3 ms·

And so they should. My experience at uni usually involved going to the lecture, not quite grasping the rushed material, then heading to the computer lab after

And so they should. My experience at uni usually involved going to the lecture, not quite grasping the rushed material, then heading to the computer lab after to stream a YouTube video on the same topic to actually understand it. Why was I going to the lectures then? Who knows, on the offhand chance I might ask a question. Now I'm on the other side of the looking glass, I see three types of uni students - those who group collaborate and therefore are confident enough to ask questions in class (because they no longer fear their peers), those who are silent throughout because they do fear their peers, and those who are silent throughout because they've already read the lecture notes. The only ones who gain are the students who make use of this collaborative environment to ask free questions. TLDR - You pay for the environment. The lecture notes, the knowledge - all exist on YouTube

jmspring 7y ago
Horseshit. The instructor has a serious impact on how the material is presented. I had transform mathematics from David Huffman of Huffman coding fame at the same time I had a similar physics math course. Both got to the same end, but I only passed both because of the approach and the notes I had from Huffman. Everyone learns differently and that situation where a professor can convey things on a way that clicks isn’t going to happen with a random YouTube video.
- maskboy 7y ago
  Horeshit. having taken lin alg with Gil Strang and simultaneously watched his Youtube videos, I can confidently say that Youtube Gil Strang clicked while realtime Strang confused. ;)
- tetris11 7y ago
  You bring up David Huffman, but how many Huffman's and Feynman's are there out there? Many postdocs who teach are just beginning their academic careers and are juggling running their analyses and creating their profiles that will bring them fame, against their less rewarding teaching duties. My academic has peaked, so I put more of myself into teaching and training and often find it rewarding when I interact freely with a few keen individuals, but the majority of students out there aren't keen. They're there because they are forced to learn to my schedule and not theirs
  - peteri 7y ago
    There are enough of them, to be honest I passed my degree by the skin of my teeth because I'd spent a year out in industry and found some of it a bit too academic. I do still however fondly remember my CS101 course with Richard Bornat (who I thought was an excellent lecturer) and wish I'd taken more interest in the lambda calculus elements of the curriculum (we had Peter Landin as head of department) but at the point in time I was heading more down a C / embedded systems / ASIC path.
- tootahe45 7y ago
  I trust youtube videos rated well by millions of people over the average professor's ability to convey info. Few people go to the top colleges with the best professors.
  - detaro 7y ago
    "top colleges" are "top" because of rankings prioritizing research output. Don't expect them to have a monopoly on the best teachers.
    - MisterBastahrd 7y ago
      Watch a video from a Harvard prof and then one from a directional state school. The Harvard guy usually expects a lot more out of his students, but he's also a million times better at explaining the course content.
wildpeaks 7y ago
I'd even go so far as to say it's a superior experience because you can speed up the filler, rewind when something is unclear or when new information give a different context, and pause while looking up something up. And you can still ask questions asynchronously (so there isn't a time pressure for the teacher to answer something quickly) in the comments, with a precise timestamp instead of relying on human memory of what has been said; other students can even answer too. In-person university lectures are the only time I experienced boredom because it felt like such an inefficient way to learn things.
hombre_fatal 7y ago
I thought the same as you for most of uni, usually bitter that I was paying $4500 for a course when I couldn't understand the TA anyways and had to watch Youtube videos to do homework. And that's definitely how most of my classes were. Or they were massive lecture halls with zero interaction with the prof. But then I had a slew of amazing professors in my final year including a philosophy class that was so compelling to me that, after graduating, I sat in their class for a semester without even being enrolled. I went to a large state school (University of Texas). Sometimes I wonder how different uni would have been for me academically if I went to a tiny school with consistently small classes, as those were always my best experiences in uni. For example, my calculus classes were so bad at UT (rushed, couldn't interact with the professor, assumed you learned everything outside of class) that I ended up getting my two calculus classes out of the way at a Houston community college over the summer. And man, the class was slow paced, everyone had a chance to ask questions, only 12 kids were in the class. It blew my mind that that class was $60 and my crowded, rushed UT class was $4500. Something just isn't right in our higher education system.

jmspring 7y ago

Horseshit. The instructor has a serious impact on how the material is presented. I had transform mathematics from David Huffman of Huffman coding fame at the same time I had a similar physics math course. Both got to the same end, but I only passed both because of the approach and the notes I had from Huffman. Everyone learns differently and that situation where a professor can convey things on a way that clicks isn’t going to happen with a random YouTube video.

maskboy 7y ago
Horeshit. having taken lin alg with Gil Strang and simultaneously watched his Youtube videos, I can confidently say that Youtube Gil Strang clicked while realtime Strang confused. ;)
tetris11 7y ago
You bring up David Huffman, but how many Huffman's and Feynman's are there out there? Many postdocs who teach are just beginning their academic careers and are juggling running their analyses and creating their profiles that will bring them fame, against their less rewarding teaching duties. My academic has peaked, so I put more of myself into teaching and training and often find it rewarding when I interact freely with a few keen individuals, but the majority of students out there aren't keen. They're there because they are forced to learn to my schedule and not theirs
- peteri 7y ago
  There are enough of them, to be honest I passed my degree by the skin of my teeth because I'd spent a year out in industry and found some of it a bit too academic. I do still however fondly remember my CS101 course with Richard Bornat (who I thought was an excellent lecturer) and wish I'd taken more interest in the lambda calculus elements of the curriculum (we had Peter Landin as head of department) but at the point in time I was heading more down a C / embedded systems / ASIC path.
tootahe45 7y ago
I trust youtube videos rated well by millions of people over the average professor's ability to convey info. Few people go to the top colleges with the best professors.
- detaro 7y ago
  "top colleges" are "top" because of rankings prioritizing research output. Don't expect them to have a monopoly on the best teachers.
  - MisterBastahrd 7y ago
    Watch a video from a Harvard prof and then one from a directional state school. The Harvard guy usually expects a lot more out of his students, but he's also a million times better at explaining the course content.

wildpeaks 7y ago

I'd even go so far as to say it's a superior experience because you can speed up the filler, rewind when something is unclear or when new information give a different context, and pause while looking up something up. And you can still ask questions asynchronously (so there isn't a time pressure for the teacher to answer something quickly) in the comments, with a precise timestamp instead of relying on human memory of what has been said; other students can even answer too. In-person university lectures are the only time I experienced boredom because it felt like such an inefficient way to learn things.

hombre_fatal 7y ago

I thought the same as you for most of uni, usually bitter that I was paying $4500 for a course when I couldn't understand the TA anyways and had to watch Youtube videos to do homework. And that's definitely how most of my classes were. Or they were massive lecture halls with zero interaction with the prof. But then I had a slew of amazing professors in my final year including a philosophy class that was so compelling to me that, after graduating, I sat in their class for a semester without even being enrolled. I went to a large state school (University of Texas). Sometimes I wonder how different uni would have been for me academically if I went to a tiny school with consistently small classes, as those were always my best experiences in uni. For example, my calculus classes were so bad at UT (rushed, couldn't interact with the professor, assumed you learned everything outside of class) that I ended up getting my two calculus classes out of the way at a Houston community college over the summer. And man, the class was slow paced, everyone had a chance to ask questions, only 12 kids were in the class. It blew my mind that that class was $60 and my crowded, rushed UT class was $4500. Something just isn't right in our higher education system.