of employability, retention and career development. </p>
<h2>Research of the future</h2>
<p>According to the latest Research Futures report from <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/research-futures-drivers-and-scenarios-next-decade">Elsevier and Ipsos MORI</a>, the research ecosystem will have significant changes in the future thanks to new technologies – in terms of open access publishing, funding opportunities and links to the technology industry. The report also suggests that Eastern countries such as China will have an increased focus on research and development. </p>
<p>The speed and volume of research will also change massively. Big data analytics and artificial intelligence will be able to present large amount of findings directly to researchers at a very fast pace. <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/research-futures-drivers-and-scenarios-next-decade">And it is predicted</a> there will also be a move towards a more open system in terms of funding, data collection and publishing open access articles. </p>
<p>So for academics, it may well be that a move towards knowledge creation through research rather than teaching might be the best way for job sustainability in higher education in the near future. This could mean that for academics, it will become more important than ever to focus on research. And while this could free academics up to use their expertise for the benefit of society, it remains to be seen whether robots can inspire the next generation in the same way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114383/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nisreen Ameen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Conducting research and contributing to knowledge creation might be the only way for academics to sustain their jobs.Nisreen Ameen, Lecturer in Information Technology Management, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/451732015-08-03T11:32:56Z2015-08-03T11:32:56ZMonitoring who attends class is pointless unless it counts towards students’ grades<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90302/original/image-20150730-25736-s42js6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Not everyone is here, but I'll begin. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lecture via wavebreakmedia/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>University lecturers rarely get 100% of students turn up to every lecture. Nor do we expect them all to. Those who have got up, travelled to campus and made their way to class are clearly the most motivated and interested in their education. Good attendance rates can indicate that a lecturer is good at teaching – or perhaps that they have secured a good time slot, not too early on a Monday or too late on a Friday. </p>
<p>In a world of student visas and loans, universities are now under greater pressure to show that the students who say they attend university actually do. Monitoring of attendance has traditionally been done at checkpoints throughout the year, such as registration and exams. But now universities are <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/634624c6-312b-11e5-91ac-a5e17d9b4cff.html#slide0">trialling different ways of monitoring</a> how students spend their time, made easier at institutions <a href="https://theconversation.com/snooping-professor-or-friendly-don-the-ethics-of-university-learning-analytics-23636">such as the Open University</a> where much of the course material and interaction is online. </p>
<p>As more universities experiment with electronic monitoring systems, I think more should be done to link attendance to the way the module is taught. Students need to know that if they don’t turn up, there will be an impact on their grade at the end. </p>
<p>If we promote students as adults who are active in their education, I think universities are heading in the wrong direction if they institute policies of attendance monitoring that gives birth to Big Brother. It shouldn’t be anybody but the student who is responsible for his or her class attendance.</p>
<h2>Ways to watch</h2>
<p>There are some instances in which participation in a class or session is mandatory – such as laboratories in science courses or ensembles in music courses. However, the majority of students whose university careers are built around lectures and seminars have to rely on intrinsic motivation to propel them into the classroom. </p>
<p>There are a <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&arnumber=6266137">multitude of ways</a> to track student attendance that do not necessarily link up with how much they actually participate once they get there. One US university came under fire a few years ago for introducing <a href="http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?7628">radio-frequency identification (RFID) trackers</a>, built into students ID cards, to track their attendance.</p>
<p>Attendance monitoring can be linked to academic consequences. <a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/progress/Regulations/SPS/Attendance/studentFAQ">Newcastle University’s student progress policy states</a> that there are different levels of reprimand depending how many times a student is absent. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If there are continued absences you may be called to a meeting … In very extreme cases an academic unit may invoke unsatisfactory progress regulations. In very rare cases the university may withdraw students who are not attending their classes. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But this kind of strategy does not address the classroom component of the module. Students are busy, and by looking at the handbook they can see what is required for each module. The expectation might be that they need to show up for every session but the reality is that your marks come from exams and essays, not attendance in class. One example of this is from the <a href="https://www.uclan.ac.uk/students/study/attendance_monitoring.php">University of Central Lancashire</a>, which states in the frequently asked questions section of its attendance monitoring policy that “decisions regarding your academic performance will be based on the assessments submitted and marked”. </p>
<h2>Make attendance a requirement</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90304/original/image-20150730-25762-1j4dtlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90304/original/image-20150730-25762-1j4dtlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90304/original/image-20150730-25762-1j4dtlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90304/original/image-20150730-25762-1j4dtlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90304/original/image-20150730-25762-1j4dtlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90304/original/image-20150730-25762-1j4dtlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90304/original/image-20150730-25762-1j4dtlk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">No carrot, no stick.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carrot via Lisa S. / www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The introduction of <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/cracking-down-on-skipping-class-1421196743">retention monitoring systems</a> appeals to universities that want to increase the percentage of students graduating within a certain timeframe. We tell the students to swipe their ID card or tick a box when they enter the classroom and we tell them that we are tracking their attendance. What we don’t tell them is that this is a situation where the university has no carrot and no stick. </p>
<p>On a course-by-course basis, module leaders are able to decide on the required assessments – and participation and attendance can be built in if approved and quality is assured. But most universities have no carrot here, because for many courses, if a student has access to the right course material and reading lists, it’s still possible to pass the assessment without turning up to lectures or seminars. No lecturer that I am aware of will deny a student a copy of the presentation if they miss class and most lecturers post class materials on the university learning management system. </p>
<p>Students who miss a session don’t get the context of the lesson and how it relates to the bigger picture of the module or course. Yes, students are paying for this education and yes they should be able to choose whether they attend class or not. This does not mean that the lecturer should have to juggle or sing and dance to get students to show up; but it does mean that there have to be meaningful expectations of attendance that match up with the results and teaching of a module. </p>
<p>The days of the sage on the stage are over: the teaching methods of active learning and problem-based learning mean students have come to expect that the pedagogy of the lesson is linked to the participation. Let them be the freethinking adults we assume them to be and make their own decisions about whether or not to attend sessions. But make it count towards their grade too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45173/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dana Ruggiero does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Students need to have an educational incentive not to skip class, rather than just being scare of Big Brother.Dana Ruggiero, Senior Lecturer in Learning Technology, Bath Spa UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/445012015-07-14T20:21:21Z2015-07-14T20:21:21ZLet’s not abandon the humble lecture quite yet<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88302/original/image-20150714-11831-oltv56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C371%2C2657%2C2120&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The classic lecture theatre hasn't changed much over the centuries.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Justin Kern/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last month the University of Adelaide has boldly declared that it is <a href="http://www.afr.com/technology/apps/education/university-of-adelaide-is-phasing-out-lectures-20150629-ghxgoz">phasing out lectures</a>. Replacing them will be <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-the-university-of-adelaides-lecture-phase-out-be-a-flop-44074">“flipped” classrooms</a>, where students are expected to do pre-work before they come to class, and where classes are focussed on problem solving and collaboration. </p>
<p>This is only the latest phase in an ongoing movement <a href="http://missunitwocents.tumblr.com/post/123364615920/that-sinking-feeling-counting-the-cost-of-live">attacking the lecture format</a>. All around the world, the tertiary academic world is <a href="http://flippedlearning.org/site/default.aspx">flipping its classrooms</a> and retasking its lecturers. </p>
<p>This new breed of lecturers star in their own (produced and developed) <a href="http://flippedlearning.org/domain/36">five-to-seven minute videos</a>, which are made available to students on demand and on their mobile devices. </p>
<p>After absorbing the densely-packed material, the students usually have to complete an online quiz before attending a workshop to demonstrate their understanding by solving practical problems. </p>
<p>This represents something of a paradigm shift for academia. The original concept of gathering a body of people who share a common interest into a specially designed room is being replaced by technology that allows these people to individually watch an edited version of the events on their mobile devices. </p>
