Lecture Format

After taking a few weeks of my biostatistics course, I have a few thoughts on the lecture format.

Dr. Caffo basically recorded voice to play over PowerPoint slides.  He frequently adds overlays to the slides - pictures of the statisticians he is referring to, links to Wiki pages, and occasionally corrections to slides or the text of his lecture.  Mostly I found the overlays useful, but some times they were distracting.

One complaint I have about this format was that he flew through the mathematical examples and definitions and I frequently found myself pausing and rewinding the lecture.  I have never thought PowerPoint slides were a good idea when you are doing math in front of a class - because you don't have to write down the equations, you tend to lecture faster than students can copy down the equations.  Seeing this from the other side has confirmed my distaste for PP lectures.  I suppose however that this is an advantage of taped lecture, I can rewind as much as I need.

The biggest disadvantage to the video is that I can't really ask questions.  There are several statistics variables that have similar names and (maddeningly) multiple symbols.  Sometimes Dr. Caffo was less than clear.  Although most of my questions could be answered from context and rewinding a lot, it was still was an issue for me at times.

It took me a few weeks before I realized that I could download a PDF of the slides.  I tried printing them out and taking notes on them.  This was a learning disaster for me - I paid less attention and would get through an entire lecture without retaining anything.  I began to print them out, but still taking notes as I watched.  That way I didn't have to worry too much about my handwriting.

Now that I am through the course, I would say talking over PowerPoint slides is fine, and probably the easiest way to produce one of these courses.  The filming of actual writing that the Khan Academy uses I find more interesting to watch, and if the voice over is filmed while the author is writing you eliminate lecturing too fast through math problems.

I think this may be the most useful thing for me as a college professor - sitting in a classroom trying to learn something.  Must do this more often for the benefit of my own students!