Recently YouTube invested $20 billion into new educational videos, an example of the trend of expanding access to online learning. Syracuse University students already have access to the video learning site Lynda.com, and some professors use video lessons to supplement in-class material.

Though YouTube’s initiative has the potential to significantly change the education landscape, it certainly won’t make lectures obsolete.

Laura Angle | Digital Design Editor

Jeremy Balka, a professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, and an expert in teaching on YouTube, said it’s important to make resources available for his students when they’re outside of the classroom.

“I’ve always thought it kind of silly that we think you must learn statistics now, at 9:30 a.m. on a Monday,” Balka said. “For those students who are actually trying or really want to learn, and they don’t understand something, they can watch the video and hopefully sort it out.”

But this access is supplemental — it’s not just a reason to skip lecture.

“It’s a legitimate fear, perhaps, that some institution would think that this was OK to slap up some videos and just call it a day, but I think the vast majority of people realize that’s not really going to be sufficient,” Balka said.

Professor Subha Ghosh, the Crandall Melvin professor of law and director of the technology commercialization law program at SU, echoed similar thoughts.

Ghosh, who records lectures using Mediasite, a video platform utilized across SU, said it “allows the university and certain faculty to showcase themselves as well as proliferate the knowledge. I guess the question is whether it makes that piece of paper worth more or worth less.”

But YouTube teaching will never replace an actual, in-person education and physical diploma.

“I think it may give people the wrong idea if they’re not given the context or if they’re only getting the knowledge piecemeal,” Ghosh said. “The thing about an actual class is that you see things rigorously, and you see individual pieces of information as a whole, and how they fit together.”

Video learning’s chief influence, then, will probably take place outside of a university context. Although many professors take advantage of video learning and recognize its potential, it’s not a threat to the educational status quo. It seems unlikely that YouTube and other video hosting sites take the place of classroom learning.

Eamon Gallagher’s is a freshman in the School of Information Studies. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at [email protected].

Published on November 13, 2018 at 9:23 pm