<p>It could broadly be claimed to be one of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-digital-natives-are-killing-the-sage-on-the-stage-39923">most significant shifts</a> in academy history, with the humble lecture having it’s roots in medieval times. But does it make sense?</p>
<h2>At the movies</h2>
<p>We’ve seen an attempt at a similar shift before, when smartphones and tablets were supposed to herald the demise of the movie theatre. But that shift didn’t come to pass, and the movie industry is still thriving. Perhaps we can learn something from this in regards to lectures. </p>
<p>One of the appeals of the cinema is physically going to the theatre. This is a special place fit for purpose, not just any old lounge room or bedroom. Going out is an event in itself, something to be anticipated, and something that elevates its significance. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88199/original/image-20150713-1363-1im1bmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88199/original/image-20150713-1363-1im1bmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88199/original/image-20150713-1363-1im1bmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88199/original/image-20150713-1363-1im1bmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88199/original/image-20150713-1363-1im1bmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88199/original/image-20150713-1363-1im1bmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88199/original/image-20150713-1363-1im1bmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88199/original/image-20150713-1363-1im1bmw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fewer smartphones and no PowerPoint, but otherwise not much has changed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AJ Cann</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, students who actively get out of their comfortable bed and get dressed have already invested in a lecture. They are more likely to gain from it than students who minimise their effort and race through a video on a mobile device during the odd down moment.</p>
<p>The experience of watching a movie – even a bad one – is also enhanced when the theatre is full. Movies draw on the collective experience, as the audience gasps or laughs together. Similarly, lecture audiences can gauge if they are “getting it” along with their peers, or reinforce the solidarity of the group who value this form of learning. </p>
<p>In a flipped paradigm, students watch their videos in isolation with hope that others are doing the same, and are only able to rely on feedback from quizzes.</p>
<p>Even the process of deconstructing the movie afterwards as a group helps to reinforce the experience. This is the reason behind simultaneous blockbuster release dates. It is unlikely that such an interactive experience with peers would happen as the result of a five minute video, or the post video quiz. </p>
<h2>Lectures don’t have to be tedious</h2>
<p>One might observe that movies are only about interesting things and lectures are often about boring things. But people see movies about boring things too! Just try Googling “movies about statistics” (assuming you find statistics boring). There is even a <a href="http://www.standarddeviation-themovie.com/index.htm">movie about standard deviation</a>! </p>
<p>Granted, people don’t go to a movie every day of the week. If they did, the novelty would likely wear off quickly. Similarly, it is not necessary to perform a lecture every day to ensure your audience is still engaged.</p>
<p>Lectures also have a great advantage over movies. The director of a movie has no ability to change the movie based on the audience reaction. On the other hand, lecturers can enthuse the audience, and they will respond. Just watch the short clip below to see an example of how a great lecturer can go beyond their physical presence to engage their audience.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P2SsIYEbCio?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Lecture theatres can be as enticing and as exciting as movie theatres. They can use state-of-the-art projection facilities and sound systems, they can bring in live experts and live crosses to things as they happen, and they can have a real live person up the front to interact with in real live time. </p>
<p>The audience can also interact with each other and build up their own understanding about what they are doing and its value. </p>
<p>The movie industry could have gone quietly to the wall when on-demand video on mobile devices became popular, but instead it recreated itself and emphasised the strengths of its format and leveraged the presence of an audience concentrating on a massive event in concert. </p>
<p>Before we all abandon the lecture, let us fully examine the potential that it has to make learning a social event and a strength, a place where we can all learn together.</p>
<p><em>“A thrilling, action-packed, emotionally-enriching blockbuster lecture! Coming Soon to a lecture theatre near you!”</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44501/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cris Brack has received a cash prize (Carrick Institute) for teaching using digital educational technology. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Cowling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Lectures are being abandoned in favour of “flipped” classes, with lots of short videos and quizzes. But the lecture format has merits that shouldn’t be overlooked.Michael Cowling, Senior Lecturer & Discipline Leader, Mobile Computing & Applications, CQUniversity AustraliaCris Brack, Assoc Professor Forest measurement & management, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/440742015-07-02T20:11:27Z2015-07-02T20:11:27ZWill the University of Adelaide’s lecture phase-out be a flop?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87076/original/image-20150702-27106-1ylyhf4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The University of Adelaide wants to spend class time doing social activities and leave the passive lectures for home. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The University of Adelaide is planning to <a href="http://www.afr.com/technology/apps/education/university-of-adelaide-is-phasing-out-lectures-20150629-ghxgoz">completely phase out lectures</a>. In their place will be online materials and small group face-to-face sessions. According to University of Adelaide Vice-Chancellor Warren Bebbington, the lecture is dead – and it is not coming back.</p>
<p>Lectures have been around for hundreds of years. They have <a href="http://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/nelson.pdf">survived other technological revolutions</a>, including the printing press and the motion picture. Adelaide will be the first university in Australia to break with tradition and eliminate them entirely. But is this change good for learning?</p>
<h2>‘Flipped’ classrooms</h2>
<p>The University of Adelaide’s move is part of a growing trend to “flip the classroom” by swapping what students do in class with what they do out of class. The <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07294360.2014.934336">flipped classroom</a> is where lectures and other passive learning activities take place at home, while problems, questions and other activities that require socialising and interaction take place in the presence of the teacher.</p>
<p>This means students have to complete pre- and/or post-class activities to fully benefit from in-class work.</p>
<p>Research on the effectiveness of the flipped classroom approach is beginning to trickle out, but it’s <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07294360.2014.934336">not necessarily an evidence-based practice yet</a>. However, if we examine the components of this approach, the outlook is positive.</p>
<p>If the lectures Adelaide is ditching are monologues without any interactivity, then video is probably going to be a good replacement. Decades of research suggest this is not a great use of precious face-to-face time; some have even claimed lectures are as bad for learning as <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-lectures-a-good-way-to-learn-26905">smoking is for health</a>.</p>
<p>Since the 1920s, researchers have been conducting “media comparison studies” where the same teaching approach (for example, the lecture) is applied to two or more media (one is usually face-to-face). </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87083/original/image-20150702-27135-18dxhxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87083/original/image-20150702-27135-18dxhxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87083/original/image-20150702-27135-18dxhxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87083/original/image-20150702-27135-18dxhxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87083/original/image-20150702-27135-18dxhxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87083/original/image-20150702-27135-18dxhxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87083/original/image-20150702-27135-18dxhxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87083/original/image-20150702-27135-18dxhxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At least lecturers won’t be able to tell if their audience isn’t paying attention.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/scottjacksonx/3838449067/">ScottJacksonX/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These studies began with emerging approaches like correspondence courses and radio, and later progressed onto video teaching. When we pool together these studies we find, on average, that there is <a href="http://www.nosignificantdifference.org/">no significant difference</a> in learning between different media – assuming we teach in the same way. So learning won’t be much better, or much worse, from a face-to-face or video lecture.</p>
<p>While there may be no significant difference in learning, online lectures put students in control. There is <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1096751611000418">evidence</a> that students fast-forward through parts they already understand, and re-watch parts they struggle with. Researchers call this “learner pacing” and it has been <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Efficiency_in_Learning.html?id=9nwESAIRzxoC&redir_esc=y">found</a> to help students manage the cognitive demands of their studies. Learner pacing can even mitigate against some <a href="http://wiki-app.it.helsinki.fi/download/attachments/57434439/Ginns+(2005).pdf">bad teaching approaches</a>.</p>
<h2>Ban lectures or just change them?</h2>
<p>If the choice is between being talked at non-stop for an hour face-to-face or by video, then please give me the video. The problem is, this is rarely the choice.</p>
