 "Photo: Jeremy Tipton")
Universities across the country, including Boston University, have been providing professors with the opportunity to record and post their lectures online for their students' use in a growing trend called podcasting.
Podcasting allows MP3 files to be downloaded onto a computer or an MP3 player and be updated automatically when a new file becomes available. Students enrolled in a class can register online to have their lectures updated and immediately delivered to their computer.
Colleges including Purdue University, the University of Washington, the University of Hawaii and Drexel University have all instituted this kind of technology.
Information Technology Consulting Service Director James Stone said BU already provides its faculty with the means to record and post their lectures online in MP3 format.
"We provide through mechanisms such as Courseinfo, WebCT, Blackboard," he said. "There are currently 1,100 members of the faculty using the sites. I don't know for sure if any of the faculty have [recorded and uploaded lectures], but they certainly could if they wanted to. The means are there and the support is there."
Whether or not professors take advantage of this technology is up to them.
Journalism professor Chris Daly said he would consider making his History and Principles of Print Journalism lectures available for podcasting to his students, adding that the new technology could be beneficial in certain situations.
For example, he said if a student misses class for an emergency, it is better to hear a recorded lecture than to obtain poor notes from a classmate.
Because the essential elements of a lecture can be lost in an audio recording, Daly said podcasting should never be a replacement for actually going to class.
"It is valuable to attend lectures, for those who stay awake, to experience active listening rather than the material coming through headphones while you're bopping around campus," Daly said. "In my lectures, I use the overhead for spelling and statistics. This information would be just missing. I also use excerpts from video. The MP3 version would be a diminished version of my lecture."
The opportunity to interrupt and ask questions - something that is an integral part of understanding course material - would also be lost when listening to a flatter, prerecorded version, Daly said.
In addition to students being shortchanged, Daly said professors would lose out on a learning experience as well when judging the effectiveness of their lectures.
"Being in front of students gets my adrenaline going," he said. "I'm thinking at top speed, reacting to students, seeing which jokes go over." Another concern professors have is the safety of their lectures once they are on the web.
"It is a question about ownership of intellectual material," Daly said. He said lecture material could be "stolen, repackaged and misappropriated."
Stone said there is little that can be done about the circulation of lectures once they have been downloaded into someone's computer.
"We can protect the MP3s as long as they're on the BU website and you need login in name and Kerberos password to access them," Stone said. Stone said once the files are downloaded, "it's literally out of our hands because now it's on your personal computer."
Students seem to have mixed reactions when considering the use of recorded lectures.
School of Management sophomore Kim Richards said she would not feel the need to go to class if the lectures were online.
"If you have audio, that's the class," Richards said. "What's the point of going? I don't need to see the teacher to listen to him."
Many students who already record their professors' lectures say the do so for different reasons.
"The only reason I record is because I can't stay awake," College of Communication sophomore Carly Nix said. "I know it's my fault and I feel guilty for missing the first-hand experience."
Some students said they would choose not to use podcasting as an alternative to going to class if given the chance.
"I think there's a lot to be said for seeing a teacher lecture in person," College of Fine Arts sophomore Alex Hage said. "As soon as you're in front of your computer in your room, listening to the lectures just won't work with all of the distractions you have there. If I'm in class I'm obligated to listen."
Most students said they would utilize recorded lectures through podcasting as a way to supplement their classes.
"I think it's a great idea as a study tool, not as a replacement," SMG sophomore Sam Mendoza said. "If I fall asleep, miss class or just can't take things down verbatim fast enough, it'd be nice to have something to refer back to."
Others said the notion of podcasting lectures will negatively affect the college experience.
"People already seem to find any excuse not to go to class," COM sophomore Ernesto Morales said. "Let something remain sacred, sanctified. Let students respect their professors because they work hard to present themselves. And if students are just going to podcast the lectures, then they're not exposing themselves to the reality that is social interaction."
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