Photo Illustration by Bryan Cole / The Collegian

Uncomfortable desks, crowded classrooms and inflexible schedules may be a concern of the past as the popular Web site YouTube recently launched a new section of its site that is strictly dedicated to helping users get free access to educational content that is uploaded by universities and students.

With more than 100 schools involved in the new YouTube EDU project, the public can easily scan through videos that range from entire lectures to college events and are categorized by the most viewed clips, most subscribed and are also organized through the directory for each college and university.

For many, this connection to educational courses and activities can act as an outlet in getting information that otherwise may be unattainable. But Fresno State̢۪s director of teaching, learning and technology, Dr. Ethelynda Harding, warns that the concept behind watching these videos as a substitute for teaching can be misleading.

“If teaching was just content delivery then we wouldn’t need faculty,â€Â Harding said. “I’m not saying there’s not a place for lecture because they are an important tool, but just videotaping a 50 minute lecture and putting it up doesn’t necessarily cause an increase in learning.â€Â

Within the department of teaching, learning and technology, Harding explained that there are a number of subunits that go into providing tools for the faculty and to better support and encourage them to use more engaging teaching methods, whether they be technological or not. The Center for Enhancement of Teaching and Learning and Digital Campus are two of these areas that are intended to facilitate staff development with online learning and technology training.

Though the workshops are offered and available to the entire campus faculty, many don̢۪t take advantage of all of the online capabilities and continue to use the system to a mineable extent, Harding said. Despite this, however, she also explained that there are groups, such as eScholars, that are developing online projects to teach to their students and faculty members who are applying two key characteristics in their courses to present materials in a more interesting format.

“One is using multiple representations of content and the second thing is to be more engaging so the students are more active,â€Â Harding said. “It’s less about the instructor delivering content than the instructor designing learning environments and learning activities.â€Â

Assistant professor Steven Hart is one that follows this teaching philosophy and has used TeacherTube as a resource to instruct his students for the past three years.

“It was initially designed for teachers because of all the content that’s on YouTube that may not be appropriate for schools,â€Â Hart said. “So these are teachers who could upload videos to share with colleagues or if they come across an interesting video they’d like to share.â€Â

Hart believes that using video and online sources as supplemental teaching aides allows his students to become more interactive with the content as well as provide a visual model that can physically demonstrate techniques through the video. He also explained that the hybrid approach of incorporating the lecture aspect and technology-enhanced methods into his classes is the best option for all learning styles, which isn̢۪t necessarily true for his past courses that were strictly online.

“The dialogue and communication was facilitated with the technology and it was quite extensive and detailed, but it’s one thing to communicate solely through print,â€Â Hart said. “For me, I like to communicate by talking with other people and seeing what they’re actually saying and I think for students it’s really difficult.â€Â

Students that signed up for online courses weren̢۪t basing their decision off the idea that it would be a great learning tool, but because of the convenience and flexibility it allowed, Hart said. And although the classes are taught void of the person-to-person contact, he explained that students could still communicate with their peers and the instructor through discussion boards, which may pose as a problem for YouTube EDU viewers.

“If they’re marketing it as a ‘free education’ then I think they are doing a disservice,â€Â Hart said. “There are people that are going to be able to get pieces of information from there, but to call that an education, I don’t know.â€Â