Videos of CH 36: "Organic Chemistry" lectures will be placed online this semester in a trial run of a program that may spread to more Brown classes.
The videos will be available to all students enrolled in the class via MyCourses, the new version of the University's online course management system WebCT.
According to Mark Shelton, leader of the library's systems and media services department, these videos will reinforce material learned in class and allow students to be more engaged in learning.
"You can't absorb everything when you're in class," Shelton said. "The idea of videotaping classes allows you to decrease the time spent on note-taking and put more into interactivity - asking questions and making comments."
Shelton said he and University Librarian Harriette Hemmasi received funds for the project from the University at the end of last year. Hemmasi said they hope to expand the online lecture video program to other classes if the pilot program is successful.
Shelton said they targeted CH 36 for the pilot program because it is considered a challenging course that is typically overcrowded. According to Registrar Michael Pesta, students often attend multiple sections to absorb the material, and the lecture halls fill up very quickly.
Before CH 36 was selected for the online lectures pilot, administrators were considering telecasting the course's lectures to another classroom to accommodate overflow students, Shelton said.
The value of the videos goes beyond tackling the problem of overcrowding, Shelton said.
"This really reinforces the class experience," he said.
Since Spring 2005, Assistant Professor of Biology Arthur Salomon has been using his personal video camera to film his lectures for BI 28: "Introductory Biochemistry." Salomon said posting videos of lectures online can help students absorb the material. Even though filming lectures has been one of his hobbies for the past few years, Salomon acknowledged that it has been "a large amount of work" and said he is glad the University is launching a pilot project.
"I was sort of hoping this would happen," Salomon said. "It's one of these things where people say, 'Yeah, we'll do it next year,' and it never happens. I learned from that you have to provide a prototype for an institution to say, 'OK, this is useful.'"
Salomon said he tracked student use of the online lectures, and student feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Though it is hard to pinpoint how many students used the videos, Salomon said some students watched every minute of the lectures online. He also said usage skyrocketed before tests.
"It works particularly well for my class because it's very information-intensive," Salomon said. "It's one of those classes that students are terrified of, and this allows them to go back through the lectures and pause. It works well for biochemistry just because of the quantity of information."
According to Salomon, medical schools have long been videotaping lectures and distributing them on video.
Shelton said he and Hemmasi already have plans to videotape Salomon's biochemistry class next semester and hope to expand the videos to other classes.
Although posting videos of lectures online raises questions about class attendance, both Hemmasi and Shelton said they are not concerned that attendance will decline dramatically.
"It would be like saying, 'All I have to do is read all the assignments and not go to class,'" Shelton said. "Why would anyone say, 'I'm just going to watch this lecture where the camera is on one point and not participate'?"
Shelton said the videos will decrease stress and anxiety for student-athletes and others who have to miss class occasionally.
"It only means you get more out of each class," Shelton said. "In the end, it's all about what students make of the opportunities presented to them. These videos are an opportunity."
Salomon said the online videos did not affect daily attendance in his biochemistry class.
"It was pretty remarkable," he said. "Students used it purely as a supplemental source of material. Some professors might be turned off because they don't want to see empty lecture halls or have their material posted online, but these are just things we need to discuss."
Hemassi said she and Shelton will collect student and professor feedback over the next year. If the University decides to use the videos for more classes, they will begin to look into staffing and financing the project, she said.
"A lot of steps have led up to this," Hemmasi said. "We're really excited, and we think students will like it, too."
