[endzone]

it's not a problem specific to germany, but he makes a legitimate criticism of the classic lecture format. it is an antiquated mode of delivery, an extremely poor use of students' time, and really should not be part of university education any longer. i suppose it is one way of limiting cost...

[collyw]

What do you see as being better alternatives?

I am not saying they are not there, but compared to online course for example, I think pyscially attending lectures gives more incentive to learn having invested the effort to actually turn up.

What do other people think?

[jlg23]

> What do you see as being better alternatives?

Online lectures. Uploaded scripts. (At least in my university good scripts were followed so closely, that a "lecture" was exactly what the name says "somebody reading the script". And bad lectures were an utter waste of time. I remember one math prof who permanently corrected his proofs back and forth - in the end we just took photos of his blackboard "art" (back in 2000), because taking notes was absolutely pointless.)

With modern technology those could be annotated; students could have online discussions about those (think "soundcloud-style interface").

Everyone could benefit from those, not only students. Can I please live in a world where I can do every course from home, at my own pace? I'd happily pay to have my all tests evaluated and finally for time spent by university employees on my exams - for which I'd sign up whenever I am ready and without formally being enrolled as a student.

> I think pyscially attending lectures gives more incentive to learn

Or it allows for less time to learn. In my university the different institutes are distributed across the whole city and I spent 12 hours every week just on commutes between those. Thus, people who need to work for paying for their studies (not tuition, but rent, food, transportation) are already excluded by being forced to physically attend. Same for people who already have a job. I am not talking about those few who can study while working because their employer supports this, I'm talking about the carpenter with an interest in theoretical physics, astronomy or arts.

[lorenzhs]

> Online lectures. Uploaded scripts.

Online lectures provide too many distractions. Constant urge to check emails or HN. I tried a MOOC once (Andrew Ng's Machine Learning), and the pace was too slow for me to stay concentrated for even a couple of minutes. Still, recorded lectures can be useful (e.g. if you get sick, you can catch up after recovering). I just don't think that they're very well suited to being the primary delivery format.

There is rarely a good excuse not to upload scripts, though, and at my university most are uploaded. My university also uploads lots of recorded lectures on youtube and provides discussion forums. Everyone can watch the lectures and download the material.

> In my university the different institutes are distributed across the whole city

That's unfortunate, but it's a fairly rare problem in Germany. Many of the best universities are in fairly small cities like Heidelberg, Tübingen, Freiburg (all of these have a population between 90k and 150k). Those that aren't are often not that strewn about, or at least clustered (TU München has a Garching campus for natural sciences, but afaik students don't have to travel between the centre and Garching a lot).

My university (Karlsruhe) is a centrally located campus university. Everything is within 10 walking minutes.

> I'm talking about the carpenter with an interest in theoretical physics, astronomy or arts.

I'm all in favour of enabling that, but you neglect that 90%+ of students are full-time students, and that is the model that universities cater to.