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Boston College: Professors condense lectures to one minute
(U-Wire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)
UWIRE-03/16/2009-Boston College: Professors condense lectures to one
minute (C) 2008 The Heights via UWIRE
By Meghan Michael, The Heights (Boston College)
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- A new educational tool may provide students
with all they need to know in as little as 60 seconds. According to The
Chronicle of Higher Education, some universities have been utilizing
"microlectures," or condensed lectures that last up to three minutes
instead of or in addition to traditional hour-length lectures.
These microlectures have been primarily used in conjunction with online
courses and are being utilized by San Juan College, a community college
in Farmington, N.M. The microlectures typically introduce key terms and
concepts which the students use to complete an assignment, followed by
a discussion.
Despite the brevity of the lecture, little is actually lost except
"verbage," Michelle Meeks, a reading instructor at San Juan, told
reporters. She condensed a 10-minute lecture into an 80-second
microlecture on word construction and found that the student response
was almost entirely positive.
While this educational format has been largely used in
distance-learning education, professors at other colleges, such as York
University in Toronto, have begun using a less-extreme version of the
microlecture that lasts 20 minutes.
Bonnie Jefferson, a professor in the communications department, said
that offering a summarized message, not as a substitute but as a
preview, could be a positive educational tool."If it's going to be an
online lesson, then that's probably a really good idea, sort of
previewing everything that's coming," Jefferson said.
While she doesn't formally offer condensed or microlectures when
starting a new segment of her course, Jefferson said that she might
briefly explain what the lecture will be covering. "Some days you do
things like that at the beginning of the class, and sometimes you do
things like that at the end of the class looking forward-saying, 'OK
these are the kind of things we'll be doing next class,'" Jefferson
said.
From a communications standpoint, such summarizing previews can be
helpful as they let the audience know what to look for in the message.
Jefferson said when teaching someone how to approach a good speech or a
good essay, often the student is really evaluating how to make an
argument. "A lot of times, when you are making an argument, you say,
'these are my points'. That serves the same purpose, it structures the
argument, so the audience can recognize the key points as you are going
through," Jefferson said. "The kind of concepts are the same thing, and
you can also apply it to writing an essay or a speech or conducting a
class."
Additionally, Jefferson also utilizes handouts in her classes with key
terms that will be discussed during the lecture. Each lecture has its
own outline, and Jefferson goes through the handouts again during
review sessions before tests.
"I think that by putting the stuff together in that way, it helps to
structure people's notes for them-once they've taken their notes, they
can go back and compare their notes to the sheets to make sure that
they have something about all those concepts," Jefferson said. "It
helps people determine what the main things are and to structure their
notes and also structure the way things are."
While the microlectures and other summarizing tools can be helpful,
they do have their educational limit. Dennis De Turck, who runs a
60-second-lecture series at the University of Pennsylvania that
showcases faculty instead of providing formal academic instruction,
said that such microlectures could be useful as a supplementing tool
but not as a replacement.
"In a lot of classes, the point is to follow a sustained argument or to
build one piece by piece. A 60-second impressionistic overview is
useful, but it's not going to be the be all and end all," De Turck said.
Henry Braun, a professor in the Lynch School of Education, agreed that
such a tool could be positive as long as students don't use it as a
substitute.
"It depends on what kind of message the professor is trying to send
with this study aid and what the students choose to do with it," Braun
said. "It can be effective if it's presented in the right way and if
students use it as a basis for their own way of dealing with the
required work, whether it's the readings or other materials. If they
use it as a substitute and imagine that they can get by on that
summary, I would say that it overall has a negative impact."
Some still prefer not to use any summarized lectures or a "cliffnotes"
version of the class. Harold Petersen, a professor in the economics
department, said he felt that formal summaries of the class could be
problematic and discourage students from studying the full material.
"If the cliffnotes is just to give the students a summary of what will
be on the exam, I don't think it's a good idea. I think there is a lot
to be gained from reading a textbook and listening to what's been said
in class," Petersen said. "To give a student cliffnotes just bypasses
the entire process-they would just study cliffnotes. And if something
was on the test that wasn't on the summarized notes, would they
complain?"
Petersen said that while he thought that any professor should make
clear what the key points and terms are during the class, he would
rather not put the key terms in a formal list for the same reason. He
said he would, however, encourage students to take good notes and make
copies available for a minimum price to anyone who would like them,
though he would not guarantee or proofread the notes. Petersen said
that he himself would not offer such notes.
"In terms of the general idea of summarized notes, I don't think it's a
very good idea. I'm sure that other people may choose to give notes,
and it may be very helpful, and if it works in their teaching style,
then that's fine," Petersen said. "I'm not going to criticize what
anyone else does, but for me, what I'm doing seems to be working, so
I'm not inclined to change it."
While summarized notes and handouts of key points are utilized in
varying degrees by professors, the microlectures remain a relatively
new phenomenon. Jefferson said that while microlectures could be
beneficial, there are many different ways of achieving the same result
and different professors find different methods to be useful.
"Depending on how you are approaching your class, there are all sorts
of ways of building your main points into your class. Different people
do different things, and I might do different things in a large class
than I would in a smaller class," Jefferson said. "You have to be
adjustable."
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((Distributed on bahalf of U-Wire via M2 Communications Ltd -
http://www.m2.com))
((U-Wire - http://www.uwire.com))
Copyright ? 2009 U-Wire
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