<p>Delving deeper into the damning evidence on lectures, it turns out that only classes that were more than 90% passive listening were <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-lectures-a-good-way-to-learn-26905">“as bad as smoking”</a>. Walk into a modern lecture and you’ll be unlikely to find a 60-minute monologue. It’s more a caricature than a common practice. Bebbington claimed the lecture is dead, but really it just evolved.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87084/original/image-20150702-27151-5g1ksq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87084/original/image-20150702-27151-5g1ksq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87084/original/image-20150702-27151-5g1ksq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87084/original/image-20150702-27151-5g1ksq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87084/original/image-20150702-27151-5g1ksq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87084/original/image-20150702-27151-5g1ksq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87084/original/image-20150702-27151-5g1ksq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87084/original/image-20150702-27151-5g1ksq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Should we ban lectures or just shake them up a bit?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tjuckel/61302856/">Lars-Christian Simonsen/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The anti-lecture evidence actually just supports good lecturing practice: require students to spend at least 10% of the lecture discussing or problem solving. </p>
<p>If Adelaide’s lectures are long speeches, put them online. Or even better, divide them into smaller chunks first, as lecture video length strongly <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Juho_Kim3/publication/262393281_How_video_production_affects_student_engagement_an_empirical_study_of_MOOC_videos/links/53d51e170cf220632f3d49f5.pdf">influences attention</a>. But if students are already required to be active in lectures, then it’s a more subjective decision.</p>
<p>Another challenge of Adelaide’s new model is that class time becomes more dependent on students completing their pre-class tasks (for example, watching the video). When students aren’t prepared for their small group learning session, it turns a flipped classroom into a “flop”, because the teacher needs to catch up some of the students.</p>
<p>The good news is that flipped classroom approaches like Adelaide’s may help students develop a sense of autonomy, feel competent, and get connected with other students. Developing these attributes should lead to improved motivation – and hopefully result in students preparing for class. However, this connection between flipped classrooms and motivation remains at best a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07294360.2014.934336">theoretically informed hunch</a>.</p>
<p>So, is the move to phase out lectures supported by the evidence? I’m always wary about blanket bans on any particular approach to teaching or assessment. It really comes down to the individual lecture, and whether Bebbington’s classrooms flip or flop.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44074/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phillip Dawson receives funding from the Office for Learning and Teaching.</span></em></p>The University of Adelaide is planning to completely phase out lectures. Is this change good for learning?Phillip Dawson, Associate Professor and Associate Director, Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/399232015-05-06T19:48:22Z2015-05-06T19:48:22ZHow ‘digital natives’ are killing the ‘sage on the stage’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80388/original/image-20150505-8382-fbla0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Digital technology, and those who have grown up with it, are forcing the venerable lecture to adapt to the times.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">uniinnsbruck/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The idea that <a href="http://theconversation.com/ignore-the-fads-teachers-should-teach-and-students-should-listen-39634">teachers should teach and students should listen</a> presumes that teachers know more than their students.</p>
<p>While this was generally true back when textbooks were a rarity, and may have been partly true since the invention of the public library, it is most likely untrue for at least many students in this era of the “<a href="http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/active/what/">active learner</a>” (AKA “<a href="http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf">digital natives</a>”). </p>
<p>After all, with a smartphone in every student’s pocket and Google only a tap away, how can the humble sage expect to compete as the font of all online knowledge?</p>
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<h2>The world is a stage</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly9BPvFJfqo">very birth of the lecture</a> comes from medieval times, when books were difficult to make and experts were few and far between. Back in those days, the best way to record knowledge was for a monk to stand up the front of the room and recite the passages from a manuscript or book, while the novices below him hurriedly wrote down exactly what was said. </p>
<p>As universities emerged, this tradition continued, with the expert at the pulpit and the juniors in the audience. Hence was born the “sage on the stage”: the expert providing their knowledge to others so that they could learn from this font of all wisdom.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80386/original/image-20150505-8411-lyayfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80386/original/image-20150505-8411-lyayfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80386/original/image-20150505-8411-lyayfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80386/original/image-20150505-8411-lyayfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80386/original/image-20150505-8411-lyayfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80386/original/image-20150505-8411-lyayfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80386/original/image-20150505-8411-lyayfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80386/original/image-20150505-8411-lyayfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lectures haven’t changed a great deal since Michael Faraday delivered a Christmas lecture at the Royal Institution in 1856.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Faraday_Michael_Christmas_lecture.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since then the role has evolved, but the basic principle has remained the same. Throughout the decades leading towards the end of the 20th century, models were extended with tutorials, laboratories and workshops. But the academic remained the expert, providing their knowledge to (sometimes eager) students. </p>
<p>As part of this role, it’s the academic’s job to entertain, and we have all known academics who take this part of the role very seriously, getting dressed up for class, using props or even planning out a performance with costumes and mask in advance. </p>
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</figure>
<p>These academics are embracing the “stage” part of the job, in line with the recent article noted above on <a href="https://theconversation.com/ignore-the-fads-teachers-should-teach-and-students-should-listen-39634">explicit teaching</a>, but the core idea still remains: they are the font of knowledge, the single basin from which students should ‘drink’, building their knowledge of the subject matter through contact with an expert.</p>
<h2>The 21st century: when it all changes</h2>
<p>But something happened around the turn of the millennium. With the rise of the internet and the beginnings of search engines such as Google, no longer was the expert (or the public library) the only place to acquire knowledge. </p>
<p>All of sudden, if you were out to dinner and somebody asked you who directed The Lord of the Rings movies, it was a quick tap and a search for you to yell out “Peter Jackson”. Pub quizzes changed forever, and all of a sudden we found ourselves with a wealth of knowledge at our fingertips. Even worse, the answer you read in (or copied faithfully from) a book several years ago may no longer be the answer now.</p>
<p>This change flowed to academia. But as with much in academia, it took some time to take root. While students were already starting to bring their mobile phones into the classroom (to the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/nov/27/should-mobiles-be-banned-schools">chagrin of some academics</a>), academia was struggling to <a href="https://theconversation.com/online-vs-face-to-face-learning-why-cant-we-have-both-34135">move away from tradition</a>. </p>
<p>By and large, lectures still existed. But they were supplemented by blended learning, flipped classrooms and Massive Open Online Courses (<a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/massive-open-online-courses">MOOCs</a>). All of these technologies looked to keep the “sage on the stage” mentality, but supplement it with other resources, so that the internet and its resources could serve as a supplement to the expert on the pulpit.</p>
<p>But we’ve started to notice something over the past couple of years. All of sudden, students don’t think lectures are as important as they once were. We already know students sometimes don’t attend their timetabled lectures, but what has changed is the reason. </p>
<p>Rather than sleeping in or being too busy with homework, the common reason we now hear from our undergraduates is that there is no need to come to the lecture. Why come and listen when they can access YouTube videos on the subject, or read a host of web pages where experts lay it out step-by-step? </p>
<p>And yes, they can even do this from their iPad after they roll over in bed after a big night out! </p>
<p>No longer are academics the sole expert at the pulpit, the sole basin from which students can drink. We are now just one of many possible fonts from which a student can sate their thirst for knowledge.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80380/original/image-20150505-8426-rysgpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80380/original/image-20150505-8426-rysgpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80380/original/image-20150505-8426-rysgpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80380/original/image-20150505-8426-rysgpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80380/original/image-20150505-8426-rysgpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80380/original/image-20150505-8426-rysgpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80380/original/image-20150505-8426-rysgpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80380/original/image-20150505-8426-rysgpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When students are standing up and recording a lecture on their phone, you know you’re doing something right.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of Denver/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The lecture as a performance piece</h2>
<p>So, what is the humble sage to do in this new paradigm? How do we deal with the fact that our stage is gone, replaced by an garden of different fonts of knowledge? </p>
<p>One option could be to embrace the performance art aspect of the role even more.</p>
<p>Talk to any creative type and they will tell you that the real impact of their work is not just the performance, but how it makes the audience change. How it makes them think deeply about the subject. </p>
