Friday, October 23, 2009

Ashok Banker, Indian Science Fiction Writer

I ran across this in Wired today. Looks interesting, and might be worth reading?


Ashok Banker, Indian Science Fiction Writer: "

*This guy’s quite a character.


http://worldsf.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/exclusive-interview-with-ashok-banker/


(…)


What made you decide to write in English? Are there any nuances with that particular language that you’re not quite able to accomplish in Hindi?


Not-Lol. I’ve met this particular cultural bogey before and it remains as unfunny as ever! My mother tongue was English, not Hindi, and in fact, there are more English-speaking people in India than in the US – it’s one of our two official national languages in fact. And of course, you probably know that India has the fastest growing publishing industry and English-literate readership population in the world – I believe our publishing business is No. 3 right now and on track to be No. 1 at this rate in the next two decades or less. I grew up speaking only English, learned Hindi only later in school because it was a compulsory subject (as were either Marathi or French – I took French), and English remains the only language I’m completely fluent in even today. So I have no idea what cultural stereotype you have of me, and am not responsible for it but it’s as offensive as my asking someone named Johnson why he chose to write in English instead of Swedish! Still, I guess you didn’t mean anything by it, so let’s chuckle and move on. :~)


In your opinion, what is the power of writing? Do you think fiction needs to be able to affect change in the world in order to be “good”?


I think writing, like people, either matters, or doesn’t. Sure, it’s possible to simply live, or even to just exist. Just as it’s possible to write without aiming to do anything more than just provide readability. But that’s like the difference between an IV drip and a gourmet meal. The difference between a sharecropper genre whore (like the writers churning out Halo or Star Wars novels, and so on) or a commercial novelist who makes a living while creating work that attempts to do more than simply extend a franchise and delivery mass-consumption product may not seem very vast, but it’s a significant line. Every writer can choose to cross that line, stand and deliver, or sit down and cash the check and shut up. If some don’t feel they have that choice, they’re not just wrong, they’re self-delusional. We all can, and we do, everyday. I’ve made the wrong choices more often than the right ones, I’ve written a whole bunch of crap that probably does nobody any more good than landfills do for the environment. But I ask myself one question now everytime I write if possible, and certainly everytime I finish writing something and consider sending it out for publication: Is this something that only I could write and which says something, however tiny and seemingly insignificant in the larger scheme, that might make a difference to somebody out there? If the answer is no, I caress it fondly and put it away regretfully. Only the ayes go forth boldly into the brave cold world to do battle.


What made you decide to write your Ramayana series? Since it’s not just an epic for Hindus but also a true story, did you receive any criticisms from the literature scene there or the Hindutva movement?


Here’s the interesting thing: I’m not Hindu. Even my birth certificate, which has a slot for Religion/Caste as was mandatory in those days (1964 to be precise) simply says “Indian”. I’m of Dutch-Scots-Irish-Goan-Gujarati-SriLankan parentage, grew up in a Catholic household, in a Christian-Jewish-Muslim neighbourhood, with Parsi and Iranian friends, and never thought of myself as “Hindu” by any stretch of the imagination….


(((It gets even better:)))


The only challenges I faced then, and face now, and will always face I suppose – as will every other writer who isn’t white, Judeo-Christian and/or American – is of getting read and getting published in the UK and USA. Writing is what I do, it’s what I love to do. It’s like breathing. I write. The real challenge is in getting American or British agents and editors to even look at any work by a non-white, non-Judeo/Christian, non-American author, regardless of how good that work may be.


To be honest, I’ve all but given up on getting published anywhere outside India and have stopped trying. The system itself is designed in such a way that it’s become all about pleasing agents and editors, not about writers talking to readers directly. At least in India, the onus of success or failure is still left to the author: If you have something to say here, at least you get a chance to say it and then publishers will see whether enough readers want to read what you have to say or not before deciding to continue publishing you. In the US and UK publishing industries, particularly in the genre of Science Fiction and Fantasy, it’s like a coloured man trying to exercise his right to vote in an all-white Southern town in the 1950s. Sure, we have the right. But try getting past those guys in the white sheets and hoods holding the burning cross up high.


