[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/intro-psych1.jpg” caption=”Introductory Psychology students can view web-based lectures from the comfort of home. “]Instead of trekking across campus for their lecture, Introductory Psychology students will settle down in their dorms wearing sweats with a coffee in hand to catch the week's lecture on their computers.

The revolutionary web-delivered lecture series is the brainchild of Joe Kim, professor of psychology, and his team who spent the last two years developing the idea and rewriting all the course material to fit the new format without losing its academic rigour.

But it's more than a catchy way to deliver the traditional lecture, says John Capone, dean of science.

“Joe has done a great job of addressing one of our most pressing issues — how to provide a high quality education to large numbers of students — and he's done it in a remarkable way,” says Capone. “It's no small feat to find a tool that immediately hooks more than 3,000 students. Joe is not only using multimedia effectively to teach a large first-year course, his own research investigating pedagogical approaches to teaching science will assist the Faculty in delivering one of the best undergraduate science experiences in Canada.”

The lectures are also a boon to students who need more time to digest the content of a lecture.

“Often lecture time is not used as efficiently as possible, perhaps because of papers rustling or pauses from the professor,” explains Chris McAllister, a media specialist who helped create the web lecture. “An online lecture is very compact in comparison.

“Because of the lecture's compact nature, there is the possibility that a student will gloss over the material, not actually comprehending what is being taught,” says McAllister, adding that the
web-based lecture incorporates various features designed to slow the student down and allow them to reflect on what they have learned.

One such tactic is the “Quick Quiz,” a series of questions on the lecture material for that day. If the student answers incorrectly, the right answers are presented and accompanied by detailed explanations. This provides the additional benefit of helping the student learn from their mistakes, not often an option with the marks-only focus of in-class quizzes.

The learning doesn't end with the web-based lecture. Students still have to come to class twice a week for tutorial sessions lead by third- and fourth-year undergraduate students. These offer students a more intimate first-year experience — for many of them this will be the smallest class they are in — with only 40 students per tutorial session. There, students participate in discussions about the material, and are given pop quizzes to test their knowledge.

The lecture format is beneficial to those who are hearing impaired because it includes a complete set of lecture notes plus visual descriptions to be watched alongside the images flashed upon the screen.

The only downside to the web-format is that it is not built for procrastinators: lectures are only available for the week they are posted; you can't bank them to review prior to the final exam. Students will need to keep up with the pace and take notes like they would in a traditional lecture.

“We have had a lot of positive feedback about the course and a lot of excitement from the students,” says Kim about the first few weeks of the project. “Students really love the web modules and the professional look of them and they appreciate that they're fun and interactive. In fact, the web-based modules have been so popular that when they launch on Thursdays at 6 a.m., a few hundred people start to watch them.”