Re:Laptops Are Great, But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting
by cyphar on Monday November 27, 2017 @08:11AM
(#15786994)
I found that the usefulness of lectures depends very strongly on how good the lecturer is, as well as the topic being discussed. When studying physics I found that the lectures were incredibly useful, because it's quite hard to get in the "zone" of understanding the derivation being discussed when at home. However, with mathematics subjects the textbook was almost always a much better learning tool, because the derivation did not require a discussion of the physics that justified said derivation. Computer Science lectures were almost unilaterally a waste of time.
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Re:Laptops Are Great, But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting
by wastedhours on Monday November 27, 2017 @08:25AM
(#15787087)
I had an engineering mathematics lecture where the lecturer was so bad attending was a net negative, as in, not only did he add nothing to the notes, but his frequent mistakes and side tangents led us down so many useless avenues we'd end up more confused.
Re:Laptops Are Great, But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting
by SatvikBeri on Monday November 27, 2017 @09:42AM
(#15787653)
It also depends a lot on the student - personally I tend to learn faster from a mediocre textbook than an excellent lecturer. But my wife is the opposite, she retains much more from in-person lectures than videos or books.
Re:Laptops Are Great, But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting
by toomanybeersies on Monday November 27, 2017 @08:02PM
(#15793347)
On the contrary, I found that mathematics was the one subject where attending lectures was actually helpful. Seeing the lecturer work through problems made it a lot easier to understand than trying to read the lecture notes.
Watching recorded lectures would do the same though, but they weren't recorded. They had the capability, but the maths department decided that they didn't want to, which I think was silly at best, and discriminatory at worst (e.g. people with mental health issues might be unable to attend lectures, thus being put at an unfair disadvantage).