Re:Why Virtual Classes Can Be Better Than Real Ones (2015)
by krapht on Friday March 17, 2017 @02:34AM
(#13892001)
Hah, are you describing most of my intro classes as an undergraduate engineer? I paid an egregious sum of money to teach myself physics, chemistry, and calculus out of a textbook and get tested on it.
Re:Why Virtual Classes Can Be Better Than Real Ones (2015)
by tnecniv on Friday March 17, 2017 @12:58PM
(#13895628)
The real value of the lectures, especially in higher level classes, is the color that the professor adds based on past experiences that normally doesn't come out in a text book.
Whether that's worth four years and a couple hundred thousand dollars...
Re:Why Virtual Classes Can Be Better Than Real Ones (2015)
by cel1ne on Friday March 17, 2017 @05:03AM
(#13892551)
I realised that with mathematics in school and university.
Even though I usually understood everything after hearing it once I was only able to get an A on an exam after I did the calculations at least once by myself.
If I didn't do that I would get caught up on "unknown unknowns", lose time and get a C.
Re:Why Virtual Classes Can Be Better Than Real Ones (2015)
by aswanson on Friday March 17, 2017 @09:44AM
(#13893861)
Same experience here. Math et al are technique oriented at that level. You simply have to practice to get good at it, no way around it. Just like comprehending a jump shot is no substitute for taking hundreds of shots a day if you want to get good at it.
Re:Why Virtual Classes Can Be Better Than Real Ones (2015)
by tnecniv on Friday March 17, 2017 @01:01PM
(#13895670)
This was my exact experience during my first two years in undergrad. It was especially frustrating because my grade was varying from an A to a C based on what felt like dice rolls. I normally ended up just thinking "oh I had bad luck on that one."
It took me until my junior year to actually figure out what it took to succeed in college after breezing through high school. Since the number of exams your grade is based on is small (normally 1 to 3), I feel there is still a luck component, but you can really tilt the odds in your favor through good prep work.
Or to do a couple of exercises until students really grasp the subject matter. Often it feels like we can grasp something in theory, only to be stumped by practical applications. One of the greatest benefits a course could have is example problems, with fully explained solutions. If the problems are fun to work through, then it makes for a good course.
What I'd like to see is a promise on the likes of:
> Do these 100 problems and you'll grock X (where X is probability, calculus, functional programming, deep learning, etc)!
And the problems be well chosen, well explained and fun to work out.