[watwut]

There are simple questions that are being asked just to show initiative or to show that the student came up with question. A student asking simple question he could answer by himself or by looking into book in front of him if he bothered to think for 4 seconds is not gain for anyone.

There is trade-off to which questions should be asked right now and which should not. Both in lecture hall and on meetings.

[jordanpg]

Yes, exactly. Just made the same point.

IMO, instructors who indulge this kind of thing do the whole class and especially the asking student a disservice because the opportunity for self-teaching is lost. Self-teaching is much more important than whatever the lesson of the moment is.

[ubercow13]

Wow, I don’t agree with this at all. The odd question in a lecture can mean the difference between you following along the whole lecture and losing track completely after 5 minutes. The reason you are in the lecture is to absorb the lecturer’s exposition of a subject. If you miss out on that because you didn’t understand one small point near the beginning, you might as well just read a book and not attend lectures.

The whole value of being lectured by an expert in your field is that you follow along the material with them and can ask for clarification where necessary.

[watwut]

I am asking to first check whether the answer is not on blackboard right now, in your notes or whether cant be derived quickly.

And don't ask just to show how clever creative you are to think of the question. And don't ask question you know answer to, and I am quoting schoolmate here, "so that other students hear the question too". Headdesk.

[bluesign]

This is maybe good on one on one lecture, but when situation is one to many, it is better to assume the part you don’t understand as a fact, and try to move on, then later try to figure out off lecture time.

Unless there is a Q/A time, interruption of lecture for sure not good for the whole group.

[ubercow13]

Why? The point you’re confused about might be something that the lecturer genuinely didn’t explain properly, omitting some detail. I never remember being annoyed or feeling like my time was being wasted by questions in lectures, even when I knew the answer. Many times the questions clarified points I didn’t understand as well as I thought I did until a well thought out question was asked. Other people asking questions in lectures was a huge net positive for me in my education.

I’ve even been in lectures with other professors watching where they will stop their colleagues to ask questions. In addition many of my lecturers would stop the class to ask us if we understood, and explicitly stated that they wanted to make sure we were following. This is even in lectures of 50+ students.

[watwut]

The most epic was an online course with thousands of students (dont recall exactly) where you was required to ask three questions per semester.

Eventually someone convinced prof that there cant possibly be well over 3000 meaningful questions and that forum quality will go down if we try.