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Dijkstra describes when instruction at a university ought to look like. However, this requires an experienced lecturer and properly enculturated students, and

Dijkstra describes when instruction at a university ought to look like. However, this requires an experienced lecturer and properly enculturated students, and where do you get them from if you haven't got them already? If I go too fast, it is your duty to slow me down Haven't we all met inexperienced TAs who mention the salient points but not what makes them salient, and when you call them out they hide behind their great self-confidence? If I give homework, I give you tasks of which I believe that working on them is very instructive for you I think everyone has had their share of ill-set or plain pointless homework at uni. I will not use the overhead projector A colleague had a student mutiny because he refused to put up his lecture slides for download. The students were complaining that they had to copy lecture notes from a friend if they didn't show up.

dman 13y ago
I honestly never understood the TA thing. Why not just reach out to the professor in their open hours or before / after the lecture?
- munin 13y ago
  this presumes that: - professors have open hours - professors can be found before or after the lecture - professors respond to your email - professors ever go to their offices
  - PhearTheCeal 13y ago
    Which is ultimately a presumption that the professor still cares about teaching after they have earned tenure.
    - fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
      Tenure schmenure, if you want profs who do interesting research, they'll need some time to tend to that research.
- HarryHirsch 13y ago
  Because the professor doesn't scale, not in an introductory class with > 100 students. Most all problems with the material that arise there can be dealt with with the help of the TA. At graduate level it's different, of course.
- greenyoda 13y ago
  A competent TA might have more of a rapport with a student, since they'd be closer in age and experience. It's likely that a grad student TA has recently taken the same classes and done the same kind of assignments. Also, a TA may have more time to spend with a struggling student than a professor has. (I've been a TA.)
- Fomite 13y ago
  One thing that hasn't been mentioned - sometimes it helps to have a second voice explaining things, if you didn't get it the first time. If there's something about the professors explanation that is the problem, even if they're accessible it may not help. A good TA can help approach things from a different direction.
ronaldx 13y ago
>A colleague had a student mutiny because he refused to put up his lecture slides for download. I am an educator: It's important for accessibility and educational reasons to offer information in written form as well as lecture form. When Dijkstra says "You will be treated as grown-ups" - this is precisely an example of where you must take this advice and assume that students are asking for genuine reasons. It's entirely reasonable to offer freestyle lectures (as Dijkstra apparently did), but the only reason to avoid giving students full access to a complete set of written educational material for the course is through laziness/inability to do a proper job or a wish to inappropriately exert power in the student-teacher relationship. The students were absolutely right to complain here.
- kragen 13y ago
  > It's important for accessibility and educational reasons to offer information in written form as well as lecture form. Isn't that what the textbook is for? I mean, writing math problems on the blackboard to show how to solve them is dynamic and animated in a way you don't get from a textbook, but you also won't get that from downloaded lecture slides.
  - ronaldx 13y ago
    Of course, I accept that a recommended textbook counts as sufficient written material. But, it's not always the case that recommended textbooks cover the complete syllabus of a course - in which case, they don't count.
LockeWatts 13y ago
"A colleague had a student mutiny because he refused to put up his lecture slides for download. The students were complaining that they had to copy lecture notes from a friend if they didn't show up." Everyone has sick days from work. When you take a sick day, your work is sitting there when you get back. It hasn't moved. Students don't have that luxury. The material keeps marching on without them. So not only are they having to learn material they aren't properly prepared for, they also have to go back and relearn what they missed. Providing slides online in the 21st century is literally one of the most basic things a professor can do. Literally. Install dropbox, put the slides in the dropbox folder. Make the folder public. Done. This requires zero technical know-how, and maybe 2 minutes of signup? The unwillingness to do that is indicative of a bad professor. Barring unreasonable requests, a professor should try to enable students to do well. As far as saying, "just get them from a friend." This presents a few problems. 1. You need to have a friend in the class. Not always the case. 2. That friend needs to be there. Sickness travels through social groups very effectively. My friend is more likely to be sick than I am. 3. That friend needs to be at least on my level of competency for the notes to be meaningful. Not everyone's friends are as smart as they are. In fact, unless all the friends are of identical intelligence, this must be the case. Just put the damn notes online. How lazy can you really be?

dman 13y ago

I honestly never understood the TA thing. Why not just reach out to the professor in their open hours or before / after the lecture?

munin 13y ago
this presumes that: - professors have open hours - professors can be found before or after the lecture - professors respond to your email - professors ever go to their offices
- PhearTheCeal 13y ago
  Which is ultimately a presumption that the professor still cares about teaching after they have earned tenure.
  - fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
    Tenure schmenure, if you want profs who do interesting research, they'll need some time to tend to that research.
HarryHirsch 13y ago
Because the professor doesn't scale, not in an introductory class with > 100 students. Most all problems with the material that arise there can be dealt with with the help of the TA. At graduate level it's different, of course.
greenyoda 13y ago
A competent TA might have more of a rapport with a student, since they'd be closer in age and experience. It's likely that a grad student TA has recently taken the same classes and done the same kind of assignments. Also, a TA may have more time to spend with a struggling student than a professor has. (I've been a TA.)
Fomite 13y ago
One thing that hasn't been mentioned - sometimes it helps to have a second voice explaining things, if you didn't get it the first time. If there's something about the professors explanation that is the problem, even if they're accessible it may not help. A good TA can help approach things from a different direction.

ronaldx 13y ago

>A colleague had a student mutiny because he refused to put up his lecture slides for download. I am an educator: It's important for accessibility and educational reasons to offer information in written form as well as lecture form. When Dijkstra says "You will be treated as grown-ups" - this is precisely an example of where you must take this advice and assume that students are asking for genuine reasons. It's entirely reasonable to offer freestyle lectures (as Dijkstra apparently did), but the only reason to avoid giving students full access to a complete set of written educational material for the course is through laziness/inability to do a proper job or a wish to inappropriately exert power in the student-teacher relationship. The students were absolutely right to complain here.

kragen 13y ago
> It's important for accessibility and educational reasons to offer information in written form as well as lecture form. Isn't that what the textbook is for? I mean, writing math problems on the blackboard to show how to solve them is dynamic and animated in a way you don't get from a textbook, but you also won't get that from downloaded lecture slides.
- ronaldx 13y ago
  Of course, I accept that a recommended textbook counts as sufficient written material. But, it's not always the case that recommended textbooks cover the complete syllabus of a course - in which case, they don't count.

LockeWatts 13y ago

"A colleague had a student mutiny because he refused to put up his lecture slides for download. The students were complaining that they had to copy lecture notes from a friend if they didn't show up." Everyone has sick days from work. When you take a sick day, your work is sitting there when you get back. It hasn't moved. Students don't have that luxury. The material keeps marching on without them. So not only are they having to learn material they aren't properly prepared for, they also have to go back and relearn what they missed. Providing slides online in the 21st century is literally one of the most basic things a professor can do. Literally. Install dropbox, put the slides in the dropbox folder. Make the folder public. Done. This requires zero technical know-how, and maybe 2 minutes of signup? The unwillingness to do that is indicative of a bad professor. Barring unreasonable requests, a professor should try to enable students to do well. As far as saying, "just get them from a friend." This presents a few problems. 1. You need to have a friend in the class. Not always the case. 2. That friend needs to be there. Sickness travels through social groups very effectively. My friend is more likely to be sick than I am. 3. That friend needs to be at least on my level of competency for the notes to be meaningful. Not everyone's friends are as smart as they are. In fact, unless all the friends are of identical intelligence, this must be the case. Just put the damn notes online. How lazy can you really be?