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Yes, I agree.</p>
<p>Most lectures are the equivalent of sitting in the back of a movie theater, having the screen chopped by 90%, with a poor sound system, and distractions that would never be allowed in a real movie theater. Lectures are a cheap, ineffective way for a professor to articulate exactly how their opinion differs from the the text used in class. The are the equivalent of an overpacked street bus … sure it gets 80 people to the next stop, but that’s about it.</p>
<p>IF the lecture component of a class could be packaged into an online format, and then supplemented by 15-25 person discussion groups, then the large university might be able to approximate what is delivered by an LAC, only better. The current problem is that the University is spending too much delivering the ineffective lecture, so that he discussion groups don’t get the budget they deserve. If the budget were 80% discussion group, 20% lecture, instead of the reverse, we might have better outcomes of students who can think (and experess themselves) more articulately.</p>
<p>I speak from the perspective of econ and linguistics. Perhaps the sciences/math better divide resource between lecture and lab.</p>