
Why Virtual Classes Can Be Better Than Real Ones - sergeant3
http://nautil.us/issue/29/scaling/why-virtual-classes-can-be-better-than-real-ones
======
wobbleblob
"Human brains have evolved with a flitting, fleeting ability to maintain focus
on any one thing."

I thought that was just me. The ability to pause, rewind or replay a lecture
is just so incredibly useful. I wish this had been available when I was young.

~~~
bphogan
Warning - most of this is just my opinion as a student and as a teacher in
adult education. The article talks about a lot of this which makes me happy.

Lecture is my biggest problem with MOOCs. Lecture is the easiest and laziest
way to teach a topic. I know because on my lazy days I tend to find myself
falling back on it with my students. When I first started teaching I leaned on
it heavily, and have learned it doesn't really work. Nobody retains anything
of value.

Adults learn new things by doing and discussing. And adults zone out
frequently. Really, the most the average adult can listen is about 15 minutes
anyway, and after 10 you've probably lost interest. See
[http://www.mrmediatraining.com/2012/08/23/how-many-
minutes-i...](http://www.mrmediatraining.com/2012/08/23/how-many-minutes-is-
the-audiences-attention-span/) for some interesting info on that.

If you watch a cooking show, you learn some techniques. But unless you get in
the kitchen and try to make that cake, __and have someone give you feedback on
your technique __, then you won 't learn how to do it.

But that doesn't scale online. Feedback and assessment simply don't work at
that kind of level. And we know it doesn't. That's why in big lecture
situations in traditional schools, there are lots of TAs, tutors, or
supplemental instruction sessions to help people learn. But lectures scale
really well for MOOCs so that's what they end up being - a series of video
lectures. It's easy. Just record yourself talking and throw it online. And
it's easy for students, too. They don't have to do things, they don't have to
talk to anyone. They can just listen. And maybe zone out for a bit.

A huge benefit is that, as mentioned here, If you missed something in a
lecture on video, you can rewind. But if you had a question or something to
add, then the opportunity to do that in context is lost.

And that's where I think a lot of the dropoff happens too. We don't learn that
way as adults. We learn by doing things and engaging with people. And if you
can just take a course by watching someone talk to you, you've not really
learned. You've just been told some stuff.

And this is why adults make comments like "I love online classes because I can
slow the lecture down or rewind," Adules have been conditioned that lecture is
how you're supposed to learn. Rewinding and slowing down is a bandage over the
real problem; too much lecture and not enough application means you don't
really learn - you don't retain things.

One last thing - lecture is highly effective for entry-level content if
chunked. 15 minutes of lecture followed by direct application of the content
or practice, followed by a review or reflection. Dr. Christine Harringon has
some great insights on this. See
[http://drchristineharrington.org/publications](http://drchristineharrington.org/publications)
for some.

I think the future of online learning is going to involve finding a way to
scale the practice and assessment parts of learning. And I see interesting
movement out there on that.

~~~
mtone
A few years ago I abandonned the project of studying part-time while working,
I hated it. Today, I'm well into a distance program and remain motivated. This
is at a local uni, not a Mooc, with some live chat/interaction during lectures
That I watch later. Key experience points:

\- For me, the most difficult part of in-person was managing my schedule and
transportation. I would come in to class, all stressed out about being 10 mins
late, only to listen to 15 minutes of unimportant chit chat. The energy
expenditure felt hugely wasteful.

\- In-class questions from others were generally not the questions I had in
mind. I find forums more tailored. When someone asks a question, another
student with access to books and google can take a thoughtful crack at it any
time of the day, with the teacher/assistant adding in precisions regularly.
Just like with any teacher/group, this is hit or miss.

\- Pausing is key. For math classes for example, the ability to stop a lecture
after a concept is introduced and spend the next 2 hours on
books/internet/exercises/etc to really assimilate it before continuing is the
best way I've ever learnt maths.

\- Pace is good, but focus is also important. The ability to sleep 1 hour
after work before starting a lecture makes a world of difference in my
sustained alertness and interest.

I understand the arguments for traditional school, but for me they are
outweighted by the immediate, tangible benefits I get from distance learning.
YMMV.

