<p>I'm in 1st year engineering and thus far I feel like the lecture component for each of my classes is worthless to me. Every prof just reads directly off a power point presentation (available online anyway) which is always a brief, often times simplified version, of what you would read in the text.</p>
<p>I've always been the kind of person who learns by carefully reading and understanding the textbook and then applying that to problems to really hammer home concepts. But so far with the massive amount of time I've been spending at school in lectures, I'm falling way behind in my reading and problem solving. I almost feel like lectures are for people who forgo reading the text and cling to the notes they take in lectures to get by in the course. I'm thinking of just skipping all my lectures and doing what works for me. If I get stuck on any concept I can just go to the lecture and hope for clarification or see the prof in his/her office hours for help. </p>
<p>Anyone else care to add their thoughts on the matter?</p>
<p>You’re an adult; it’s up to you to decide what you need to do in order to succeed, and how much success you’re shooting for. Some people like to read the book, some like hearing the high points, some like discussion, some like to just work problem sets. Maybe a combination of these approaches is what suits your needs. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, as you are no doubt aware. If everybody thought the lectures were pointless, most professors would be thrilled not to have to give them.</p>
<p>Edit: And as part of being an adult, you might want to grow out of the “X is for people who aren’t as smart as me” mentality.</p>
<p>I think lectures should be video taped and put on demand so you can view it them at your leisure. I see absolutely NO benefit from giving a lecture to 300 people. I would use class time to go over problems and answer questions from the lecture.</p>
<p>Salmon Khan(khanacademy) has given his take on how education should be and it is incredible. Have lectures online with a discussion feature below the video. Professors would have the ability to see when students stop watching and what part students rewind and watch again. Students would have the ability to replay the lecture as much as they want or replay only a select part.</p>
<p>I agree that lectures, in there current format, are useless.</p>
<p>I like that idea… being able to view prerecorded videos online instead of being tied down to class attendance. That should also include submitting homework online as well…</p>
<p>I’m not saying I’m smarter than anyone, I’m just saying that some people do learn well in the lecture environment, I’m just not one of them. I find that even when I have read the textbook for the material covered in the lecture, I still have a hard time keeping up with the speed the prof goes at, and just get lost entirely despite the fact that I already understand the topic. I came out of this past week of lectures with really no gained knowledge whatsoever from them. I have only made progress through reading the textbooks and doing problems. But I’m finding that there simply isn’t enough time in the week to read everything, do ample problems, do assignments, and attend all the lectures.</p>
<p>@hall04: Well, you probably have a point. I don’t know when the time will come when universities will offer an alternative to students in your situation…</p>
<p>Yes. My lectures all go by voluntary attendance, so I’m thinking I’m just going to go to labs and the odd lecture if I’m having difficulty grasping a concept. I feel like the only real positive to lectures is the ability to meet new people/make friends, network, etc. Although, the only guy I’ve really made friends with so far happened to be my lab partner.</p>
<p>I used to know people who recorded lectures (just audio) so that they could go back and listen to them later.</p>
<p>Every class has a few guys who only show up for quizzes and exams, but by and large, I don’t think those guys usually do as well academically. I don’t think it’s a good idea to turn into one of those guys.</p>
<p>aegrisomnia writes “If everybody thought the lectures were pointless, most professors would be thrilled not to have to give them.”</p>
<p>I think most professors/TAs that parrot the text in a lecture format do so because they are lazy. Yes, they would be thrilled not to do the lecture but only if they didn’t have to replace it with something else.</p>
<p>The class has several components to get students to learn:</p>
<ul>
<li>Listening / watching lecture.</li>
<li>Participating in discussions.</li>
<li>Reading books and other course materials.</li>
<li>Doing homework and labs.</li>
</ul>
<p>Some students need just one of the above to learn something. Others need more than one, or all, of them. Each student is different (and for the same student, it may differ based on the course material).</p>
<p>My thoughts, from a professor’s point of view (albeit not engineering but close enough for the point of discussion):</p>
<p>I would totally bail on the lectures and see if it works for you. People learn differently and you may have to experiment. But treat it like an experiment- observe, record, test. And be open to doing it for one class but not another. Or at certain times of the year (e.g. go at the start to see if there is value and bail if not). As a student I strategically skipped class all the time and I think it was a smart idea (for me). </p>
<p>I think it will very much depend upon the material, the professor’s approach to teaching, your own learning style, and also the class size. If the prof is just repeating the powerpoint, and not adding to it (be it with examples, new details, answering questions), and you learn better by reading than listening, by all means skip out of class. Some find it useful to get the overview in class and THEN do the reading for the parts they didn’t understand. And so on.</p>
<p>Oh and if you find it works to miss class, just be open to changing your strategy later on. Some of the least experienced or lesser quality professors end up teaching intro classes. As you move up, you may find the professors are better and the classes are smaller. That may change the quality and value of the lectures for you. </p>
<p>And also just be careful you don’t miss something that matters. Like the prof who says, in passing, “know this really well for the midterm” or “just skim this” (in so many words)… well, those details can make a difference. If you have a friend in the class to fill you in that would help a lot. </p>
<p>Also be sure you are self-disciplined. Some value of lectures for some students is a bit like a personal trainer. It keeps you on track and on schedule with the readings, the pace of the materials and so forth. For some, if they stop going to lectures, they naturally put off the reading and keeping up with the class and that can be, of course, the kiss of death. But if you experiment you can see if that happens to you. Just take it into account.</p>
<p>In my experience, few professors follow a single textbook so closely (even when they authored the textbook), or have lecture slides so detailed as to make the lectures superfluous. You say that you’re still in your first year of engineering – I’m assuming that means you just started your college career. I think that’s way too early to become so jaded about lectures, especially if you’re falling behind in your classes like you say you are. And unless you live far from campus and have a long commute, I find it difficult to believe that the lectures are taking “massive” amounts of time away from your studying.</p>
<p>When I was an undergrad, I had a roommate for a while who was an Econ major that hardly ever went to class. He had some sort of arrangement with his classmates where they took turns attending lectures and taking notes. Consequently, he only really left the apartment a few times per week and seemed to spend most of his time playing Counterstrike on his computer. Eventually, he ended up on academic probation for poor grades.</p>
<p>Although it should be possible for serious students to study independently and excel in their classes, I think these types of students are actually very rare. In reality, the students who barely show up to class are usually doing pretty poorly. At the very least, I think it’s good to go to class and study independently while listening passively to the lecture. Simply going to campus and attending class will keep you engaged and up-to-date in them.</p>
<p>My engineering professor’s lectures have been useless thus far. We literally learn nothing, he goes on crazy tangents and the tests/quizzes come straight from the book.</p>
<p>However, attendance is 15% of our grade so we are stuck in what is probably the worst class I have…</p>
<p>Not only are lectures following power points lazy, he doesn’t even use his own power points. The pp’s are from a class at Texas A&M (we are in Virginia). We sat there on the third day while he was trying to figure out what TAMU meant. Then he had the temerity to argue with me when I told him what it meant.</p>
<p>About the only saving grace is this intro class is the complete opposite of a weed out class. It would be nice to learn something though as the book is kinda light and I am paying for the class…</p>