Does anyone actually like online lectures ?

[Grandealmondmylklatte]

Just that really?

I feel so disconnected, unmotivated and resentful of uni rn. This isn't my first degree, and knowing what it was like before (not the going out, but the engagement, talking about reading with your friends, helping each other stuff) is making it worse. I have an essay due 7 January which is about theory we touched on in the first week of the semester online, I can't even remember it.

Recording them or delivering them ‘live’ is certainly no fun.

Why do you feel resentful of the university though?

I hate doing online lectures - it's far more work, far less satisfying, and generally feels flat and depressing. But what else can we do?

My DD seems to be finding hers pretty good. I think she said that most of the lectures have been recorded, so they watch them ahead of time and then the scheduled lecture time is used to discuss it. It probably helps her housemates include 3 others doing the same subject, one of whom is doing nearly all the same options. And supervisions via Teams are ok too.

@SarahAndQuack

Why do you feel resentful of the university though?

I hate doing online lectures - it's far more work, far less satisfying, and generally feels flat and depressing. But what else can we do?

Absolutely. I’ve yet to meet a academic who’s enjoying this — it is far, far more work and far less satisfying teaching — but it’s not our call.

Interestingly, I have two friends at different institutions who offered face-to-face teaching on individual modules last term, because of being practice-based and in small groups, and the students refused and opted for online. Another friend at an institution I used to teach at did actually run f2f small seminars last term, and had very low attendance.

My son at Bristol over the last 3 years - they had all lectures recorded at the time - the lecturer turns up and presses the record button so even those attending like me son found it useful that they could relisten to the same thing again and again on their own time and that was very helpful for him.

I am OK with online lectures in general, but I have to admit that I get distracted more because I can pause and rewind them whenever I like. They also give you the slides so no need in theory to take notes any more. Are there Moodle or WhatsApp groups where you can discuss modules and coursework with fellow students? I find these are helpful and motivating.

I prefer them

@Xenia

My son at Bristol over the last 3 years - they had all lectures recorded at the time - the lecturer turns up and presses the record button so even those attending like me son found it useful that they could relisten to the same thing again and again on their own time and that was very helpful for him.

That’s the norm at many institutions, but there’s a huge difference between recording a ‘normal’ lecture live, in front of the people you’re teaching so that they can rewatch it later to revise, and sitting in your kitchen recording yourself lecturing to students you can’t see and in some cases have never met, or even giving a lecture via Zoom to 100 hundred tiny heads sitting in their bedrooms.

I think there are some advantages to online, depending on subject matter. I think it encourages better participation at times & a degree of equivalence between me & students, which is important in the area I teach in.

It is extra work. But that extra work can reap dividends I think.

It's not ideal or a solution all in itself but I really do hope lots of elements of online delivery & recorded material can be incorporated into a hybrid model in the future.

Interestingly, I have two friends at different institutions who offered face-to-face teaching on individual modules last term, because of being practice-based and in small groups, and the students refused and opted for online. Another friend at an institution I used to teach at did actually run f2f small seminars last term, and had very low attendance.

I’ve been teaching f2f, and the attendance has never been so high (but I teach optional modules that students have actively chosen to do). We had to move our teaching online for the last week of term, though, and it was awful. 90% of the students would not turn their cameras on or engage (these were seminars, not lectures). It was the most demoralising teaching experience I’ve had in over 20 years in the job. I felt pretty resentful too, tbh.

Why are you resentful of the university?
It's actually really difficult delivering online and the vast majority of academics want things to be back to normal.

Interestingly, only one of my students has said they aren't keen on the online stuff. The rest of them have says they like being able to re-visit the content and speed it up or pause to refer to the recommended reading.

I do wish they'd turn their bloody cameras on though! Talking to my bedroom lamp is no fun.

It's a difficult situation but it's unlikely to be your university's fault.

Lecturers are humans too and are also experiencing the stress, inconvenience and unhappiness of the pandemic.

Universities are spending vast amounts on new delivery platforms and technology to keep learning opportunities going. Lecturers are working harder than ever as they are often required to pre-record their material and deliver it live/online.

It's not the uni experience you hoped for but don't blame the university. One thing that really helps lecturers is if you take an active part in online lectures and keep your camera on so they can see humans abs not just a lot of blank squares.

And not abs

I feel so disconnected, unmotivated and resentful of uni rn

So what should we be doing? Adding to the transmission of a disease which can kill people or make them seriously ill? Universities are part of a world in which there is a pandemic raging. And it's a disease which is transmitted by talking, among other things ...

What would you suggest?

And actually, my students have found that they'e enjoyed the mini-lectures I do. They like the way that they can listen again, or listen while preparing & doing other things, and listen in their own schedule.

They are in groups for their research projects, and they discuss their work in those groups. Why not set up some online study buddy groups? Or meet in person, if you can do so safely?

Online every time. (Having tried all sorts of learning, and hating to be forced to learn what someone thinks I ought, instead of what I find interesting.) Being forced to mix with/ expected to get drunk with/ even told to live with people who happen to be studying a random course one is also following, and even that, possibly for different reasons.
(e.g. one person is fascinated, and using the syllabus as a grounding for further hobby/self employment interest, another is not the least bit interested, and is resentful of being obliged to clock up a course credit in order to achieve a tick on a list of compulsory elements, for career reasons. The former will undoubtedly work best alone, because they are likely to be following all manner of byways around the topic, reading widely and outside any list. Meanwhile the latter is possibly only interested in meeting others in the same course if they know ways to cheat, and get that precious box tick without doing much work. Or if they are juveniles who can't get their minds around the fact they are not still in school with their year group, forced to 'be friends' by birthdate)

DD thinks they're wonderful, and hopes that they continue on line.