<p>A creator has really done their job when a movie such as The Imitation Game is not only entertaining, but encourages the viewer to read more about <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/alan-turing">Alan Turing</a> or the Enigma machine. Or perhaps even to contemplate the attitudes to homosexuality in the early 20th century and now. The performance serves as a launching point for investigation of the area, and “moving the furniture” in the mind.</p>
<p>Perhaps the academic needs to aim for the same? Make the lecture an entertaining performance piece on the area that causes the students to look into it more deeply. Recognise that students can get information from many places and embrace this by aiming for the lecture to be a highlight reel and a teaser rather than an expert at the pulpit. </p>
<p>Yes, this means every lecture should be a special occasion, but is that really a bad thing? If it gets our students thinking, then hasn’t it done its job?</p>
<p>If academics begin to do this, then maybe we can reclaim the role of “sage on a stage” in a different way. We can move from our old fashioned pulpit to a digital stage, providing a highlight reel of our discipline and becoming a truly digital sage for the active learner. </p>
<p>If this happens, then maybe the measure of success will be a measure of how many students are using a mobile phone in the classroom rather than how many are putting it away!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39923/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cris Brack has received a cash prize (Carrick Institute) for teaching using digital educational technology. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Cowling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Lectures and lecturers will have to adapt to modern times in order to stay relevant.Michael Cowling, Senior Lecturer & Discipline Leader, Mobile Computing & Applications, CQUniversity AustraliaCris Brack, Assoc Professor Forest measurement & management, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/361832015-04-29T14:53:53Z2015-04-29T14:53:53ZLet’s ban PowerPoint in lectures – it makes students more stupid and professors more boring<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78938/original/image-20150422-1863-1ui3dw9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is the next slide more interesting?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lecture via Matej Kastelic/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Any university teacher who does not harbour a painful recollection of a failed lecture is a liar. On one such occasion, I felt early on that I had lost the students entirely: those who hadn’t sunk into comatose oblivion were listless and anxious. Ungracefully, I threw myself even deeper into my PowerPoint presentation to save me from total ruin. Years later, I can still hear myself reading aloud the bullet points from the overhead and see myself turning around to the students to sell these points to them.</p>
<p>Luckily, I have no recollection of what the students thought of it, but my most painful memory is the experience of boring myself. When that happens, it is time to change one’s ways. That’s why I’ve led a move to ban PowerPoint from lectures. </p>
<p>There are a host of possible reasons for a lecture going wrong: a badly planned course, inadequate preparation, feeling uninspired on the day, disengaged students, a crowd that’s too big, a poorly designed auditorium. To this bulleted list of catastrophes comes PowerPoint. </p>
<p>The physical face-to-face lecture is potentially a complex and open event where the students, the readings, the lecturer and a case-based or theoretical problem interact. A PowerPoint presentation locks the lecture into a course that disregards any input other than the lecturer’s own idea of the lecture conceived the day before. It cuts off the possibility of improvisation and deviation, and the chance to adapt to student input without veering off course. </p>
<p>This is usually what makes such presentations so painfully boring: while it quickly becomes evident to the audience where the presenter is going, he or she has to walk through all the points, while the audience dreams that the next slide might be more interesting.</p>
<h2>Not fit for teachers</h2>
<p>Yet, to be interesting and relevant in a lecture, teachers need to ask questions and experiment, not provide solutions and results. Unfortunately, PowerPoint is designed to provide just that. Originally <a href="http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2012/06/102745695-01-acc.pdf">for Macintosh</a>, the company that designed it was bought by Microsoft. After its launch the software was increasingly targeted at business professionals, especially consultants and busy salespeople. </p>
<p>But during the 1990s it was adopted more generally by corporations as it became part of the Microsoft Office package, which explains the executive summaries, one-liners, ubiquitous “deliverables” and action plans. Its way into academia was then helped by the increased pressure on faculties to deliver more teaching and the increased demand from a more diverse student population to be more concretely guided through the jungle of knowledge.</p>
<p>As it turns out, PowerPoint has not empowered academia. The basic problem is that a lecturer isn’t intended to be selling bullet point knowledge to students, rather they should be making the students encounter problems. Such a learning process is slow and arduous, and cannot be summed up neatly. PowerPoint produces stupidity, which is why some, such as American statistician Edward Tufte have said <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20140415121014/http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html">it is “evil”</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, new presentation technologies like <a href="http://prezi.com/">Prezi</a>, <a href="http://www.sliderocket.com/">SlideRocket</a> or <a href="http://bartaz.github.io/impress.js/#/bored">Impress</a> add a lot of new features and 3D animation, yet I’d argue they only make things worse. A moot point doesn’t become relevant by moving in mysterious ways. The truth is that PowerPoints actually are hard to follow and if you miss one point you are often lost. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78937/original/image-20150422-1863-1migj4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78937/original/image-20150422-1863-1migj4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78937/original/image-20150422-1863-1migj4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78937/original/image-20150422-1863-1migj4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78937/original/image-20150422-1863-1migj4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78937/original/image-20150422-1863-1migj4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78937/original/image-20150422-1863-1migj4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nobody peer-reviews a PowerPoint.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lex-photographic/16697351820/sizes/l">Lex Photographic/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On top of this comes the ambivalence of what’s in those bullet points. In my presentations, the text on slides are really just my private and often hastily written down thoughts. Unlike my other published and peer-reviewed work, no one has seen or criticised my PowerPoints. Yet the students perceive my bullet points as authoritative, and they would often quote them in their assignments instead of going through the toll of finding the meaningful points in the real texts from the course. </p>
<h2>Free from PowerPoint</h2>
<p>While successfully <a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-fight-why-we-banned-laptops-ipads-and-smartphones-in-lectures-32116">banning Facebook</a> and other use of social media in our masters programme in <a href="http://www.cbs.dk/en/study/graduate/msc-in-business-administration-and-philosophy">philosophy and business</a> at Copenhagen Business School, we have also recently banned teachers using PowerPoint. Here we are in sync with the US armed forces, where <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html">Brigadier-General Herbert McMaster banned it</a> because it was regarded as a poor tool for decision-making. We couldn’t agree more, although we do allow lecturers to use it to show images and videos as well as quotes from primary authors. </p>
<p>Apart from that, the teachers write with chalk on the blackboard (or markers on the whiteboard). Contrary to what PowerPoint allows, the chalk and blackboard enable us to note down points from the students alongside and connected to the points that we ourselves develop. Most universities are actually defending Microsoft’s monopoly by stealth, by architecturally letting the projector and PowerPoint take precedence over other technologies such as the blackboard. </p>
<p>Of course, lifting the uneasy burden of PowerPoint off the teacher’s shoulders places higher demands on planning. Yet, while at our masters programme we as teachers have a clear plan in terms of what should happen every minute of the lecture, the exact content should remain variable and open-ended. In order to support interaction, the students sit with visible nameplates, also introduced in the first lecture of the course last year. This way less active students can be called upon to expand on the concepts and connections growing on the blackboard, either from their seat or by coming to write on it. </p>
<p>In all my years of using PowerPoint the traditional way, students unvaryingly complained about not getting the slides in advance of the lecture. Today, the students don’t mention the lack of PowerPoints at all – they only call for a better order on my blackboard. They are right, but contrary to the rigid order of a PowerPoint presentation, the blackboard order can actually be improved in real time.</p>
<p>Without the temptation of PowerPoint, lecturers have nothing but the students to fall back on. That seems like a much more promising turn of events.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36183/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bent Meier Sørensen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Reading bullet points off a screen doesn’t teach anyone anything.Bent Meier Sørensen, Professor in Philosophy and Business, Copenhagen Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/391582015-04-08T13:52:52Z2015-04-08T13:52:52ZShould all university lectures be automatically recorded?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76171/original/image-20150326-8713-dlkgp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What will become of the lecture?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Video camera via Vereshchagin Dmitry/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities across the world are considering whether to start automatically recording lectures. Some <a href="http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/itservices/about/events/it-focus-week/whats-on/contribute/lecture-capture-debate-summary">students are voting for it</a>. And the IT industry has created <a href="http://echo360.com/">some seductive products</a> to record lectures, a process also known as “lecture capture”. Some onlookers expect a hesitant response from the higher education sector, which is often <a href="http://redarchive.nmc.org/publications/2014-horizon-report-higher-ed">portrayed as cautious</a> about taking up educational technologies. </p>
