Remembering why I hated university

[andrewducker]

I've heard good things about The Khan Academy, an organisation dedicated to providing free education, with an initial focus on mathematics, but they're now branching out into chemistry, biology, and other subjects.

I had a quick play with their entry-level exercise, and they seemed to work pretty well (well, except for refreshing large chunks of the page with each answer I gave, which was a little slow). And then I thought I'd leap ahead and watch a video from their stats course, as I've long had an interest in statistics, and would be fascinated to watch some of them through, complete the exercises, and learn something.

And the first one I watched was _awful_. You can see it here, and listen to the lecturer changing his mind halfway through sentences, talking over himself, repeating himself ad nauseam, and taking an age to get to any kind of point.

So I tried a different stats one, and got the same result. Slow, not to the point, lecturer repeating himself because it was taking an age to actually write anything on the ridiculous blackboard they're using, and he's trying to fill dead air.

So I wondered if the stats guy they got in was just a bit rubbish, and went back to basic algebra. Nope, just as bad. I managed about 90 seconds of Simple Equations before having to kill the page before my own internal organs climbed up my windpipe and throttled me to death.

Same with introduction to the atom, where the lecturer pauses to draw leaves on an apple he's using to demonstrate where the concept of atoms came from.

And having seen some very good lectures online, it seems obvious that these lecturers could really do with (a) practising a lot more, (b) doing their presentations _first_ and then talking over them and (c)editing things together.

And it reminded me of why I used to turn up to about one lecture in three through most of my computing course. Because the lecturer's style seemed to be to open the book to wherever we'd finished the previous lecture, and read to us, occasionally talking over themselves when they tried to deviate from this. So I'd turn up to a lecture, realise that I'd already read past this point while bored in a previous lecture, and then read even further ahead in order to prevent brain death from setting in.

There was something I bumped into recently, where a teacher had reversed the way that most teaching worked. Rather than you learning in class, and doing exercises in your own time at home, he had people reading/learning in their own time, and doing the exercises in class, where he could help people with them. And, as someone who always found the labs a lot more useful than being talked at, I can only think that I'd have done a lot better with a system that was that way around.

Comments

[zz]

napier computing people had this nice habit of putting their lecture slides online, or printing and handing them out at the start of term, which helps when one is too lazy/nocturnal to go to 90% of lectures. :)
and generally the lab exercises were things I could do on my own computer too.

we had one lecturer who just read out his slides verbatim. it was also the most boring subject, something about software quality and metrics thereof. when i fell asleep in 3 consecutive lectures of his i stopped going.

we have talks at work occasionally, and i often struggle to stay awake, even if i'm interested in the subject. :|

i'm glad napier existed, or if i hadn't had a breakdown during my a-levels and gone to a proper university i'd've been fucked, as i wouldn't've been able to continue my lifelong coast into a career that's more a hobby with some inconveniences. i remind myself that my job is one area in which i'm lucky, although i sometimes wish i had the dedication to learning to be silicon valley/hacker god material.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

there have been massive problems in my Civil HND classes this year. Structural Mechanics has been an utter failure, statistics had only 5 passes, and people regularly fall asleep during PP-based lectures.
As Class Rep it's been my job to
a: get the class organised enough to keep up potentially pass assessments
b: *constantly* feed back to my tutors what works and what doesn't

I expected I'd end up hated by the tutors, but I was dead wrong. They take in every word. They desperately want the situation to improve. They also keep pointing out, though, that my classmates need to tell them when they need help - and they need to do a boatload of work themselves.

Communication has been dire. Since the Xmas break I've been mailing stuff out to people the moment I get home, just to make sure that everyone knows what the Hell's going on one week to the next. That includes Tutors, who I now know simply do not speak to each other. Ever.

on the upside, this effectively means I'm managing a class in which I happen to be a student, which is great in-situ training for later life.
on the downside I know that if I don't maintain a constant effort, my class, as a whole, will fail the course.

[I sat one assessment a month ago, and realised I'd literally slept through the entire course. Every lecture. I learned the entire subject during the assessment [open book] in half an hour, wrote and drew up everything I could think of. Passed with 80%]

[dreema.livejournal.com]

Thinking back, the best lecturer i've had was actually at secondary school. He'd only ever use one panel on the blackboard, and he'd write at such a pace as you couldn't keep up with him, and when he'd finished that panel, he'd wipe it off at start again. What we had to do was take notes, then the homework would be to write up those notes into a coherent form, which he'd then check for accuracy.
For some reason this really worked for my way of thinking.

[woodpijn.livejournal.com]

open the book to wherever we'd finished the previous lecture, and read to us, occasionally talking over themselves when they tried to deviate from this. So I'd turn up to a lecture, realise that I'd already read past this point while bored in a previous lecture, and then read even further ahead in order to prevent brain death from setting in.

Wow - that sounds exactly like my experience of school, but for me university was a welcome break from it, to the extent of almost going too far the other way. I spent lectures struggling to keep up and understand, with lecturers skipping over intermediate steps as "trivial". Though I think I'd have followed better if I'd been less lazy, and spent more time reading stuff in my own time.

Rather than you learning in class, and doing exercises in your own time at home, he had people reading/learning in their own time, and doing the exercises in class, where he could help people with them.

That does sound like a good idea.

[fub.livejournal.com]

Here in the Netherlands, you get a job in academia based on the quality of your research -- not the quality of your teaching. Hence, it's rather hit-or-miss, unfortunately.
Though the ones who are good at teaching tend to gravitate towards that, so overall it's not as dire as you describe here.

[randomchris.livejournal.com]

Same problem here, and indeed in most universities that I know of. Research is what generates most of the income, not teaching, so that's what people get employed for.

[broin.livejournal.com]

Here's what you need.

[andrewducker]

Cheers. Will read when I have a bit of time.

[meico.livejournal.com]

I was thinking the Khan academy would be more awesome. :)