Death of the Stand-Up Lecturer

I am old enough to remember the joke. "Where did you get your degree? From correspondence courses?" Now we call such courses "on-line".(they are really e-mail courses but "on-line" sounds more legitimate.) Most of them are correspondence courses without stamps. Sadly, many people take them seriously now. Real-time, virtual classroom, multi-webcam courses are in our future, but not yet. Ever take an email course? Odds are you got either an A or an F. The A was simply for logging on. An F was because you never "showed up."

I have been a stand-up, lecturing college professor for more than thirty-five years. I am a dinosaur. I have never even given a SCANTRON test. At my institution we actually offer a course in (I kid you not) public speaking "on-line." I have never "taught" an e-mail course. Only my seniority saves me. Brick and mortar campuses will die out. (converted to mini-storage facilities?)

I understand the economic (cheaper) and convenience factors. A few courses can and should be offered via email. However, in my experience, it is usually the worst "teachers" who embrace this trend. I wonder if they ever really wanted to "teach". A TSA baggage-checker (no high school diploma required) could do what they do, and maybe better. It's not complicated. What are we paying these people serious money to do? They are certainly not teaching. I get "high" when I walk into a classroom. These email "teachers" cringe at the thought. If you have ever taken an email class, did you get your money's worth? How much did you learn, and if you DID learn, was it because of your self-discipline or because of the "teacher"? Thinking back, will your favorite professor be the one you never met?