Tony Bates blog dated 27 July 2014, on ‘Why lectures are dead (or soon will be)’.
http://www.tonybates.ca/2014/07/27/why-lectures-are-dead-or-soon-will-be/
comments on why lectures persist in in 21st century universities:
Things have changed. These days, many students (possibly most) come to university without well developed independent study skills. Many are working part-time. They need scaffolding to help them use their out-of-class study time effectively. The online environment can provide more than just flexibility in the time and place of study. It can also scaffold development of independent learning skills; by structuring how the students access information, research, discuss amongst themselves, organise groups, check their knowledge and so on.
There is lots of rhetoric about student-centred learning design. Universities are investing in collaborative and informal learning spaces, online learning systems and campus wifi. So, why are so many universities still measuring teaching work by hours spent with students in class, and even defining student workloads by classroom time as well?
Classroom teacher-centred definitions of study and learning create huge problems for blended learning, where students learn both in class and online. Teaching work is often allocated at the last minute and only for the current teaching period - with no allowance for developing and testing online resources and activities, and no formal recognition of time spent facilitating online work. This doesn't exactly encourage innovative use of the online learning environment.
While many universities quote a nominal number of hours of study per subject per semester, in my experience, this is rarely used to design learning activities. Instead there is usually just a vague estimate of how long students will have to spend on preparing their assignments etc. At the University of Western Sydney we’ve developed a more student-centred definition of blended learning, using four categories of student activity:
Ideally we should be using learning analytics to observe patterns in how students are using our online study facilities, and combining this with student feedback, to inform curricula that are designed in terms of how students spend their study time overall, not what the teachers do in class.
http://www.tonybates.ca/2014/07/27/why-lectures-are-dead-or-soon-will-be/
comments on why lectures persist in in 21st century universities:
- they only continue in higher education
- they’re seen as economically efficient ( in terms of lecturer time)
- architectural inertia
- Carnegie measure of one hour per week of lectures per credit over 13 weeks
- teacher/expert focused.
Things have changed. These days, many students (possibly most) come to university without well developed independent study skills. Many are working part-time. They need scaffolding to help them use their out-of-class study time effectively. The online environment can provide more than just flexibility in the time and place of study. It can also scaffold development of independent learning skills; by structuring how the students access information, research, discuss amongst themselves, organise groups, check their knowledge and so on.
There is lots of rhetoric about student-centred learning design. Universities are investing in collaborative and informal learning spaces, online learning systems and campus wifi. So, why are so many universities still measuring teaching work by hours spent with students in class, and even defining student workloads by classroom time as well?
Classroom teacher-centred definitions of study and learning create huge problems for blended learning, where students learn both in class and online. Teaching work is often allocated at the last minute and only for the current teaching period - with no allowance for developing and testing online resources and activities, and no formal recognition of time spent facilitating online work. This doesn't exactly encourage innovative use of the online learning environment.
While many universities quote a nominal number of hours of study per subject per semester, in my experience, this is rarely used to design learning activities. Instead there is usually just a vague estimate of how long students will have to spend on preparing their assignments etc. At the University of Western Sydney we’ve developed a more student-centred definition of blended learning, using four categories of student activity:
- Time spent with a teacher physically present in synchronous learning environments.
- Time spent doing structured activities online
- Time spent on self-directed study or research (whether on a device or on paper; on the bus, at home, or on campus; singly or in groups)
- Time spent on work placements or external projects.
Ideally we should be using learning analytics to observe patterns in how students are using our online study facilities, and combining this with student feedback, to inform curricula that are designed in terms of how students spend their study time overall, not what the teachers do in class.