<p>Yet lobbing new resources into complex settings deserves caution. Our universities are rich human ecosystems and, as such, they can prove fragile in the face of interventions. A new technology such as the automatic recording of lectures does not just add something good to the learning context – it re-configures it, but in uncertain ways. Perhaps to inspire, perhaps to disrupt but, most likely, to create new dynamics with both positive and negative effects.</p>
<p>The positives are pretty easy to imagine. For instance, some lectures are challenging (or obscure) and so need to be heard more than once. Recordings might free the student to fully engage at the live event while taking more measured notes on the second viewing. Those without English as their first language may be particular beneficiaries. Meanwhile, lecturers can review students’ use of their presentations – perhaps noting sections that attract frequent re-visiting and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131514000591">so identify points </a> where repair or elaboration might be useful. </p>
<p>But we have a responsibility to ensure that, on balance, any disturbance enriches rather than disrupts the vitality of the teaching and learning ecosystem. The potential downsides of lecture capture gather around three themes: changes to student experience, changes in teacher practices, and the re-shaping of institutional strategy.</p>
<p>Making recordings of lectures freely available to students could lead to a fall-off in attendance of the live lectures themselves. There is scarce research on whether it does and, besides, in order to know the answer to this we’d need this experiment in recording lectures to become properly established. </p>
<p>But <a href="http://top.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/12/04/0098628313514172.abstract">if attendance did drop</a>, it would risk further de-personalising learning. A live lecture cultivates students’ capacity for sustained attention to a narrative unfolding in real time, and also reinforces habits of prompt and effective note-taking.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76172/original/image-20150326-8689-1o46t3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/76172/original/image-20150326-8689-1o46t3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76172/original/image-20150326-8689-1o46t3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76172/original/image-20150326-8689-1o46t3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76172/original/image-20150326-8689-1o46t3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76172/original/image-20150326-8689-1o46t3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/76172/original/image-20150326-8689-1o46t3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Just in time for the lecture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Man laptop via Rock and Wasp/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Whether or not attendance is disrupted the organised recording of lectures by universities – versus the <a href="http://www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk/pages/docdetail/docs/case-studies/university-of-dundee-guidelines-for-students-on-the-audio-recording-of-lectures">under-the-desk recording</a> by students – risks putting too much importance on the lecture in the learning experience. This could be counter-productive for staff wishing to stimulate a wide range of study practices. This danger is that the lecture may increasingly be interpreted by students as being “the main thing”, prompting them to anxiously reproduce its contents in assignments. Similarly, ready access to replays may encourage procrastination and then episodes of “binge studying” around the time of examinations. Such study habits are <a href="http://harvardmagazine.com/2009/11/spaced-education-boosts-learning">known to be unhelpful</a> and so we can do without further temptations towards them. </p>
<h2>Performance anxiety</h2>
<p>Another anxiety concerns the <a href="https://www.questia.com/magazine/1G1-358536336/lights-camera-action-coaching-instructors-for-on-camera">physical presence</a> of the lecturer in front of his or her students: their gestures, movements, facial expressions, and eye contact. Students using recordings will miss much of this, while lecturers may need to inhibit action to accommodate fixed cameras. </p>
<p>More controversially, lecturing may morph into performing: with modes of presentation that play up to the camera (or microphone). Perhaps most worrying would be if lecturers start avoiding controversy and taking risks in both the content they use and their presentation. Content, because a recording is unforgiving in its permanence and vulnerable to uncontrolled circulation beyond its intended audience. Presentation, because lecturers may become more cautious about interactive formats: if students show uneasiness about being recorded taking part (or, indeed, demanding consent to be recorded doing so).</p>
<p>Educational technologists speak of “re-usable learning objects” – and recorded lectures could fall into this category. Suppose a lecturer was asked to speak at a conference but it awkwardly clashed with a lecturing commitment – it might be tempting to grab last year’s <a href="http://find.jorum.ac.uk/resources/16928">recording and simply re-cycle it</a>. </p>
<p>But a recorded lecture may not always serve the lecturer so generously. Metrics on how many students view these recordings may soon become part of a “big data” story – integrated with <a href="https://theconversation.com/tick-box-surveys-arent-the-only-way-to-measure-student-satisfaction-28780">metrics of course evaluation</a> and workload as a contested part of an academic’s personal development planning or a university’s audit. </p>
<h2>Who’s watching?</h2>
<p>Perhaps the biggest institutional concern will arise around how all this appears from outside. With study resources migrating to virtual learning environments and now classroom activity migrating to join them, we risk an apparent “MOOC-ification” of teaching – where all lectures could be viewed as part of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/massive-open-online-courses">massive open online course</a>. This could leave parents, among others, asking difficult questions about the content and value for money of higher education.</p>
<p>Personally, I am in favour of lecture capture: at least, a version in which audio is presented along with any slides. But I am more concerned that the occasion for its use should be entrusted to individual academics and not imposed upon them: in short, it <a href="http://www.city.ac.uk/about/education/lead/sle/learning-technologies/lecture-capture">should be opt-in</a>. And I am most concerned with the need to highlight the responsibility that this creates: lecturers must reflect on their practice and articulate clearly to their students why or why not to capture what happens in the classroom. I believe students will value, understand and respect their reasoning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39158/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Crook does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If all lectures are caught on camera, it will be a step change for higher education.Charles Crook, Professor of Education, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/359422015-01-15T06:03:35Z2015-01-15T06:03:35ZLet me edutain you! Why university lecturers need to play to their audience<p>In his anthemic <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymPu2PdLW3I">Let me entertain you</a>, Robbie Williams urges his audience to “come and sing a different song”. University lecturers could take a lesson or two from Stoke-on-Trent’s favourite singer-songwriter. Edutainment, far from the pariah many in academia fear, could be one of the best ways of keeping the next generation of students engaged and interested.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/childrens-attention-spans-at-risk-from-too-much-screen-time-23051">Attention deficit</a> in the millennial generation is becoming increasingly significant, particularly for university lecturers facing a wall of students staring into their laptop or smartphone screens.</p>
<p>Switching off technology devices is clearly not a problem restricted to higher education. The amusement park <a href="https://www.thorpepark.com">Thorpe Park</a> has highlighted that one of its biggest competitors is the mobile device, where it is seen as a major draw in the entertainment space. </p>
<p>Other institutions have embraced those who want to watch through their phones. In 2014, Manchester City became the first English Premier League football club to <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2595146/Manchester-City-Premier-League-club-introduce-free-wifi-stadium.html">install</a> high-density wifi broadband at their stadium, providing further opportunities for commercial sponsorship engagement and activation.</p>
<h2>Times not to multi-task</h2>
<p>It seems if you are a digital native, you think you can do more than one thing at a time. Always on, wifi-enabled tablets and smart phones are materially changing our consumption behaviour. There is a creeping acceptance of public, silent multi-tasking. </p>
<p>But my view is that we all benefit from focusing on a single task, particularly in a learning environment. Transfer this to the university classroom, and my new approach this academic year is to buck <a href="http://harvardmagazine.com/2012/03/twilight-of-the-lecture">the trend</a> and release my learning support presentation materials after the lecture, not before. The impact on students’ behaviour is noticeable and in my view, positive. They are tending to put their tech away and fully engage with the lecture. </p>
<p>My colleague Alan Bradshaw has taken further steps and banned personal technology from his classroom altogether, like schools do. He is convinced, like <a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-fight-why-we-banned-laptops-ipads-and-smartphones-in-lectures-32116">Bent Meier Sorensen</a> at Copenhagen Business School, that it has made for a more productive learning environment. </p>
<p>Of course, there are reasons why releasing lecture material ahead of time can be useful for some students. For example, international students who do not have English as a first language often value a lecture transcript that can be read ahead of class. Of course anyone needing prior sight of materials can have them, but so far I have not had any requests. </p>
<h2>Edutainment can beat the boredom</h2>
<p>But banning distractions is not enough. My use of what I call “edutainment” seeks to employ (not very funny) attempts at humour, slides dominated by images and theatrical movement that invites extensive input from the large group. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69027/original/image-20150114-3888-130dxmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69027/original/image-20150114-3888-130dxmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69027/original/image-20150114-3888-130dxmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69027/original/image-20150114-3888-130dxmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69027/original/image-20150114-3888-130dxmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69027/original/image-20150114-3888-130dxmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69027/original/image-20150114-3888-130dxmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beating back the boredom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-160647344/stock-photo-male-sleeping-with-students-sitting-in-the-college-lecture-hall.html?src=AS4-nYTvg_Craits5XBDTA-1-19&ws=1">Student sleeping via wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The conflation of education and entertainment is a notion that I suspect may <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-the-age-of-online-education-herald-the-death-of-academics-31123">invoke visceral reactions</a> from some academics. </p>
