[RandomRandy]

I can understand banning laptops during exams, but why would you ban them in class? I was at a big university with pretty much all my classes having more than 100 students, so most of my lectures consisted of the prof presenting slides with little to no interaction from students. The only advantage of having a laptop was that you could annotate the slides easier

[free_bip]

Agreed. If I'm attending higher education as an adult, I expect to be treated as one. Laptops may be harmful to learning for some students, but may be extremely helpful for others. The university is not the one who gets to decide that - the adult paying absurd sums of money to attend the class is.

[spicymaki]

Large lectures (100+ students) should have little to no interactions between students and lecturers. It has been this way since the 11th century. You are not supposed to be learning the material for the first time during a lecture. Using the syllabus you should do the pre-work and the lecture concretizes the information. Office hours, tutoring, self study, homework, and online/AI resources can be used as tools to deepen your understanding of the material outside of the lecture hall.

[john01dav]

This is a terrible way to learn. Lecture halls are uncomfortable and synchronous, which are objectively less convenient than reading or watching videos at home. If someone wants that then they can organize watch parties, without forcing it on anyone else. Synchronous and uncomfortable should be reserved for interactive things, like in a flipped classroom

[spicymaki]

> This is a terrible way to learn.

What you are saying is not evidence based. The lecture method has delivered the greatest minds in western and eastern civilization for centuries. The newer pedagogical methods are in-fact failing us to the point that we are approaching post-literacy.