What is a
lecture?
Ans: An exposition of a given subject
delivered before an audience or class, as for
the purpose of instruction
is called lecture. In this process students or audiences can hear and see the
lecturer but can’t not see what the lecturer is talking about.
What is
meant by video lecturing?
This is a process of giving the instructions to student, audiences in
such a way that they can hear the lecturer and see him or her and as well as
see what the lecturer is talking about. In short giving instruction by giving
students the opportunity to visualize the topic of instruction to get deep
understanding.
It is also called learning by watching.
Video
lectures; pros and cons
I’ve been
working with video lectures for four and a half years now, so maybe a bit of
reflection is a good thing! Below is a list of the good, the bad and the ugly
regarding speakers on screen.
Pros:
Preparing
for exams:
Students can
refresh their memories by viewing the lectures all over again just before an
exam. This would potentially up their grades
Show it
to your mum:
Students can
show their friends and families what they are learning at the university.
Show it
to prospective students:
By giving new students a taste of what’s to
come, they can make informed decisions on what path to choose in their
university careers.
Reflection:
A lecturer can check these videos and evaluate his
or her own performance. By confronting yourself with yourself in such a
manner, ticks and errors can more easily be spotted and corrected in the
future.
Evaluation:
Quality control staff can use
recorded lectures to evaluate performance.
Portfolio:
A lecturer hunting for a new job
can use such videos to show what s/he is all about.
Archive:
Think of how awesome it would be to have a video
lecture series of Max Weber or Robert Merton. Lectures are restricted to a time
and place, and once uttered lost forever. Not so with a videorecording.
Substitution:
Sometimes in university life, a
student will follow two courses which have two lectures taking place
simultaneously. In this case both lectures can still be followed if one is
taped.
Bodily
harm:
Disease, amputated limbs, chronic
hospitalization, plague quarantine: it does not necessarily have to destroy
your chances at the university. If you are indisposed for whatever reason, a
recorded lecture can help you out. This also works whenever a lecturer is
malfunctioning: his or her recordings from previous years can be used to fill
the gap.
Rewind and recheck:
If you missed the point, or you
didn’t hear it right, a recorded lecture will allow you to rewind and recheck
some parts.
On the
move:
With today’s technology you can
watch videos on mobile devices wherever you want. Many students travel by
train, and this provides an ideal opportunity to brush up on their knowledge.
Showcase:
The university can put videos of
their top lecturers on iTunes U and YouTube Edu. This can add to the prestige
of the university.
Back into
the open:
Our lectures are mostly publicly
funded. Video lectures enable us to potentially return the favour: release the
knowledge produced on the university back to the public. Sharing knowledge for
a better world!
More
time:
It is possible to use video
lectures as homework for students, to free up time during contact hours for
other things: in depth discussion, different perspectives, empirical
examples and so forth
International
co-operation:
Putting videos online means that
the same class can be followed in any number of countries. Lectures held at the
University of Amsterdam can be used in Sweden, Czech Republic, Colombia, India
and so forth, as they have during the IDS Lecture Series course.
Web based
learning:
Video lectures
can become part of a course fully held online.
Cons:
Preparing
for exams:
Students can just skip the
lectures entirely and save up all the work until just before an exam. This
results in lower class attendance, less facetime, no opportunity for questions
and so forth.
Show it
to your mum:
Students can just show these
videos to anyone, out of the lecturer’s control. Who knows where these videos
could end up?
Show it
to prospective students:
Students
seeing these lectures might be scared off. Showing them flashy promotional
videos filled with promises of excitement might be more motivating.
Reflection:
A lecturer watching him or
herself might be so horrified by the experience and would refuse to be filmed
in the future.
Evaluation:
Lecturers may feel that their
professionalism is under attack (and their job security at risk) when
regulatory bodies start investigating their lectures.
Portfolio:
Having a bunch of popular video
lectures may lead to better job offers for lecturers, robbing the host
university of talent
Archive:
Everything you say in the lecture room will be
recorded for posterity, including the dodgy, tricky and dubious bits. Maybe a
lecturer would prefer to keep their words within the four walls of the lecture
hall.
Substitution:
Having this option of video
lectures as a backup can stimulate sloppy lecture planning.
Bodily
harm:
A student with a cough or a
running nose who would ordinarily visit the lecture might now opt out due to
the video lecture option
On the
move:
In this day and age, everything
has to be fast, on demand, and no-one takes their time anymore. Academic
education requires careful deliberation and lengthy concentration. Video
lectures that are used on the go contribute to this rushed behaviour.
Showcase:
By using video lectures as a PR
tool we shift the focus from spreading of information to the public to
selectively controlling what we believe that the public should and is allowed
to see.
Back into
the open:
Lecturers create their
presentations based on their audience, which typically is a group of students.
By separating the lecture from its intended viewers, we create the risk that
the wrong sort of people will pick up on the content of a lecture, which can
create its own problems
More
time:
Lectures are a university
standard, and by outsourcing them to the digital realm you start tearing down a
centuries old tradition. Lectures are meant as a performance, one to many,
where the audience shares an experience. Atomizing the students by having them
watch lectures isolated in their little rooms is detrimental to their academic
development.
international
co-operation:
By using lectures from a far away
place, you risk destroying a job for a local person. The same lecture could
have been given by a native staff member in a native tongue, with a native
perspective that might clash with potentially Eurocentric or imperial points of
view
Web based
learning:
To borrow the concept of
alienation from Marx, what learning online does to people is alienating them
from the social act of pursuing knowledge. Without interaction with the
speaker and fellow students, someone’s intellectual growth can be stunted,
incomplete.
It turns
out that this post has become rather frivolous, my apologies. Some of the
‘cons’ took me quite some effort to make up. There are some things, however,
that are worth mentioning (again):
Run away:
Though this is not something that
happens with every course, and it is not always clear whether the cause is the
option of video or simply a boring speaker, there is sometimes a tendency for
students to stop showing up to the lecture hall. The problem with this is that
students will not be able to ask questions to the speaker or socialize with
each other during the breaks. It can be argued that university attendance
should have a strong collective element, and video does not necessarily
contribute to that
Stifled
speech:
Lecturers have often mentioned to
me that they changed their way of lecturing because they are aware of the
camera pointed at them. This leads them to sometimes be less candid and more
careful about the things they discuss, because they never know who is watching,
and whether they might get in trouble for speaking their minds or being
careless with anecdotes or personal remarks.
Privacy:
Often a lecturer will turn down the recording
option because they fear they will lose control over their words. They are
afraid that (parts of) their lecture ends up on YouTube, with ridicule or harassment
as potential results.
Policy
abuse:
Department policymakers can, in a cost-cutting
frenzy, decide to completely substitute a course for a video lecture. This
means that people lose their jobs, or less jobs will be available, not to
mention that having a person of flesh and blood instructing a class trumps any
non-interactive video series. Video lectures are better used as part of a
course, rather than a replacement of a course.
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