Casting a ‘Net of lectures
By Lauren Gabbaian
Oct. 6, 2005 9:00 p.m.
It is not uncommon for a student to miss a lecture every now and
then. He overslept; she was sick; he was arrested for his unpaid
parking tickets and could not make bail.
There was once a time when such a student would have had to rely
on classmates’ notes to learn the day’s material. But
those days are dying fast with the advent of BruinCast, a new
program being tested by the Office of Instructional Development in
which class lectures are recorded and posted on the Internet for
later viewing.
“Taking someone else’s notes is one thing, but
observing the lecture on your own is a totally different
story,” said Carey Shenkman, a first-year undeclared
student.
But the benefits of such a service go far beyond being able to
experience a missed lecture first-hand. Difficulties such as
understanding fast-talking professors would be aided by
students’ new ability to replay lectures with the click of a
button, and a concept that may have seemed difficult in a
fast-paced chemistry class could become simple upon a
student’s review at his or her own pace.
“In my office hours … a number of questions were about
the particular things that I was doing in the lecture today or the
previous lecture, which I think in principle could have been
addressed by the video if (the students) had just reviewed it
carefully,” said Dimitri Shylakhtenko, professor of
mathematics and one of four professors currently testing
BruinCast.
Heads of similar programs at UC Berkeley and the University of
Michigan Dental School have noticed their respective Web sites
received the greatest number of hits during midterm and finals
times, when students use the recordings for review.
Disabled students may also feel the benefit of lectures posted
on the Internet. Those with limited mobility will not have to rely
on classmates’ notes, for example, and those with a learning
disability or for whom English is a second language will better be
able to replay the lecture as many times as necessary to obtain a
solid grasp on the material. According to BruinCast project manager
Rob Rogers, future webcasts may be closed captioned for the hearing
impaired.
Despite the benefits of the program, there are also some
concerns. One is that students may choose to watch the webcast as a
substitute for attending lecture.
“If I don’t want to walk all the way to class,
I’ll just stay home and watch from there. … I don’t
see why not,” fourth-year political science student Nic
Christen said.
However, professors said there are drawbacks to substituting
video for attendance. For example, students are unable to ask
questions when watching a webcast, and some believe there is less
motivation to pay attention when not in a classroom setting.
While psychology Professor Tamara Malamuth, who is also
participating in the BruinCast pilot, optimistically sees the
service as a way for chronic absentees to receive the material,
others are more cynical.
“You can say, “˜Oh, I’m going to watch it,
I’m going to watch it later,’ and then you really never
watch it,” Shenkman said.
Rogers expressed similar concerns.
“(BruinCast) is not meant to be a substitute, but an
addition to the regular course material,” he said.
There was also an initial fear that professors would not want to
make their material public, thus delaying the launch of the
program. Several of these professors actually supported the use of
webcasts, although not for their own courses, Rogers said.
For the time being, BruinCast is only being offered in four
courses, chosen mostly on the basis of the classroom in which they
are held and whether or not the room is capable of supporting the
technology. This quarter, BruinCast is available for Psychology 10,
History 123A, Mathematics 31B and Political Science 141B.
The number and range of courses will increase next quarter. One
of the four classes is only being posted as an audio feed that
students can download to their computers and MP3 players.
Perhaps some professors would prefer it that way. Professor
Geoffrey Symcox refuses to watch his own lectures because they
could make him feel self-conscious. Professor John Zaller, after
having seen himself recorded, felt the same way.
“I had no idea how I looked,” he said.
“I’m bald now.”
To access recorded lectures, students can navigate to their
course Web site or the BruinCast homepage at
www.bruincast.ucla.edu.