<p>Sandi Mann, a psychologist at the University of Central Lancaster who researches student behaviour, has said that elaborate fire-eating and juggling entertainment approaches <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2009/may/12/university-teaching">are not needed</a> to obfuscate student boredom. But others, such as the MIT researchers Tom Clay and Lori Breslow, <a href="http://web.mit.edu/fnl/volume/184/breslow.html">argued in a 2006 faculty newsletter</a> that professorial capability to engage and entertain students are an important determinant of lecture attendance.</p>
<h2>Breakthrough and engage</h2>
<p>I feel strongly that part of the role of lectures is to inspire and engage students in the learning process. Senior academics are described by some as <a href="https://theconversation.com/coming-to-an-arena-near-you-economists-the-new-rock-stars-28496">celebrity-like rock stars</a>, providing the spark to light the candle rather than pouring knowledge out of a jug.</p>
<p>In my view, the lecture has an important inspirational dimension that seeks to kindle a fire in the belly of students to begin rather than end their interaction with any given topic they are learning about. One of the simpler <a href="http://www.academia.edu/5782044/Nyilasy_G._and_Reid_L._N._2009_._Agency_practitioner_theories_of_how_advertising_works._Journal_of_Advertising_38_3_81-96">advertising effectiveness theories</a> is: “breakthrough and engage”. It’s a powerful and relevant idea for the university lecturer. </p>
<p>It’s important to use both the theoretical frameworks and industry examples needed to teach a subject, but also engage the audience and set up an environment where many different students feel comfortable to speak up. </p>
<p>Spending interactive introductory time feeling the energy and mood of the group is an approach I have recently emphasised, <a href="http://mbadirector.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/noh-drama-here-were-mba-students.html">thanks to collaboration</a> with drama colleagues working with our MBA students at Royal Holloway. </p>
<p>Ice-breaking topical banter can also invite students to share what is on their minds using an exaggerated pantomimesque “I can’t hear you!” speakeasy style. The <a href="http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/Tenwaystomakelecturesmoredynamic.aspx">BBC recommends upfront student captivation</a> as their first of ten recommendations to make lectures more dynamic.</p>
<h2>Not everyone has to be a rock star</h2>
<p>But galvanising student engagement can be very difficult. I appreciate that lack of initial success with this approach can see reliance on the more traditional monologue style lecture. The “<a href="http://www.eazhull.org.uk/nlc/think,_pair,_share.htm">think, pair and share</a>” technique, in which students pair-up to discuss questions posed by the teacher, can help overcome the stage fright experienced when students prefer not to speak up in larger lecture spaces. </p>
<p>Not every academic can be a rock star, but we certainly can enthusiastically create the learning spark and bring about a fun learning environment that blends education with elements of entertainment. “C'mon, Let me edutain you!”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35942/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Justin O'Brien does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In his anthemic Let me entertain you, Robbie Williams urges his audience to “come and sing a different song”. University lecturers could take a lesson or two from Stoke-on-Trent’s favourite singer-songwriter…Professor Justin O'Brien, MBA Programme Director, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/341352014-11-19T19:25:15Z2014-11-19T19:25:15ZOnline vs face-to-face learning: why can’t we have both?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64347/original/zd8p8d83-1415769196.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People argue over whether learning should take place online or face-to-face, but does it have to be one or the other?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/85589593@N04/8405954920">Flickr/Noticias UFM</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ever since the invention of the printed word, <a href="http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/482/482readings/phaedrus.html">academics have been arguing</a> about the proper place of technology in teaching.</p>
<p>On one side are those who I’ll call the traditionalists who insist on the primacy of face-to-face and barely tolerate online delivery. For the traditionalists, students need, as one colleague put it, to be exposed to the “rhetorical performance of the lecture”. For them, students learn a great deal from simply watching academics nut through problems.</p>
<p>While they may decry passive lectures, their own teaching, they insist, is a highly interactive affair. They adopt a Socratic approach in which they engage students in a rich dialogue. While technologies such as the web have a place in teaching, it is a secondary one, limited for broadcasting announcements and pasting up subject learning guides.</p>
<p>On the other side, are the technologists. The technologists would happily do away with lectures — or give face-to-face teaching the flick entirely. New technologies provide tools for reaching into students’ lives. Students can learn when and where they want. And now that students are getting online delivery at high school, it’s time that universities caught up.</p>
<p>While early versions of online teaching were often cheap and nasty, its present day champions argue that things have gotten a lot better. Learning analytics, for example, provide new ways to track students’ progress and comprehension throughout a subject, permitting more targeted, customised lectures.</p>
<p>As an Associate Dean, I’ve heard passionate defenders of both sides — and I have some sympathy for both.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64422/original/sqh9grn8-1415830305.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64422/original/sqh9grn8-1415830305.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64422/original/sqh9grn8-1415830305.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64422/original/sqh9grn8-1415830305.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64422/original/sqh9grn8-1415830305.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64422/original/sqh9grn8-1415830305.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64422/original/sqh9grn8-1415830305.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64422/original/sqh9grn8-1415830305.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The modern day classroom?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/funfilledgeorgie/8983403509">Flickr/George Redgrave</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Those who defend the face-to-face are absolutely correct: in many instances there is no substitute for meeting in person. Anyone who has taken part in video conferencing or a Skype call knows this to be true.</p>
<p>According to some estimates, non-verbal cues account for up to 60% of communication. No amount of bandwidth can make up for this potential loss of information. No doubt this is part of the diabolical attrition rates for Massive Open Online Courses.</p>
<p>But, at the same time, traditionalists often uncritically equate attendance with attentiveness.</p>
<p>Take a peek from the back of most large lecture theatres, and you’ll discover that many of those students conscientiously tapping away at their laptops are chatting on Facebook or, more depressingly, shopping on ebay.</p>
<p>And those are just the students who bothered to turn up. The uncomfortable truth is, many students vote with their feet and simply don’t go to class.</p>
<p>Some lecturers argue that this is a reason not to put content online in the first place. But the more pertinent question is: if students can pass a subject without turning up to class, then why should they?</p>
<p>As for the Socratic approach, I always wonder what people mean by this. Most of the examples we have of Socrates’ practice comes to us via Plato. In Plato’s writings, as the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek notes in <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=SDBODx0ErWcC&pg=PR19&lpg=PR19&dq=organs+without+bodies+socrates&source=bl&ots=dWN6s_V3iS&sig=bLNRaCt1yI45r0A4Vsu5-yKFuUI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=wdxhVL2qHaLOmQXdlIEI&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=organs%20without%20bodies%20socrates&f=false">Organs without Bodies</a>, Socrates asks the questions, his companions politely answer and occasionally offer a few feeble challenges, before everyone agrees with Socrates, gushing “The matter never struck me before; but I quite recognise the truth of your remark”.</p>
<p>As a model for challenging ideas or nutting through complex issues, the example of the Socratic method that has come down to us doesn’t have much to recommend it. It seems better suited to starting a cult. And while that might be good for student retention, I’m not sure that’s what the advocates of the Socratic method were aiming at.</p>
<p>The choice offered by traditionalists and the technologists is a false one. In almost every sphere of life, the online and the face-to-face merge almost seamlessly.</p>
<p>Our personal lives are plastered all over Facebook and Twitter, yet the pervasiveness of cafes suggests that people still want the embodied presence of others. Why should we expect education to be any different?</p>
<p>A more productive conversation is not to insist on the primacy of online or the face-to-face, but rather to wholeheartedly embrace both. This is to leverage different modes of delivery to create more effective learning and teaching experiences.</p>
<p>One way to do so is to harness technology to make more effective use of the valuable time teachers and students meet face-to-face. The guiding principle should be that any transmissible material should be delivered online. It should be put into bite-sized chunks and presented to students to be read/watched/listened to in their own time.</p>
<p>Doing so frees up valuable face-to-face teaching time to engage in active learning exercises, in-class discussions, and practicals.</p>
<p>While wholly online subjects and ones that are delivered predominantly in the face-to-face will continue, the bulk of courses in higher education will begin to resemble the rest of contemporary social life: a complex blending of both the online and face-to-face.</p>
