To wish my university lectures were... well, lectures

[reallyyyy]

I started a new course a few weeks ago, it's my second degree and it's a healthcare degree so that might be why. But our lectures are so interactive and filled with so many activities that feel like a waste of time. I had a 2 hour lecture today and 40 minutes of it was spent making posters of different topics to put on the board at the front, with the vision that we would be learning from each other. Only, we couldn't read the posters as they were too small and far away and it didn't teach us anything. There are also lots of 'discuss in pairs X, Y and Z' and it's not helpful or useful. It was nice in the first week as a bit of an icebreaker but now it just feels annoying.

I'm finding it frustrating sitting in a 2 hour lecture and being taught 1 hour of content. I'm not sure if it's because I studied a different degree before but lectures were 2 hours of information and I learnt a lot from them.

We have seminars too so it's not like I'm not enjoying the interaction, just not in a lecture.

I know IABU but I think I'm just overly tired from getting up at 5:30am to commute in for a lecture just to spend half the time making posters or colouring in diagrams.

AI is potentially a real issue for universities. I know one lecturer who talks of having to return to traditional exams - something they had been moving away from.

You are supposed to go away and do more active learning independently to add to what the expert has told you. They’ve used the lecture to guide you as to the main areas of interest/relevance so you can learn efficiently by reading appropriately afterwards.

Lectures are not spoon feeding for goodness sake! They are more a signpost to what reading and discussion to do afterwards. The people really excited by learning are the ones who want to do this.

I agree with you, but I also think that there are so many different approaches to teaching and interactive lectures are a way of trying to keep things fresh. I stand by the idea of trusting the teachers’ expertise however - unless op detects incompetence or inexperience that is having a negative impact on the classes in which case op should go through the proper channels to get this sorted.

Years ago, I tried and failed uni. I did not understand the lecture format at all. You just get talked at, and then how to go off and do what?

Later on, I went back to uni for a healthcare course. The units are set out by the professional body, and most lectures were interactive, or had points you did group work. I found this so much easier to get to grips with.

But then, I failed that too. I can't do independent learning at all, and even the times we had to go off during a lecture and make a poster or whatever... my mind just has a block and I can't do it.

Did a humanities PhD in the late 1990s, I assure you we were all presenting off papers we had written

You still present papers you have written. Your poster complements your paper and is there displayed when you aren’t. Generating interest. Hopefully.

Do you really not understand? Or is it just that you learn differently?

I’m fairly intelligent (high IQ, good grades, can bash out an essay on a subject I know nothing about and still achieve a 1st etc.) however, I have slow auditory processing, am easily distracted, and find being ‘talked at’ frustrating and miserable. Lecture notes do not further my understanding.

I could equally argue that group discussions, posters, presentations etc. are a starting point to read around the published literature. I don’t really understand why you think that lectures are the only way that this is possible.

To me, watching someone read off a PowerPoint for two hours is a pointless exercise. I could have been in bed doing that myself!

I’m a teacher, so I fully understand people prefer different activities to learn. I also know that ‘learning styles’ as absolutes is nonsense - the research doesn’t say what you think it does. What I’m saying is, nobody retains enough information (ie ‘learns’) from a lecture - sure, some people will remember more than others but everyone needs to do the independent work themselves. Do the posters if that helps. Read more. Make more notes. Discuss with others. The lecture is a starting point. It always has been. Degree level study is independent. So I don’t understand someone who expects a lecture to teach them everything. Genuinely. I don’t get how you would go to university and expect everything to be handed to you via lectures (or seminars or tutorials). These all contribute. But you have to do the extra work yourself.

Reading off a PowerPoint isn’t a lecture. It’s just bad teaching. That’s not what a proper lecture is - but lecturers upthread have said they’ve been told to put everything on the slides because of students who don’t want to do the work themselves. Listen. Make note of key points. Go away and read, draw, discuss. Whatever works.

The course I teach has a one-hour lecture of the traditional type followed by a two-hour seminar with follow on activities. It’s surprising how little of the lecture content sticks, so the seminar time is valuable.

I could equally argue that group discussions, posters, presentations etc. are a starting point to read around the published literature.

Where is the role for expertise in this? Why must the wheel always be reinvented?

I also went back and did an online degree 25 years after my first, and it was like that, too. I think it is to cater or Gen Z's apparent need to be engaged all of the time in the content.

No, lecturers have changed because this style of lecture has proven to be inefficient.

The changes are based in academic research into pedagogy. You do chalk and talk teaching and most of your class won't follow. Esp if you are literally standing talking at people.

because we are learning and improving all the time in all areas...
and it's not reinventing the wheel... it's building and improving upon what we already know

I agree it's bad teaching and yet many lecturers still do it... this is why they are given guidance about teaching.

Lecturing and public speaking is a skill and it's one that academics do not necessarily have.

No. Even in schools the research now says that ‘chalk and talk’ with regular testing is more efficient than group work etc. And even at undergrad level we are talking about adults who are interested in the subject being taught, so I imagine it goes even more so for them.

Still do it? They never used to. They just lectured, with a few notes on a handout of absolutely key things (further reading, key points etc) that you could annotate and also make your own notes. PowerPoint at all is (relatively) recent, putting all the info on the PowerPoint even more so.

chalk and talk... even for primary? I don't think so

My lectures are videoed and captioned so those who process differently or need alternative ways of understanding can use those. I don't think many students who attended the lecture rewatch them, perhaps one or two, those who are ill or didn't attend are more likely to do so. I also make videos and audio recordings of all my lectures and study skills and everything. My students can listen like to podcasts if that suits them better.

perhaps you've been lucky but my UG degree was lectures of someone standing there reciting their notes to me

Seminar work is group work and presentation work- so I encourage them to put aside their laptops and speak to each other.

I think both a traditional lecture and an interactive seminar have something to offer. Sometimes students don't like interactive work as they either don't understand the skills it is developing (which is on the tutor) or they find it harder than churning out an essay of already produced literature, and so they wish they were doing that. I try to explain to them that doing things that are harder or not in the usual skill set is usually valuable. Just producing written essays isn't enough these days, especially with ChatGPT and cut and paste.

care to share your favourite academic research papers in this regard? I have access to 2 university libraries as I'm a doctoral student and I work at a uni so I'm genuinely interested.

care to share your favourite academic research papers in this regard? I have access to 2 university libraries as I'm a doctoral student and I work at a uni so I'm genuinely interested.

We are discussing adult learning.
If you need to say ‘oh but research says this works for 5 year olds’ you may want to have a little think.