She says she can listen when she wants (no running up the hill for the 9am); can make use of times between them (she had some that were 1hr apart, 20 minutes' walk from anywhere she could make use of her time); and she can watch at 1.5 speed for slow lecturers that she understands easily, and slower (and repeat) for those she finds harder.

She also says it's good when you find an earlier lecturer on the same subject has put it online because sometimes having a different explanation can be really helpful if you didn't understand the first.

Online lectures I don't mind but I was getting increasingly pissed off with stuff being uploaded late as hell and struggling to engage by Christmas.

I fucking hate hate hate hate hate randomly allocated breakout groups though.

I think dd has quite enjoyed them, especially as she can watch the slower ones at 1.5x the speed and still keep up with notes and understanding.
she misses sharing them with friends though.

I don't understand why you are resentful of the university really, this is an impossible situation and online lectures aren't allowing the univeristy any gain.
Personally, I prefer teaching most things face to face in normal times but if modules are designed from the outset to be online they can work very well because you can break it into smaller chunks than we are allowed for face to face.

@AaahWoof

Online lectures I don't mind but I was getting increasingly pissed off with stuff being uploaded late as hell and struggling to engage by Christmas.

I fucking hate hate hate hate hate randomly allocated breakout groups though.

Most people do but it's training for life. In employment you can to work productively with people you don't know/like! Education is supposed to challenge you.

I started a new job in lockdown and am working intensively online with people I've never met. It's really difficult at times but we've all just got to get on with it.

My dd does. She is a first year. She MUCH prefers them. She likes being able to stop them, rewind a bit, listen again, or pause them and try and think about what has just been said before listening to the next bit. She has some two hour lectures sometimes, and wouldn't cope with that at all in person (she has ADHD), but she can pause them, leap up and do a few burpies or start jumps, then carry on.

Obviously, like everyone, she hopes they will be able to go out more and meet people in person soon, but she hopes she can keep the on-line lectures as long as possible.
Like ichundich , she finds the WhatsApp group she formed helpful for some interaction with other students on the course.

Kosher I agree. I am just a lawyer but I've unusually given 1700 talks some all day 7 hour jobs or 3 days. I have also been paid to record some too - they come to my home office with a cameraman etc. The face to face talks you get interesting questions quite often and back and forth and interaction (with my lawyer audience anyway not hung over students perhaps) whereas the recorded ones (which apparently I am rare they can record in a one take over 1 hour as I don't seem to hesitate etc) are very different with the lack of interaction.

My sons on their current year conversion course have no lectures, just interactive online real time workshops which are also recorded and can be played later. Those are not quite as useful as lectures as you listen in part to other students make their mistakes so a lot of time is spent hearing people flounder so it can be more time efficient just to pick up on them after they are recorded which is also possible although I don't think you then necessarily hear your own tutor group's session but could be one of another group but same topic.

Most people do but it's training for life. In employment you can to work productively with people you don't know/like! Education is supposed to challenge you.

Thank you for the condescending reply. The reason we are hating the breakout groups on our course is that there are a couple of student houses which are all people on the course and they are behaving pretty dreadfully on these sessions - muting themselves to mutter something among themselves and giggle, then putting mics back on and being generally a very unpleasant atmosphere when we have to work with them. Course staff have been trying to get a handle on it (various students have raised it through appropriate channels) without much luck - so a lot of us are dreading being put with them when they stick us into groups.

We are meant to have a deadline when all pre-recorded content for the following week is uploaded by - that's not being kept - started off with guest lecturers who would get the previous year's session recording shoved up an hour before the live session, then the staff got behind and all slipped to putting things up Sunday night for Monday morning and it all got ridiculous.

I was very open minded to the whole thing and optimistic about not needing to run into campus every day - but if I knew then what I know now - I'd have taken the year out cos it's shit. Everyone I know feels the same.

Thank you for the condescending reply. The reason we are hating the breakout groups on our course is that there are a couple of student houses which are all people on the course and they are behaving pretty dreadfully on these sessions - muting themselves to mutter something among themselves and giggle, then putting mics back on and being generally a very unpleasant atmosphere when we have to work with them. Course staff have been trying to get a handle on it (various students have raised it through appropriate channels) without much luck - so a lot of us are dreading being put with them when they stick us into groups.

I've been amazed at the bad behaviour that online teaching has unleashed. Most of our students refuse to put their cameras on. I found out from one of the few who does that the class are all busily chatting away on the cohort's WhatsApp group while we run the seminars and try to get them to engage: there is basically a discussion carrying on entirely separately from the seminar that they refuse to engage in. I'm starting to think that some of it is a deliberate strategy to undermine online teaching. I teach F2F and the module feedback I got in the autumn did not really engage with the module content and delivery at all, just went on about how much better it was than online.

Everyone I know feels the same.
Well, that goes back to people mixing with 'people like them' . As you see from replies on this thread, not everyone does feel the same.

The issue with the break out rooms on your course, is specific to those students, on that course. It doesn't translate into a generic 'breakout rooms are rubbish'. It is an issue for you, and it is a shame that the university you are at doesn't take some more decisive action - it can't be too difficult to split them up, even though lecturers shouldn't have to focus on 'behaviour management' in the way school teachers do. Just to let you know, "being put into groups" has always been disliked by many people. Long before this pandemic and long before the internet even. It is always a challenge to work with people who are different from yourself and have different ways of working even, as well as different attitudes to work. there has to be a certain amount of rising above it by other students. You can't blame the university for that.