Edit: shorten

~~~
bphogan
Look what you're saying though - you're agreeing with me.

1\. You were motivated to learn.

2\. The in-class time wasted your time with 15 minutes of chit-chat rather
than purposeful doing.

3\. Pausing is key. But you are motivated to spend 2 hours working on the
concept. It has been my experience that many do not. They simply move to the
assessment to get it done. Then retention is lost.

I'm not at all arguing for traditional school. Traditional school seems to be
"let's talk at a room of people for an hour 4-5 times a week, then give them
tests to see how much they remember."

I want to see "you watch the 15 minute videos and then we engage together to
create something meaningful where you apply what you learned."

Which sounds exactly like what you want.

Make no mistake - I can't drive because I don't see well. I have to take a bus
to go teach my face-to-face classes. The bus ride can be 30 minutes to an hour
depending on when I pick it up. To teach an hour class, I need 3 hours of my
day. And this puts in me in the same boat as my students.

When students come to my classes, I don't waste their time because it's
precious.

I'd love an online version of this. But with online classes, it's hard to find
common times because people take classes around work and other duties.

~~~
mtone
Fair enough. And I agree that progressive/hybrid approaches to teaching don't
all translate/scale online well -- I'm thinking for example of programs built
on being highly project-oriented in applied engineering or vocational schools,
or the Khan-academy-style of doing homework in class (which I would have loved
in high school)

But presently for me this is not a requirement. I suppose that, being okay
with the lecture format as the core, I wanted to pursue learning but with less
of the contextual hassle and inefficiencies (I have enough of my own!). On
that, online courses certainly delivered -- which is what I wanted to convey.

However, I won't deny that this may be approaching the upper limit of what
online education can manage to do well.

------
JHonaker
When talking about the dropout rate, I imagine a lot of detractors don't think
about people like me. I often register for tons of MOOCs just so I can have an
archive of the material and assignments for later. I often don't have time to
do things on top of my graduate studies, but I'd still like to take that
course on data structures, that interesting series on complex analysis, and
the course on functional programming in Scala. I hardly ever do things "on
time" with MOOCs, but the amount of things I've learned from them is amazing.

~~~
sanderjd
Yeah, while there may be a real issue with effectiveness of online courses,
the entire concept of "dropping out" is anachronistic. I always feel slightly
bad to know that I'm part of "the drop-out problem", but I feel like learning
a-la carte and at one's own pace is exactly in line with the unique advantages
of online courses.

I think the truth that people are getting at when they discuss this is that
the sort of self-education that you and I like using these courses for is not
at all a replacement for traditional education. I think this "problem" will
vanish once it is widely recognized that these are more useful to augment
ongoing self-education. It is easier than ever to be a lifelong learner, and
that is a great thing and plenty of justification for the existence of these
courses.

~~~
bphogan
As a teacher, nothing makes me sadder than to see people not complete. It
feels like I failed to keep them engaged. I taught a free software development
course online for three summers in a row. Completion was awful.

To be blunt, I won't waste my time preparing videos, material, assessments,
etc anymore because it feels like nobody cares.

~~~
sanderjd
Don't be dejected! If your materials are good, people will continue learning
from them, regardless of whether or not they finished the course. One of the
major advantages of digital courseware is that you can take it on your own
time at your own pace. Doing so is not an indication of not caring.

------
y04nn
I thought it was about OOP.

~~~
samfisher83
I thought it would be about c++.

------
pinkunicorn
For a moment I thought - "Er what is a Real class", having C++ in mind. Then
it struck me after seeing that the article is from nautil.us. _Sigh_

~~~
seanmcdirmid
I was actually thinking class type families ala BETA. Basically, a class can
be a member of another class and overridden when the containing class is
extended.

~~~
pjmlp
Same here.

------
r0naa
I think that can be true. But I think that an excellent virtual course is
still inferior to an excellent physical one.

I mean, 90% of the interesting stuff I am learning during my classes comes
from the discussions that start at the end of the course with the professor
and a few others.

I do enjoy the ability to rewind, and choose my pace when taking an online
course. Too bad the quality of the interactions I have mentioned has not yet
been captured by MOOCs or OCs.

~~~
crpatino
Agreed, but I'd counter and say that a median virtual course tend to be better
than a median physical one. The more advanced the course, the more this tend
to be true.

Lecturers in a classroom, specially professors who's main goal is to research
and are forced to teach, just come and blurt out whatever they think today
session is about. I once had a class where the slides had scrambled egg over
because the professor had been preparing the class over breakfast, with his
baby boy on his lap!!! And I am not talking about an overworked postdoc, this
was a guy with tenure. I imagine he though he was being brilliant by cramming
together his parenting, contractual responsibilities to students and
fulfillment of bodily needs into a single time slot so he would have more time
for his oh-so-precious research.

When this kind of lecturer do some MOOC course, they become conscious there's
going to be an audience and a record of their performance. So they devote at
least as much effort to it as if they were writing a paper for some mid-tier
congress. This has the double advantage of having them put an honest effort,
and the delivery medium playing to their strengths. This shows in the end
results.

------
jlebar
I definitely thought this was about C++ virtual inheritance.

------
akacase
i thought this was an article about OO and I lol'd.

