A report in Wired Campus by Jeffrey R. Young says that Students Watch Lecture Videos in Fast Forward. He writes that:
Some professors report that when their students are reviewing class materials, the students speed up online recordings of lectures and zip through hour-long presentations in as little as 30 minutes. Sure, their professors sound like chipmunks. But the students say they can absorb the information faster than the professors deliver it.
The Wired Campus story includes comments from several educators who have observed the sped up lecture listening. To do the speed-up makes a lot of sense if it is not the first time a student is listening to a lecture — but that is doubtfully the case most of the time. Is there a bigger principle here? Would it increase efficiency for voice mail to be able to speed up the messages as you listen? Will talk in the smart mobby world become fast as well as cheap?
A report in Wired Campus by Jeffrey R. Young says that Students Watch Lecture Videos in Fast Forward. He writes that:
Some professors report that when their students are reviewing class materials, the students speed up online recordings of lectures and zip through hour-long presentations in as little as 30 minutes. Sure, their professors sound [...]
Comments
@ 17:40
It’s my recall that a blind student in my junior high listened to text books at high speed. He was one of the top guys in the class…
@ 16:32
I’m slow to respond on this one, but I’ve offered (experimentally) versions of my lectures in sped up form for my online course. No pitch change, so no chipmunking, just my regular lecture in about 70% of the time.
@ 11:32
I posted this on the other article too but I’m sure their are some students that are reading this and wondering “… how do I speed up the lectures, that would be great.” Maybe this is all common knowledge now but here are some tips in case it’s new to you:
For Flash video like that found on YouTube, there hasn’t been any option for speed up until now. Enounce, this summer, just released the MySpeed Plug-In for Flash which will speed up (or slow down) most flash content as long as the server delivering the video supports fast download. For Real Player there is the Enounce 2xAV Plug-In for RealPlayer (http://www.enounce.com). Both Quicktime and Windows Media Player have this feature built in to the product although it’s not always easy to find. Of course, for streamed content, it always depends on how the content is streamed from the server whether or not the content can be speeded up. Some servers just won’t send the data any faster than what is needed for a short buffer and to play the content at normal speed.
I would also add that many students have actually said they retain more information when watching the lecture for the first time at an increased rate because they stay more focused on the material.