3 ms·

>upper division thermodynamic class ... I personally rarely attended the lectures and walked out with an A prior to the final. You must either be quite a good

>upper division thermodynamic class ... I personally rarely attended the lectures and walked out with an A prior to the final. You must either be quite a good student or that was quite an easy/poor class. Personally, I try to make sure students have as close to a knowable outcome by mid-terms, so they can drop with a W. >where the professor was an admitted bad lecturer. Sometimes this is a ploy in attempt to get students to take some ownership in the process. To paraphrase "Don't expect me to magic this crap into your head with my gift of prose." >From this experience I formed the belief that a university lecturer can actually be counter-productive to the students learning the subject. No no no. Maybe those who didn't already know thermodynamics, or have the discipline to teach themselves felt it was important to attend lecture.

thrownaway2424 13y ago
Well, I suppose it could have been some kind of mind trick, but the lectures I did attend were real snoozers. The old man would open up with "So as I was saying ..." and then launch mid-equation into whatever he was talking about last time. Like literally "So as I was saying, delta-aich over delta-tee ...."
- fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
  Well, I have to admit that I have met some folks who could turn even the most fun stuff into drudgery.
VLM 13y ago
"or that was quite an easy/poor class." That sounds like an easy class to test out of. If the prof provides an entire semesters homework, and you can provably ace "class A amplifier bias circuit design" without attending the lecture that supposedly teaches you how, then don't go. I never skipped entire classes but I certainly skipped lectures where I could prove to myself I knew the material. This works really well in most engineering classes where you can check your work. In fluffy stuff like English Lit being "right" means knowing the prof's politics and personal belief system, so its a bit harder to know if you're right or not, so you can't skip that lecture. Think you know "integration by parts"? Already did the homework and got it all eventually correct? Then not much point in attending lecture that day. This has a bonus in that you get a lot more out of a lecture if you already struggled with the topic for a couple hours rather than walking in cold.
- fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
  "That sounds like an easy class to test out of." I would support that idea for quite a lot of the curriculum.
  - VLM 13y ago
    CLEP tests rocked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Level_Examination_Program http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Level_Examination_Progr... They're like $80 now... in the olden days they were something like $10. A truly excellent startup idea which no one has apparently tried (that I know of) is a MOOC focused on the CLEP "curriculum", basically a semi-continuous monster study group. There's a giant hole in the MOOC industry for testing and credentialism. Well, there you go, take your CLEP test and they handle all the testing and stuff. This also shows the ripoff of some industry specific cert exams. Why did a Cisco CCNP Routing test cost something like $200 a decade ago for a total cost for a CCNP of about $800 but a CLEP test in 2013 is only $80? I know there's economies of scale but this is ridiculous. Outsourced reasonable priced industry certs is another MOOC startup ripe for massive disruption.

thrownaway2424 13y ago

Well, I suppose it could have been some kind of mind trick, but the lectures I did attend were real snoozers. The old man would open up with "So as I was saying ..." and then launch mid-equation into whatever he was talking about last time. Like literally "So as I was saying, delta-aich over delta-tee ...."

fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
Well, I have to admit that I have met some folks who could turn even the most fun stuff into drudgery.

VLM 13y ago

"or that was quite an easy/poor class." That sounds like an easy class to test out of. If the prof provides an entire semesters homework, and you can provably ace "class A amplifier bias circuit design" without attending the lecture that supposedly teaches you how, then don't go. I never skipped entire classes but I certainly skipped lectures where I could prove to myself I knew the material. This works really well in most engineering classes where you can check your work. In fluffy stuff like English Lit being "right" means knowing the prof's politics and personal belief system, so its a bit harder to know if you're right or not, so you can't skip that lecture. Think you know "integration by parts"? Already did the homework and got it all eventually correct? Then not much point in attending lecture that day. This has a bonus in that you get a lot more out of a lecture if you already struggled with the topic for a couple hours rather than walking in cold.

fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
"That sounds like an easy class to test out of." I would support that idea for quite a lot of the curriculum.
- VLM 13y ago
  CLEP tests rocked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Level_Examination_Program http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Level_Examination_Progr... They're like $80 now... in the olden days they were something like $10. A truly excellent startup idea which no one has apparently tried (that I know of) is a MOOC focused on the CLEP "curriculum", basically a semi-continuous monster study group. There's a giant hole in the MOOC industry for testing and credentialism. Well, there you go, take your CLEP test and they handle all the testing and stuff. This also shows the ripoff of some industry specific cert exams. Why did a Cisco CCNP Routing test cost something like $200 a decade ago for a total cost for a CCNP of about $800 but a CLEP test in 2013 is only $80? I know there's economies of scale but this is ridiculous. Outsourced reasonable priced industry certs is another MOOC startup ripe for massive disruption.