We have all had to put up with a lot of inconveniences during the height of the pandemic.
Wearing a mask in class, Zooming into three lectures a day, staying inadvertently trapped in your dorm for a week: These are just some of the hardships we have had inflicted on us (or have inflicted on ourselves). But in everything, there is a silver lining. While there is more than one benefit that has been accrued to students during the pandemic, one stands out to me as being particularly fortuitous: 24/7 access to fully-recorded lectures for the entirety of the class.
Some of you did not have this privilege, but the ability to watch recordings of past lectures going back to the beginning of the semester is a huge advantage that many more students have had access to since the mad dash to online learning. First of all, there are asynchronous classes where the professor prerecords all of their lectures and then posts them online. Additionally, some professors have taken to recording their Zoom lectures and posting them. Whichever format instructors use, it’s a remarkable extra tool for students to take advantage of.
Some students (I have always considered myself a member of this category) are properly bad at taking notes. Half the time when trying to take notes in a class, I miss parts of the lecture while writing so I have long since stopped trying to take notes in those sorts of settings. Nevertheless, having notes to refer to is very important, and the act of writing things down itself helps with retention. If you have the option of looking back over the same lecture, with the ability to pause or speed up the recording as well, then not only can you sit back and be receptive to the information the first time around, but you can then diligently comb through it again for the particulars that will make up the tricky questions on the test.
Having pre- or post-recorded lectures also allows students who have busy schedules due to work, medical or childcare obligations to learn at more or less their own pace. That’s part of the double-edged sword of online learning—it’s great for those who need it, and often frustrating for those who don’t want it.
Having recorded Zoom lectures is doubly helpful, because not only do you get the full lecture but you can also listen back to peers’ questions and responses from the professor.
For those reasons, going forward I think professors should (of their own volition, of course) make an effort to record all of their lectures (even if just using the webcam of their computer or only in audio format) and make those available on the course Canvas page. It’s a relatively trivial effort for what is potentially a very helpful resource for a diligent subset of students.
In general, COVID has led to a diminished learning experience. My hope is that educators can take a little of what did work, and what students liked, from the pandemic experience and carry that forward as we move back to business as usual. At the end of the day, to be able to sit in a room with people and see their faces again would be good enough for me.
Image Credit / Impactio.com
