5 ms·

Bristol students given pre-recorded lectures by dead professor

25 points by amrrs 5y ago

earthboundkid 5y ago
The books are probably by dead people too.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- jtbayly 5y ago
  And the buildings they are sitting in, in all likelihood, were built by people who are dead now.
- agilob 5y ago
  But we get new revisions when updates come, can read reviews and they don't cost £11000 per year.
- Brian_K_White 5y ago
  But a book is not a professor. You can't ask it for clarification or a different way of explaining. You can't argue with it. It can't read you and sense something that went by you and back up until you definitely got step b before proceeding to step c. It can't wtite you a letter of recommendation. Why even go to a school if all you will get there are recordings? Books were already available, even for free. Books are invaluable of course, and some people don't need anything more, and I love a good Feynman lecture recording as the next guy, but these are not school or teachers.
  - hayd 5y ago
    Presumably there's TAs (and your peers). I honestly think a world where we have fewer performers, making recorded lectures (that can be re-watched, paused etc), and more active teachers (TA-like roles) to help guide students would make for a much better university experience. No need for a full professor to clarify, help, or write recommendation letters. Many fantastic researchers are simply terrible at lecturing (and teaching)... Edit: Same goes for high-school. I learned best when struggling to understand courses/working through homework with my peers.
isaacimagine 5y ago
404?
- david_allison 5y ago
  Fixed: https://thetab.com/uk/bristol/2022/02/24/bristol-students-given-pre-recorded-lectures-by-dead-professor-48219 https://thetab.com/uk/bristol/2022/02/24/bristol-students-gi...
Qem 5y ago
Being a teacher is a ugly duckling between the professions that require higher education, in terms of pay. Now that people have to compete with their dead peers, the job market will finish going to shit.
nonrandomstring 5y ago
This is quite interesting because there's obviously several implied sets of values under discussion. Taste. Legality. Economics. Maybe more... If the proverbial bus squashed me tomorrow I'd be rather pleased that my recorded lectures continued to be watched and gave some use to students. The internet is full of talks, conference keynotes and lecture series by people who have passed on, and in a sense the longevity of ones work is a good indicator of its value. The issue is that universities are cheapskates. I can certainly confirm that. They're bloody mercenaries, that's for sure. It never occurred to me until the pandemic, when the topic was raised amongst colleagues, whether my recorded sessions were 'works for hire' or not. I actually assumed, in a rather good natured way, that should I be unable to give a course one semester, the uni (next module leader) were free to use my slides and videos. Most times if I inherit a module to give I'd rather make my own materials, but sometimes if in a hurry using the previous professor's stuff feels fine. There are unwritten academic rules around attribution etc. One should never substantially use the works of an another teacher without leaving their name on the titles and slides. Not all unis play fair. I was once contacted out of the blue by a student at Queen Mary University London who sent me an email saying their class was being taught using my slides and website materials, with my name deliberately taken off and passed off as the work of another professor. That's a bloody Russell Group institution! This raises another interesting question around self-plagiarising or the ethics of selling my work many times. Being a visiting prof at more than a few universities, I sometimes reuse and remix my own materials to put new courses together. Once I felt rather bad about re-badging a whole module of 10 lectures. But then, neither institution were paying me adequately for them. Since the pandemic I've done a lot more legal research and got more savvy about it all. Basically, my stuff is now explicitly _not_ work for hire. I think anyone who teaches and allows their materials to be captured should look into where they stand legally. Universities are cheeky little monkeys and will try it on whenever they can. So I've started to use CC BY 4.0 explicitly in my materials and contracts. Most administrators have no idea what that means and just pay regardless. If an institution wants ownership I now charge three or four times as much. Most are happy with that so far.
universlgreeble 5y ago
This is going very common not only univ and colleges. Any org which have adopted this method of instruction. Its radical to the employment agreement between the human and organization and is going to get caught up in the byzantium labyrinth of copyrights as well. I say its a slide down the slope of having lectures by the PHD then breakout sessions by the TA PHD candidate and tutoring by the class ahead. In any online course environment, you might never know if the person responding to office hours is alive or dead if it's just by submission in a text box. Requiring video cameras goes toward the student's interests but is a doubledged sword as Profs could downgrade/upgrade based on factors outside submitted work and students could game it on their side as well. This is assuming machine grading isn't happening in the first place. Education is funny... no one is complaining on behalf of Plato who isn't getting his due or the modern student didn't get theirs as he's been unavailable for comment since 347 BC.

