1 Is the lecture dead ? Brunel University, 16. Dec Professor Kai A. Olsen Molde University College (professor), University of Bergen (prof. II), University of Pittsburgh (adjunct professor)

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 2 The lecture is under attack from technology Video: Recording lectures (for example hiMoldeX) Short videos that present a single concept (e.g., from Kahn Academy) Internet: Online exercises with automatic correction. Online exams with automatic grading Virtual social interaction among students: Social media Chat

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 3 … and from new methods MOOCs Massive Open Online Courses Provided by Universities and commercial organizations Free or with tuition Flipped classroom “Inverting the classroom means that events that have traditionally taken place inside the classroom now take place outside the classroom and vice versa” (Lage et al) The students get the “lecture” on the Internet Class time used for individual tutoring

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 4 PBS on MOOCs and Flipped classroom MOOCs: jan-june13-online_01-08/ jan-june13-online_01-08/ Flipped classroom (High School): _2F_4 _2F_4

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 5 A world where IT implies change Rationale for MOOCs: Teach many Include those that do not have a possibility of getting an education Reduce costs for teaching Improve learning The traditional lecture is viewed as: Old fashioned Passive Technologically behind However, there are long tradition for using new technology as a “silver bullet” for teaching

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 6 Film Learn language by film, “The living textbook” 1955

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 7 Records (Based on vinyl records) Start now, next summer you can speak a foreign language. 1959

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 8 Tape recorders Tape recorders for teaching language. 1960

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 9 To sum up Earlier technologies, film, vinyl records, tape recorders, CD-ROM, eLearning, LMS and the Web have not revolutionized teaching. The lecture has withstood all pressure until now Is the technology of today different?

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 10 Advantages of the lecture Flexible with regard to contents Flexible for the lecturer Flexible for the students Flexible organization Cost effective (with many students in the class)

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 11 Before we continue There are better alternatives to the lecture, e.g.: Teaching in small groups where students are the active part The professor is there to pose questions, open for different interpretations, offering references to interesting material and organize the whole thing. But this is a very expensive option, and perhaps not so relevant when universities are trying to enroll more students to improve their economy

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 12 Flexible with regard to content Presentation using speech, blackboard, projector, smartboard, … Dialog with students Demonstrations Play video Tests …. There are few constraints – nearly everything fits the format.

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 13 Flexible for the lecturer The lecturer can chose the form of the presentation: Joan use the blackboard John use «slides» Anne shows code using the video projector Charles combine «slides» and blackboard Christian capture the lecture on video and offer it on YouTube. Bob have a set of demonstrations. …. A lecturer can use the presentation form that she is comfortable with in all her topics, or chose a presentation form that suits each topic

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 14 Flexible for students A student can read all material in advance of the lecture and meet with a list of questions …or sit on a chair at the back with a hangover from the party last evening The lecture is democratic – it accepts all Offer students freedom to organize their own working day, select the topics or projects that they want to concentrate on, follow interests …That is, they do not have to come prepared!

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 15 Cost effective The idea is to form students into classes in order to teach all as a group – not as individuals! Cost effective already when class size pass students. Extremely profitable when classes are large Important in a time when budgets are small

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 16 Teaching has many aspects Teaching LECTURE Can be «mapped» flexibly into the lecture format, i.e., the lecture format “fits all” Teaching

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 17 MOOCs Online “classes” Many students, tuition or free or both Require a high degree of motivation to complete (starting is easier) Only a virtual social network, not the strong network offered by physical universities The «hype» period is over, drawbacks and constraints are becoming apparent Sebastian Thrun, earlier at Stanford and founder of the MOOC-company Udacity, prophesized in 2012 that «in 2050 there will only be 10 universities left» Now he has moderated his views – the disadvantages of MOOCS have become apparent

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 18 Drop out rates René F. Kizilcec; Chris Piech; Emily Schneider."Deconstructing Disengagement: Analyzing Learner Subpopulations in Massive Open Online Courses"(PDF). LAK conference presentation. Retrieved 22 April2013.

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 19 However MOOCS work as a niche product, as proved by BBC Open University over more than 50 years. Require personal tutoring, i.e., a large number of teachers and assistants to avoid high drop-out rates. Thrun and Udacity offer now what they call «Nano degrees», based on short videos and exercises. The idea is to reduce the dropout rate by reducing the effort needed for each “course”. Students following MOOCs continue to be persons with individual requirements, i.e., they are not formed into a group. This makes personal tutoring expensive.

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 20 Flipped classroom That is – teaching without lecturing Is not sustainable! With 50 students I will have less than 2 minutes for each if the lecture (two times 45 minutes) is to be flipped. May work better where teaching is the main task for employees, e.g., in school. Require that students meet prepared. Is that achievable?

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 21 University → School Even if all students should prepare for every lecture we may find that we control all their time. That is, the possibility of following own ideas or preferences may be reduced. Do we want to take flexibility out of higher education? Do we want to turn universities into schools (I am afraid that the university board and the government may be happy with that)?

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 22 Experiences with MOOCs and Flipped? There are much positive feedback from experiments using MOOCs or Flipped classroom. However, all pedagogical experiments seems to succeed independent of the technology or method that is used. Video, 3D animation, new educational platforms, «flipped classroom», blackboard or whatever seem to offer good results. An enthusiastic and highly motivated teacher guarantee success. An example: In our college we have an enthusiast that has established hiMoldeX (our platform for video presentations of lectures). He achieves good results using Facebook for communicating with students When I try the same I don’t get similar results, only a few students post on the Facebook group.

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 23 Controlled experiments It is not easy to perform controlled experiments of new teaching methods. There is a lack of good research. However, if large parts of a department, a school or a university chose a new teaching method and use this method over some time we should have good practical evidence that the method works over many teachers, topics and students. Do we have these examples?

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 24 The lecture It seems that there are many good reasons for retaining the lecture. It is, after all, a teaching method that has been used for thousands of years. But it is threatened – it is not clear if it will survive the coming years.

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 25 Threats By using PowerPoint and similar tools we remove some of the flexibility. Lectures captured on video and offered over the Internet can reduce attendance in the physical classroom – “don’t want to get out of bed, can view the lecture later”. Thus the advantage of following physical lectures, to a large part by meeting and working with other students, are reduced. Attendance at Molde College has been lowered in classes that are captured on video. In some cases the lecture has been given for the camera only – with no students present! If students want to study online, video capture of lectures is the worst option Still, our college board has asked for more video (technology captures bureaucrats)

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 26 Which only proves «Status quo» is an unnatural state The world is changing – faster now than before. Technology drives change. Universities must also adapt.. This can imply that we will go towards more use of technology (MOOCs, video, flipped classroom, automatic tutoring, automatic exams and grading) Or towards less use of technology (PowerPoint and camera out of the lecture room).

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 27 My personal opinion My teaching is at best when I use only the blackboard Require extensive preparation (also, I am exhausted after lecturing two hours). Students wants notes. Then PowerPoint is nice (less preparation, I am not as exhausted) The board of the college wants to capture all lectures on video (I only have to push the start/stop button) Welcome to my PowerPoint lectures that are captured on camera!

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 28 The future? If we look back we see that new technology has not revolutionized teaching However, it has been integrated into the traditional methods - evolution For example: the Internet, video and video projectors, LMS, social networks, … Perhaps MOOCs and Flipped classroom techniques will be integrated in the same way, e.g., used for some classes, part of classes, etc.

Kai A. Olsen, Is the lecture dead? 29 More «Viewpoint», submitted to CACM