It was only a matter of time until Professors realized that they could make use of new technologies to reach the minds of their students.
Universities such as Duke, Stanford, MIT, and the University of California, among others, already post videos online both to YouTube and in iTunes U, a section of iTunes featuring audio and video podcasts.
As reported on Read Write Web, Dani McKinney, a psychologist at the State University of New York, did a test lecture by podcast to see how well her students could learn from it. Those who used the podcast only, which included slides, did slightly better than those who attended class and received a printed handout. Those who took notes from the podcast did even better. Of course, they received no credit for the lecture, just the promise of an iTunes gift certificate if they scored the highest grade. McKinney now plans to further study podcasts in the classroom over the course of an entire semester, instead of just one class. “I do think it’s a tool,” she says. “I think that these kids are programmed differently than kids 20 years ago.”
In Australia, one professor is actually offering credit for courses taken via YouTube. Richard Buckland, a computer science professor at the University of NSW in Sydney, Australia, was frustrated that high school students with a passion for computing and capable of studying at the college level were not able to make the commute to the university fit into their school day.
You should check your internet speed and the school’s requirements before starting, but you might find that your favorite time-passers can also be great study tools. And as far as having the internet speed to download the lecture, iTunes has speed tips for both high-speed internet and dial-up users on their site, as does YouTube.