Dive Brief:
- A recent study indicates lecture hall-style classes increase the probability of failure by 55%.
- Lecturing may present a disadvantage to students from low-income high schools or communities, because they may have work schedules beyond the classroom and may learn best with more individualized attention. Lectures are most prevalent in secondary systems serving affluent learners.
- Some professors are incorporating multimedia into traditional lecture formats to try to reach 21st century students.
Dive Insight:
Many experts have wondered about the sputtering start for massive open online courses (MOOCs) and now there is research to demonstrate its struggles; the death of classroom learning isn’t based upon outdated models of costs or access, but rather, outdated models of maintaining student interest in person or online.
College leaders would be well served to assess from students not only what could make learning more convenient, but more interesting and professionally beneficial. This kind of assessment could go a long way in improving retention, faculty feedback and tenure considerations, and how to save the classroom product within the demand of increasing research productivity and output.