I heard today that the University of Queensland’s
medical faculty have announced that they’re going to stop lecturing, put all the course materials online, and spend the teaching time in smaller tutorials instead.
Meanwhile the University of New South Wales have formally re-defined lecture attendance so that students who aren’t physically present at the lecture but view the material online are considered to have attended. They’re also sending lecturers out to remote sites (ie mine sites, archaelogical digs, etc.) with video goggles displaying images of the lecture theatre, and a wireless camera linked back to a laptop and thence via Breeze back to the University, so the lecturer can present the class from the field.
Meanwhile Universities are physically looking at changing lecture spaces to be smaller and more interactive.
I expect it will end with University-in-a-box, stuck in a server room somewhere, and holding the world’s best lecturers on every subject imaginable. Log on, grab some lectures, do your coursework, do some online tests, chat with other students, try out your hand at practical stuff in a VR simulation, sit your exams, download the PDF of your degree, or order it and have it couriered to you. Hopefully you’ll be able to do it without you submitting your credit card number first.
Meanwhile Yahoo have been hiring lecture recording experts from prestigious US higher-ed institutions. I wonder what they’re planning?
