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Why My MOOC Is Not Built on Video

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Re: Why My MOOC Is Not Built on Video

#51

Post by bayesianhorse »

Moocs wouldn't have the same pull if they didn't do video. There are reasons why "E-Learning" never really took off before the MOOC movement.

Some part of this is that text books tend to be written as reference material, and don't come with a "first learner's cut", a path through the material which is suited for someone just starting to learn the subject.

Videos are a medium which seems to be easier to master for university instructors than really good teaching texts. Don't ask me why...

Re: Why My MOOC Is Not Built on Video

#52

Post by bayesianhorse »

arikrak wrote: post #31

I don't get why MOOCs are so focused on video. I think many people enjoy the relaxed experience of watching a video more than reading, but why ignore people who rather jump right into a text? A text is easier to skim search and reference than a video, and easier to keep up-to-date for the creators. However, I think the best option is a combination of text with visual and interactive content, such as graphical represe…

One advantage of videos is the emotional component. It seems like students do enjoy videos over whatever text the instructors provide.

Another advantage is the subtle leakage of the instructor's opinions and thought processes. At least I perceive video to be slightly better in this regard.

Re: Why My MOOC Is Not Built on Video

#53

Post by ChanderG »

laex wrote: post #47

This reminds of the blog post by Adam Brimo, the founder of OpenLearning ( http://www.openlearning.com ) - a MOOC startup heavily focused around creating communities. It's short, so I'll just post it here: --BEGIN POST-- Every profession and every professional engages with teaching and learning in some capacity. Yet many individuals go through university or higher education degrees and fail to learn to their full pot…

Reminds me of the quote: "Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire." — William Butler Yeats. Sadly, very few institutions seem to understand this.

Re: Why My MOOC Is Not Built on Video

#54

Post by weavie »

SilasX wrote: post #36
icefox wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, I would be more inclined to watch videos if they were highly edited. If you want to watch a MOOC on linear algebra the videos you will find are little more than a camcorder stuck in the corner of a classroom and dumped online. For a topic that really doesn't change decade after decade at some point someone is going to come along and produce a highly edited video that contains all of the key points, presented…

Despite being relatively early and ad hoc, Khan academy got it mostly right: don't just tape someone giving a lecture; give a close up of the instructor writing out the logical profession of ideas. In a classroom, it's too hard to do it fast enough; they either have to write very little, or use static slides. Khan wisely used the virtual whiteboard, in effect, to accelerate the writing speed while having infinite spa…

Agree. Am currently going through the Khan academy linear algebra course. I find it excellent.

I am finding the best approach is to watch the video at 2x speed, take notes at the same time and then catch up with a book a little later on.

Re: Why My MOOC Is Not Built on Video

#55

Post by reacweb »

alashley wrote: post #46
bramgg wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this opinion voted to the top of Hacker News all the time. People seem to forget that watching something in video format is just so damn convenient, and requires little effort.

Watching a video does require little effort, but learning -- and subsequently retaining anything is where the real effort is required with technical subjects.

When you watch a video, you lose the freedom of the rate. People do not like to lose freedom.

Re: Why My MOOC Is Not Built on Video

#56

Post by mcbetz »

It's not only MOOCs that use videos a lot. There are so many self publishers who sell videos as a bonus to an ebook. At a premium price. Nathan Barry and Brennan Dunn may be the most prominent examples for this and Barry even advices this practice in his book "Authority" - and he is successful with this strategy. So obviously some customers perceive videos as an extra value and are ready to pay the premium price.

Re: Why My MOOC Is Not Built on Video

#57

Post by mattlutze »

bramgg wrote: post #39
douche wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a little surprised at the strong support this comment has driven. Haha, I usually use this account for opinions that I would think controversial.

I see this opinion voted to the top of Hacker News all the time. People seem to forget that watching something in video format is just so damn convenient, and requires little effort.

A MOOC I'm currently taking, and possibly soon dropping, is heavy on functional programming (with a language whose syntax has been pretty new to me), primarily through 1.5 hour lectures. The professor is quite skilled, but the convenience of that video format is often overshadowed by both needing to wait for lectures to be published and having to pay complete attention to them for 90 minutes a pop.

In contrast, lectures accompanied by well-produced written material allow me to skip areas I have a grasp on, or provide a resource to reference much more quickly when I need to review a topic. Having to guess which lecture, and where in that lecture, a comment occurred is a significant spend of time.

Re: Why My MOOC Is Not Built on Video

#58

Post by mattlutze »

axlprose wrote: post #37
karmacondon wrote: post #4

Simply: The average person can read at ~300 words per minute, and listen at ~150 words per minute. I'm not a big fan of video as a tool for conveying information in general. Not only can I read faster than I can listen, but I can skim and skip around as well. There are situations where video is the best way to impart certain information, but those seem to be the rare cases. I hate it when websites make me sit through…

It appears I'm in the minority here somehow, but I am a strong auditory learner. Like to the point where I sometimes suspect I'm borderline dyslexic, but I don't have any of the usual symptoms of it. Meanwhile, I can listen to audio at 3x speed with ease. With a regular book for example, I'd take about nearly a year to finish just 1 probably, if I can even stand to read it consistently, and even then I wouldn't remem…

Off-topic: I wonder sometimes at the use of "read" for audiobooks. I don't mean it as a slight -- 25 books a year is honestly more than I take in in any medium, unfortunately -- but it feels like the wrong verb for the action. "Listen" doesn't really feel like it conveys the active retention process generally going on, either.

Re: Why My MOOC Is Not Built on Video

#59

Post by dagw »

penprogg wrote: post #11

I agree with the author's sentiment 100%. As others have stated, the reason that video is worse than text for learning is because A. The rate at which you can read is faster than you can listen B. Video technology is often a hassle when you need to skip around. C. It's cheaper to write and revise text than video. D. Videos consume large amounts of data. But I'm going to add another point. E. Lecturers most often don'…

I would augment A to "the rate at which you read while learning is highly variable throughout the material and differs from person to person". Sometimes I can plow through a chapter in an 20 minutes and sometimes it takes me a week to get one paragraph. And the paragraph that takes me a week you might get in 5 minutes. With text we can each go at our own pace and trivially change pace with the nature of the material. With video we all get the same pace and it's the pace the instructor thinks is best.

Re: Why My MOOC Is Not Built on Video

#60

Post by fenfennek »

freehunter wrote: post #9
jrbeal wrote: post #2

I'd be fine with a video-less MOOC. Just give me a textbook and tell me the chapters to study and what assignments to work on, and I'll be fine. It's difficult to do this on your own because you never know what to focus on without guidance. You're likely to waste valuable time down some unimportant or meaningless rabbit hole! Of course, I'd hope the MOOC would offer a support mechanism in case I needed help.

I was recently re-reading a textbook that I had in college and I realized just how much of the book we skipped in class when I noticed how many chapters were unfamiliar to me. I remembered how much we skipped around to put things in a more logical order and what questions we skipped in the tests as well... not sure why textbooks are often written to illogically that it takes a teacher to decipher them.

I think Tim Ferris commented on this problem once in a Google Talk where the topic of the quality of (text)books came up:

To a big part it comes down to the fact that ideas and chapters presented in books are most often structured and sequenced in a way that suits the author in writing it. Less about what would actually be the best way of presenting the material from a learner's perspective.

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