What teachers get wrong about e-learning

Image by Mediamodifier from Pixabay

I read some excellent posts and comments this week by Jakob Heidbrink, where he explains the friction he has encountered with the sudden shift to e-learning. More specifically, he described the agonizing process of recording his lectures and how he spent eleven hours to record a 60-minute lecture. Heidbrink is correct in his analysis regarding the required time. I usually say that it takes 10X the time to record and post process a lecture (video editing), compared to just giving it in the classroom. I suspect most teachers that have tried this route will agree with the observation. However, it sounds to me like Heidbrink suffers from the “perfection equals paralysis” condition (also common among engineers). The primary reason for the 10X increase in time he explains, is that he re-records over and over because he stumbles upon words, scratch his nose, cough, and so on – basically just being human. He claims that when a teacher does this in the classroom it is acceptable, but on a recorded lecture such mistakes are not allowed. I disagree and here’s my proposed solution.

First, let me just state the obvious. A digital lecture can never completely replace the physical meeting and the human connection. Period. But we can and will get closer and closer. And let us not forget either, that a digital lecture is a different learning activity, which means it is superior to the physical lecture in some regards. And inferior in other ways.

It is certainly possible that the obsession with quality is warranted in certain domains, like Heidbrink´s. Maybe every word needs to be 100% correct because these recorded lectures will be used as reference material. But how can it be acceptable to make human mistakes in a classroom then? A classroom lecture is also a kind of reference material. Is the critical difference the recording? The classroom lecture is typically never recorded and when it is finished, it is forever gone together with the mistakes. I believe a shift in perspective is required here. What happens the moment we put a video camera in the physical classroom and press the record button? Are mistakes then suddenly forbidden? Consider a live-streamed lecture instead. It will contain just as many human mistakes as the classroom lecture, but if we only consider it as such and not as a Hollywood production of a scientific work, how can it be a problem to stumble upon words then? From what I have learned by observing the Youtube community, I would say that the obsession with quality has the opposite effect. It comes across as less authentic and generates significantly less engagement. The less I polish, the better I become.

The most important difference between publishing a live streamed lecture and a post processed lecture is the required time. A live streamed lecture requires no more time than a classroom lecture (if we disregard the initial technology learning threshold). There is zero post-processing once the lecture is done. This means that Heidbrink easily could have live streamed his 60-minute lecture ten times instead of polishing and post processing. And I am certain, that his tenth iteration would have been superior to the post processed recording he came up with. This is a fact that any musician who has entered a recording studio will recognize. You cannot “fix it in the mix”. You need to get the track down with as little editing as possible and the only way to do that is with quantity of practice. And with practice I mean to record your instrument, which is separate skill from playing it. This is also very scary. It is extremely uncomfortable to live stream and publish yourself including the human mistakes – at first. I sure can relate to Heidbrink’s agony because I have been there myself. But as soon as I got used to it, I learned to love it. I can now enter the same mindset as I had in the physical classroom. Another benefit by making mistakes online is that the community will discover them and help you out, which is much faster than correcting them yourself. Add to that the scaling factor of fact-checkers, that e-lectures bring.

It is okay to be human.