<p>Rather than devoting more time and effort wrestling with the debate between face-to-face and technology, our efforts would be better spent exploring the best practices of education using all the tools at our disposal.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34135/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Scanlon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ever since the invention of the printed word, academics have been arguing about the proper place of technology in teaching. On one side are those who I’ll call the traditionalists who insist on the primacy…Christopher Scanlon, Academic Director, Learning Focus Area Hub, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/321162014-11-11T05:52:22Z2014-11-11T05:52:22ZFacebook fight: why we banned laptops, iPads and smartphones in lectures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63769/original/9nm5vjbs-1415205768.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who are you working for?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://startbloggingonline.com/">startbloggingonline.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I recently invited a top management consultant to give a guest lecture at my course at Copenhagen Business School. I went to sit among the students during the talk. They had been instructed to take notes, since the consultant was to be case material for their exam. Despite this, I watched a student sitting less than one metre in front of me spend almost the entire two-hour lecture on Facebook and private email. </p>
<p>During those two hours I painfully realised that something had gone devastatingly wrong in our contemporary attempts to uphold teaching and learning as distinguished and engaging activities.</p>
<p>A recent Scandinavian <a href="http://www.b.dk/nationalt/hjerneforsker-opfordrer-skoler-til-at-blokere-facebook-0">study</a> showed that virtually all high-school students have their Facebook account open during classes. My <a href="http://politiken.dk/debat/kroniken/ECE2324568/halvdelen-af-de-studerende-bliver-vaek-fra-undervisningen/">own experiences</a> and the considerable <a href="http://politik.tv2.dk/2014-06-26-professor-%E2%80%98danske-studerende-laver-alt-lidt%E2%80%99">debate in Denmark</a> that the publication of these experiences caused suggest that between 25% and 50% of the students in a given lecture at university are also present on social media. Even if we follow the most conservative estimates, the problem – at all levels of the global educational system – is tremendous.</p>
<p>The fact is that a large proportion of students are not mentally present during class. This then leaves the rest of the student group permanently distracted by those “leaving class” via social media: the tantalising Facebook logo popping up on some students’ screens will inevitable fuel everyone’s fear of missing out. The teacher is then left to the merciless competition with the social media for the students’ attention – a competition even the most gifted teacher will eventually lose. </p>
<h2>Social media success</h2>
<p>Senior professors occasionally insist that today’s students are lazier than their predecessors, but this is plainly wrong. Students work hard and, in the hours they spend in lectures, they create enormous amounts of value. The problem is that this is not value accredited only to their personal educational merits or their alma mater’s knowledge production. It also represents value for Facebook, a corporation already <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ecc0f050-37a3-11e4-bd0a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3EDpvm3kk">worth $200 billion</a>.</p>
<p>A considerable part of this value is produced in lecture halls throughout the world. This contribution is critical for Facebook’s stock value, but the consequences for universities and their students are catastrophic: the loss of time and creativity is colossal. </p>
<p>A solid university degree, obtained through focused study, may potentially secure you a job. An armada of Facebook friends and thousands of updates on your timeline simply indicates how effectively your free labour is harvested by Facebook.</p>
<p>This is so much more baffling, as universities were built as places where time should not be wasted, but filled with creative work, an idea carried over from its monastic predecessors. At the monastery, time could not be wasted since time belonged to God: one needed to be ready, because God would return at any given time and claim it back. </p>
<h2>Benedictine rulebook</h2>
<p>The founder of one of the greatest monastic orders, <a href="http://www.osb.org/">Saint Benedict</a>, realised this need for preparedness in a way still apt for today’s universities. The short form of his rule is <em>ora et labora</em>, roughly translated into “think and work” (it literally translates as “pray and work”). While modern-day universities allow for a great deal of “thinking”, they have downplayed “work” – that is, the intense focus on the production of tangible results such as reading difficult books, solving problems and coming up with new ideas. </p>
<p>The café culture of communicating freely and indulging in fantasy has moved into the university – invited, partly, by the desire of the modern corporate university to attract as many students as possible. Measuring university quality in terms of the number of graduates is part of this problem.</p>
<p>In trying to combat this, I have a few ideas, informed by St Benedict, the patron saint of students. His focus on “thinking and working” needs to be turned into a mantra relevant for modern students. </p>
<h2>Laptop ban in action</h2>
<p>Angered by the blue Facebook light, those ubiquitous and shiny white apples and the comatose students dominating the lecture hall, I worked with colleagues to come up with a set of Benedictine rules to try out. We enforced these rules in two courses at Copenhagen Business School’s <a href="http://www.cbs.dk/en/study/graduate/msc-in-business-administration-and-philosophy">Philosophy and Business programme</a> this autumn.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63770/original/2nxmjfqy-1415205880.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63770/original/2nxmjfqy-1415205880.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63770/original/2nxmjfqy-1415205880.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63770/original/2nxmjfqy-1415205880.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63770/original/2nxmjfqy-1415205880.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63770/original/2nxmjfqy-1415205880.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63770/original/2nxmjfqy-1415205880.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wall of laptops.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattcornock/8938621161">mattcornock</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, attendance is mandatory in all classes, a practice hitherto alien to Scandinavian students. As we can’t yet formally punish failure to meet the rules, it is all still based on voluntary submission to them – just like in a real monastery. Furthermore, all students now need to equip themselves with nameplates and accept that they may be called upon by the professors at any time to answer questions or participate in discussions. On top of this, no laptops, iPads or smartphones are allowed during class. They may be consulted during breaks.</p>
<p>The immediate reception of the rules did include some surprised faces and one or two laptops closed very reluctantly. Yet the response by the time the first evaluation came around after two months was unison: “This course’s ban of computers is a tremendous relief!” From the professor’s perspective, the change in the lecture hall is palpable: students are now physically and spiritually present and seem to be relieved not to be contributing their labour to Facebook’s coffers any more. They are all ready to listen and partake, down to the last row.</p>
<p>A lot more experimentation and exchange of experiences is needed to counteract the Facebook invasion into higher education and so restore the university’s role as a place for both thinking and working. But the Rule of Benedict is one place to begin.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bent Meier Sørensen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>I recently invited a top management consultant to give a guest lecture at my course at Copenhagen Business School. I went to sit among the students during the talk. They had been instructed to take notes…Bent Meier Sørensen, Professor in Philosophy and Business, Copenhagen Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/269052014-05-21T00:38:33Z2014-05-21T00:38:33ZAre lectures a good way to learn?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48861/original/zyk52vfs-1400478247.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Should lectures come with a warning label that they may cause drowsiness and hinder learning?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/downloading_tips.mhtml?code=&id=134734202&size=medium&image_format=jpg&method=download&super_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTQwMDUwNjkzNiwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTM0NzM0MjAyIiwicCI6InYxfDEwMTI3NTg4fDEzNDczNDIwMiIsImsiOiJwaG90by8xMzQ3MzQyMDIvbWVkaXVtLmpwZyIsIm0iOiIxIiwiZCI6InNodXR0ZXJzdG9jay1tZWRpYSJ9LCJGdDJTQjZwSXlxNlVJSk42enBPcVlnS1UwN2siXQ%2Fshutterstock_134734202.jpg&racksite_id=ny&chosen_subscription=redownload_standard&license=standard&src=ExTajPS9dmvh7U0kSuMRWQ-1-4">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine a future where university enrolment paperwork is accompanied by the statement: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Warning: lectures may stunt your academic performance and increase risk of failure.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Researchers from the United States have just published an <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/05/08/1319030111">exhaustive review</a> and their findings support that warning. They read every available research study comparing traditional lectures with active learning in science, engineering and mathematics. Traditional lecture-based courses are correlated with significantly poorer performance in terms of failure rates and marks.</p>
<p>The study’s authors <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/05/empzeal-active-learning/">boldly compare</a> our new awareness of the harm done by lectures to the harms of smoking. Their article – they claim – is the equivalent of the 1964 <a href="http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/NN/p-nid/60">Surgeon-General’s report</a> that led to legislated warnings about smoking in the United States. The renowned physics education researcher Eric Mazur has described continuing with lectures in the face of this new evidence as <a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/education/2014/05/lectures-arent-just-boring-theyre-ineffective-too-study-finds">“almost unethical”</a>.</p>
<p>This paper is so important because it combines 225 individual research studies through a technique called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta-analysis">meta-analysis</a>. So although individual studies published over the past 70 years may have occasionally found lectures to be better, we now know that the collective evidence is in support of active approaches.</p>
<h2>So what’s the alternative?</h2>
