by MERLIN CROSSLEY

Academics are posting examples of dead lectures on social media – empty lecture halls with no students present. Yes, there are some dead parrots, but it doesn’t mean that Norwegian Blues are extinct. Lectures aren’t dead, they’re not even just resting, many lectures and lecturers are thriving.

We’re in an age where everything is available – it’s like the Cambrian explosion – old life forms persist, and new ones are evolving. If you want music, every type is still there: classical, blues, jazz, soul, R&B, country, folk, hip-hop, rock, ambient, electro, disco, metal, punk, pop etc. In education it’s all still there too, and more ideas are coming. And it’s quite ok to like classical and pop, and then invent a new style using new instruments.

Wondering eagerly if the lecture is dead has always been the wrong approach. It’s best to avoid these divisive questions about lectures, exams, assignments etc. If you want to have a fruitful discussion, it’s better to ask – where do lectures work best?

The first thing is to consider what will support student learning and what students tell us will.

Students like inspiring teaching but most of all they seem to want clarity – they want to know what is expected of them – “what am I meant to learn?”, “will this be on the exam?” This isn’t always a depressing expression of laziness. Often it is a genuine attempt to do the right thing.

To me, one great virtue of lectures is that they are very good at corralling an ever-growing syllabus. In a lecture series there is time to go through the great books or great concepts in the discipline.

One is building a framework out of mighty oak beams and huge sandstone blocks rather than attempting to pile up grains of sand or scrape together bits and pieces – information snacks! In a good series of lectures, it’s possible to ensure that the big things are included in the framework of learning. One isn’t building from straw or sticks but via bricks.

Lectures allow one to cover complex topics in depth. Tutorials and lectorials are fine, but you first have to have real substance to discuss.

I doubt any course would consist of “nothing but lectures” but I think lectures should be a serious option in many courses.

On top of their pedological value – lectures can be fun. Lecturers enjoy preparing a lecture and take pleasure in delivering it well. Students enjoy good lectures too, and find it useful to have so much in one place – even if they don’t all attend in person but rather watch the recording later and do that at double speed! Many will watch it twice – once near the date it was delivered and again later as their knowledge has come together and the assessment approaches. A good lecture series is like an audiobook or podcast, or like watching a play.

One criticism of the lecture is that it’s been around for a while and surely we can do better in the modern age? The answer to that is that many people are doing better with modern technologies that support lecturing.  And, of course, we are doing new things too. Longevity is hardly an argument against the lecture.

Another criticism is that students don’t attend. This is only occasionally true. More often, a core of students attends and is attentive. For most of my career I’ve lamented the fact that classes have been too big – well, now they are much smaller!

Finally, there are those who worry that face-to-face lectures are not inclusive. They make life difficult for remote students, for students working part-time, for those who cannot afford transport costs, etc. To me this means we should provide full digital support. But this is not a reason to abandon all face-to-face lectures if they are still helpful to some students.

What’s the perfect mix for a course these days?

The academics giving the course should decide, having consulted with colleagues and students.

Perhaps a good course would involve a welcome event, individual reading by each student, some lectures that in the smaller classes involve some interaction, note taking and formal writing, some grappling with challenging questions in groups or individually, some synthesis by students, some discourse in tutorials and clarifying by academics, hands on work in practicals or workshops and producing a key output, some work integrated learning, some quizzes and practice tests with model answers, some peer to peer engagement, and the minimal amount of assessment, with grading if grading is needed but just hurdle assessments if later grading is an option.

It could all be face-to-face (with digital support to cater for students who can’t be there), or it could be fully on-line (if designed for students who can best access education remotely). Within this mix there are hundreds of combinations of activities and somewhere there will be an optimal set for each subject.

But there is no reason to ban good lectures or to celebrate their passing. They are one part of the mix as the smorgasbord of modern educational offerings continues to expand, and the best cordon bleu educational chefs continue to use lectures to provide for knowledge hungry students.

Professor Merlin Crossley is Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic Quality at UNSW