This finding certainly mirrors my experience of being the one doing the
lecturing, and underscores my personal feeling that lecturing is not a
terribly effective mode of instruction. Given the constraints which
make the lecture class likely to remain an integral part of an
undergraduate education, what can we do to promote active learning
in this context? There is actually a professor here who put together
a multimedia course for students, including soundtracks and visuals.
It took him 2100 hours to do this! I agree that students are not
highly engaged during a live lecture course--but why do we assume
that they'd be more engaged sitting alone in front of a computerized
simulation of one?--unless, of course, it's presented in such an
entertaining format that they're riveted to the screen... What
is our goal here?
Robin Harwood