I think my university recognized this and dealt with it depending on the size of the class as such: Small class (less than 30-40 students): not much lecturing

I think my university recognized this and dealt with it depending on the size of the class as such: Small class (less than 30-40 students): not much lecturing happening, maybe a little bit of PowerPoint but mostly interactive discussion with the professor on the readings Large class (could be several hundred students): twice-weekly lecture by professor on high-level concepts with a little Q&A at the end, then separate twice-weekly small discussion section on the readings with a grad student TA. The model of combining a mass lecture section with a small-group discussion section can scale to MOOCs, that's why they have discussion forums, and people are also forming small study groups on Facebook, Google+, and locally IRL to discuss the materials. It just requires a little more motivation on behalf of the students to form these small groups themselves instead of having them predefined for them.