<p>Rather than the perfect lecturer performance or PowerPoints, active approaches privilege <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0729436990180105#.U3luAK0WW6I">“what the student does”</a>. Courses built around active learning require students to spend class time engaged in meaningful tasks that lead to learning. These tasks might be online or face-to-face; solo or in a group; theoretical or applied. Most of our popular learning and teaching buzzwords at the moment are active approaches: <a href="http://mazur.harvard.edu/research/detailspage.php?rowid=8">peer instruction</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem-based_learning">problem-based learning</a>, and <a href="http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/flipping-the-classroom/">flipping the classroom</a> are all focused on students spending precious class time doing, not listening.</p>
<p>This new study confirms a significant difference in student achievement and failure rates between lectures and active learning. A hypothetical average student would move up to the top third of the class if allowed to participate in active learning instead of lectures. The difference in failure rates was large too: students in lecture courses were 1.5 times more likely to fail than active learning students. Active learning was better than lectures for all class sizes and all of the science, engineering and mathematics fields they considered.</p>
<p>But active learning as defined in this study is such a broad term. If your lecturer pauses to get you to solve a problem in a group, or asks you to explain a concept to the person sitting next to you, that is active learning. Worksheets, workshops or other activities taking up at least 10% of class time was enough to get a class labelled “active”.</p>
<p>Rather than a call to abandon lectures, this study is important evidence that we need to improve them. We now know beyond all reasonable doubt that talking at students non-stop for an hour or two is a bad idea. But we knew that already, didn’t we? </p>
<p>Sadly, the study authors calculate that in their dataset of 29,300 students, there were 3,516 students who failed but would not have failed if they were in an active class. They go on to muse that if those studies were conducted by medical researchers they would have stopped the experiments for ethical reasons, as denying the students access to active classes was harmful.</p>
<p>So perhaps the warning label should read: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Warning: <strong>bad</strong> lectures may stunt your academic performance and increase risk of failure.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What makes a good lecture?</h2>
<p>In <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/What_s_the_Use_of_Lectures.html?id=l-xxxqZXUU8C&redir_esc=y"><em>What’s the Use of Lectures</em></a>, Donald Bligh notes: “One of the most common mistakes by lecturers is to use the lecture method at all”.</p>
<p>Bligh’s review of the research found that aside from transmitting information to students, lectures were not good for much at all. Lectures should not be a default teaching approach, but should instead be used in a targeted way when they suit the specific goals of the class. For other goals, such as teaching ethics, provoking thought, or developing practical skills, more active approaches work better than lectures.</p>
<p>There is some debate about the ideal length of lectures, with claims that student attention diminishes after 10 or 15 minutes, however <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00986280701291291#.U3l_Na0WW6I">the evidence behind these claims is thin</a>. This doesn’t, however, give us permission to waffle on: <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/xap/14/4/329/">unnecessary-but-interesting details can hurt learning</a>, and so can <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&uid=2005-02947-002">excessive quantitative information</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26905/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phillip Dawson receives funding from the Office for Learning and Teaching.</span></em></p>Imagine a future where university enrolment paperwork is accompanied by the statement: Warning: lectures may stunt your academic performance and increase risk of failure. Researchers from the United States…Phillip Dawson, Lecturer in Learning and Teaching, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/213282014-03-10T19:54:25Z2014-03-10T19:54:25ZTo lecture or not to lecture: is technology reinventing the campus?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42271/original/9qg99myc-1393200869.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=291%2C0%2C3596%2C2590&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is technology signalling the end to university lectures? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/downloading_tips.mhtml?code=&id=177025595&size=huge&image_format=jpg&method=download&super_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTM5MzIyOTM4NywiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTc3MDI1NTk1IiwicCI6InYxfDEwMTI3NTg4fDE3NzAyNTU5NSIsImsiOiJwaG90by8xNzcwMjU1OTUvaHVnZS5qcGciLCJtIjoiMSIsImQiOiJzaHV0dGVyc3RvY2stbWVkaWEifSwiUkxLMkJUOUhtSVJTY1lNKzdOTXdrRFBPZTFRIl0%2Fshutterstock_177025595.jpg&racksite_id=ny&chosen_subscription=1&license=standard&src=FHZswP86teB0ivV2mbsuAg-1-106">www.shutterstock.com.au</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><strong>With technology changing the landscape of higher education, The Conversation is running a series “Re-imagining the Campus” on the future of campus learning. Here, Tom Cochrane outlines how technology is transforming the everyday lecture</strong></p>
<hr>
<p>In the plethora of debate about higher education in at least the last two decades, few issues have attracted the same level of attention as the effect and influence of digital technology. For good reason, of course, as there are no institutions, activities or businesses that are unaffected by such influence. In 2013 the global frenzy attending the mention of the word “MOOC” is the standout example.</p>
<p>But in the case of Higher Education the discussion is often superficial, repetitious and disappointing. It’s too often context free, and about being a university student and/or academic.</p>
<p>Technology prediction has an established pattern now, discernible in so many fields. It’s a three phase pattern: first, no sooner is a new capability or application described, than predictions about its utility start to propagate and flourish, driven partly by the trade literature and sales imperatives of the industry. Second, the imagined changes have a pattern of not arriving as forecast, and then attracting doubt and pessimism. And third, this in turn paves the way for a later serious misreading, or underestimation of the longer term impact of a particular innovation or group of innovations.</p>
<p>This syndrome is widespread, and has been represented in the technology literature by such well known models as the <a href="http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp">Gartner Hype cycle</a>. It has many applications in university settings.</p>
<p>The belief that online education will replace on-campus studies is a long standing and unrealised prediction. One of the more conspicuous predictions was <a href="http://www.ucs.mun.ca/%7Eemurphy/stemnet/school.html">Lewis Perelman’s <em>School’s Out: Hyperlearning, The New Technology, and the End of Education</em></a>, which is astonishingly now over 20 years old.</p>
<p>But in the last 24 months there has been a new wave of debate and speculation about the great disruptor, “Online”. And the serious question is – is this a third phase revival?</p>
<p>Past arguments have failed to define and observe a difference between higher education and other forms of education and training. This essentially stems from a mistaken perception the university experience can be replicated online.</p>
<p>That difference is marked by the expectation that being at university will be engaging, personally challenging, and transformative of careers and lives.</p>
<p>The things that people look for, and pay for, in higher education are not to be ignored or diminished, and we should bear this in mind when re-imaginging the lecture and its future. The lecture has a long history of criticism and poor regard. There’s not a graduate who doesn’t recall poor and unengaging experiences – but there are some who may recall engaging, if not transformative experiences.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42276/original/mk7fn3dk-1393203038.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42276/original/mk7fn3dk-1393203038.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42276/original/mk7fn3dk-1393203038.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42276/original/mk7fn3dk-1393203038.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42276/original/mk7fn3dk-1393203038.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42276/original/mk7fn3dk-1393203038.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42276/original/mk7fn3dk-1393203038.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42276/original/mk7fn3dk-1393203038.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Long live the lecture?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/teddy-rised/2814710002/in/photolist-5hJ8dN-5qZSJ3-5qZTg7-5GpHVk-6tR7ur-6tSFtp-6VnZeY-73h2Uz-7j5R2i-7myLUX-8DNHug-dxvTUS-8Afg55-8Afg27-abvfqM-9uEh5a-9y8ANY-aHWLfg-kd1Lx6-cTubcS-7FXpVQ-7FTgZ6-agtkr6-7VT99n-agtkqT-8DW4f7-8DT6Fg-8DT5Dp-8DSTqV-cKumqm-8RsyFw-aHmg2D-aHmgne-9V69Yy-9V69YA-dKiApU-dKd6V8-gxLsbB-8BXnZM-aqc4eP-dWpDFJ-dWj1Ez-9uHh99-aqeNsJ-8DSUAk-8Qb4QS/lightbox/">Teddy Rised/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The issue is the lecture form in itself is not the problem. More, it is assumptions about standard length, the way it has developed as the basic component of the teaching role, and its apparent efficiency. An interesting twist in recent years is the rise of the TED lecture, the short, sharp, often inspiring monologue which is freely accessible online.</p>
<p>Most universities are engaged in attempts to improve their learning and teaching practices and environments. The advent of online creates a greater urgency to improve these practices. Traditional practices come up for justified criticism and review. The lecture as a form is part of this, but so are issues of course structures, semester timetabling, assessment methods, hiring practices, new approaches to student engagement, and course integrity.</p>
<p>Will then, the lecture endure? In some forms, yes, including online dissemination of great talks. In an intense debate in my own institution in recent years, decisions on whether to build new modern theatres or more immersive and flexible physical environments have been subject to intense scrutiny. The evidence suggests that while we, (particularly our students) will gladly abandon unrewarding lecture time, we will never abandon community, both physical and virtual. We will see the relinquishing of the lecture form as the core activity of “teaching” in many fields, but we will also need to provide for a role for the star performer: online, in the flesh, and both.</p>
<hr>
<p>Read other articles in this series <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/reimagining-the-campus">here.</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/21328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Cochrane does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With technology changing the landscape of higher education, The Conversation is running a series “Re-imagining the Campus” on the future of campus learning. Here, Tom Cochrane outlines how technology is…Tom Cochrane, Adjunct Professor Faculty of Law, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.