25 points by amrrs 5y ago

earthboundkid 5y ago

The books are probably by dead people too.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
jtbayly 5y ago
And the buildings they are sitting in, in all likelihood, were built by people who are dead now.
agilob 5y ago
But we get new revisions when updates come, can read reviews and they don't cost £11000 per year.
Brian_K_White 5y ago
But a book is not a professor. You can't ask it for clarification or a different way of explaining. You can't argue with it. It can't read you and sense something that went by you and back up until you definitely got step b before proceeding to step c. It can't wtite you a letter of recommendation. Why even go to a school if all you will get there are recordings? Books were already available, even for free. Books are invaluable of course, and some people don't need anything more, and I love a good Feynman lecture recording as the next guy, but these are not school or teachers.
- hayd 5y ago
  Presumably there's TAs (and your peers). I honestly think a world where we have fewer performers, making recorded lectures (that can be re-watched, paused etc), and more active teachers (TA-like roles) to help guide students would make for a much better university experience. No need for a full professor to clarify, help, or write recommendation letters. Many fantastic researchers are simply terrible at lecturing (and teaching)... Edit: Same goes for high-school. I learned best when struggling to understand courses/working through homework with my peers.

isaacimagine 5y ago

404?

david_allison 5y ago
Fixed: https://thetab.com/uk/bristol/2022/02/24/bristol-students-given-pre-recorded-lectures-by-dead-professor-48219 https://thetab.com/uk/bristol/2022/02/24/bristol-students-gi...

Qem 5y ago

Being a teacher is a ugly duckling between the professions that require higher education, in terms of pay. Now that people have to compete with their dead peers, the job market will finish going to shit.

nonrandomstring 5y ago

This is quite interesting because there's obviously several implied sets of values under discussion. Taste. Legality. Economics. Maybe more... If the proverbial bus squashed me tomorrow I'd be rather pleased that my recorded lectures continued to be watched and gave some use to students. The internet is full of talks, conference keynotes and lecture series by people who have passed on, and in a sense the longevity of ones work is a good indicator of its value. The issue is that universities are cheapskates. I can certainly confirm that. They're bloody mercenaries, that's for sure. It never occurred to me until the pandemic, when the topic was raised amongst colleagues, whether my recorded sessions were 'works for hire' or not. I actually assumed, in a rather good natured way, that should I be unable to give a course one semester, the uni (next module leader) were free to use my slides and videos. Most times if I inherit a module to give I'd rather make my own materials, but sometimes if in a hurry using the previous professor's stuff feels fine. There are unwritten academic rules around attribution etc. One should never substantially use the works of an another teacher without leaving their name on the titles and slides. Not all unis play fair. I was once contacted out of the blue by a student at Queen Mary University London who sent me an email saying their class was being taught using my slides and website materials, with my name deliberately taken off and passed off as the work of another professor. That's a bloody Russell Group institution! This raises another interesting question around self-plagiarising or the ethics of selling my work many times. Being a visiting prof at more than a few universities, I sometimes reuse and remix my own materials to put new courses together. Once I felt rather bad about re-badging a whole module of 10 lectures. But then, neither institution were paying me adequately for them. Since the pandemic I've done a lot more legal research and got more savvy about it all. Basically, my stuff is now explicitly _not_ work for hire. I think anyone who teaches and allows their materials to be captured should look into where they stand legally. Universities are cheeky little monkeys and will try it on whenever they can. So I've started to use CC BY 4.0 explicitly in my materials and contracts. Most administrators have no idea what that means and just pay regardless. If an institution wants ownership I now charge three or four times as much. Most are happy with that so far.

universlgreeble 5y ago

This is going very common not only univ and colleges. Any org which have adopted this method of instruction. Its radical to the employment agreement between the human and organization and is going to get caught up in the byzantium labyrinth of copyrights as well. I say its a slide down the slope of having lectures by the PHD then breakout sessions by the TA PHD candidate and tutoring by the class ahead. In any online course environment, you might never know if the person responding to office hours is alive or dead if it's just by submission in a text box. Requiring video cameras goes toward the student's interests but is a doubledged sword as Profs could downgrade/upgrade based on factors outside submitted work and students could game it on their side as well. This is assuming machine grading isn't happening in the first place. Education is funny... no one is complaining on behalf of Plato who isn't getting his due or the modern student didn't get theirs as he's been unavailable for comment since 347 BC.