I won’t mince words here: SFF publishing in the US today is the Klu Klux Klan of the publishing world. It’s anachronistically misrepresentational in its racial mix, religious mix, cultural mix. The few exceptions to the rule only prove the endemic, systemic and deeply bred bias in the field. There are even editors who claim to champion ‘coloured’ writing, by publishing anthologies that segregate non-white non-Judeo/Christian non-American authors of speculative fiction from their ‘mainstream’ genre counterparts.


There are editors who take non-white editorial assistants or even sponsor non-white writers in the name of progressiveness, and at panels in conventions, the non-white writers are often herded together conveniently. But where are the non-white Editorial Directors, Publishers, big-name literary agents, etc? For that matter, where are the non-white authors? In the ghetto, that’s where. And this ghetto is the size of the planet! SFF publishing in the US today is 50 years behind the rest of the world.


And that’s the reason why the genre itself is being increasingly sidelined, losing sales and readers, and being overtaken by ‘mainstream’ fiction with every passing year. Because like the Klu Klux Klan, nobody respects a closed group of inbred rednecks and crackers. It’s about time the entire genre was dismantled, outed, exposed and shut down. SFF as a rigid, white-dominated, Judeo-Christian-pushing, American nationalistic genre has jumped the shark. The old guard is dead and gone and the young (and old) turks running the show are fighting a losing battle against the very progressiveness and futurism that the genre is supposed to espouse! Besides, SFF has permeated mainstream literature and popular culture. We don’t need to label a book SF or F to cater to the dwindling handful of snobs who think that the term SFF on a book means it’s superior in some way to other books.


For decades SFF has been accusing mainstream literary critics, readers and authors of being snobbish and denying them their due. In fact, it’s the other way around: SFF’s pathetic cries of outrage and refusal to change with the times are proof of SFF’s own snobbishness and bias. SFF is dead and rotting. Long may it stay dead! We who love the elements that make great SFF don’t need the label so Klansmen can recognize work by other Klansmen. We don’t care if our milk was drawn by brown hands, black, or white. We just want our milk!




"

The top 30 books you should read before your Oxbridge interview...

The top 30 books you should read before your Oxbridge interview...: "

Bandwoxbridge


So, the applications are in, and all those students who applied for Oxford and Cambridge are nervously waiting to see if they get interviews. But is there anything they can do to prepare?


Well, according to Oxbridge Applications(who help students prepare for entrance to Oxford and Cambridge), there is. They have compiled a list of the top 30 subject specific books which they recommend bright would-be Oxbridge applicants to read as they prepare for their interview over the coming weeks. Read on to find out what they are (the explanations are in Oxbridge Applications own words...)


‘"Reading around your subject syllabus is fundamental," says James Uffindell, the graduate who founded the company in his final year at Oxford in 1999. "It gives applicants the chance to display their powers of lateral thinking, develop their own ideas about a subject and show how they can manage their own intelligence confidently. It can form the basis for stimulating intellectual discussion - the key to a good interview.


"Of course there are thousands of books we could have chosen," he adds. ‘This is just a shortlist of our top recommendations."


However, let me just sound a little note of caution. Don't pretend to have read these books if you haven't. I know of numerous students who have been caught out this way. Mind you, I also know one who was caught out having lied on his form (about reading Tom Jones). He's convinced that, because he then relaxed during his interview (he assumed he hadn't got in) the tutor got to see the "real him" and offered him a place! 


Politics & Social Sciences


Machiavelli, The Prince- rarely seen on Personal Statements, a classic book that analyses the use of power. To quote one Oxford PPE graduate, ‘the book possibly has a permanent home on Lord Mandelson’s bedside table.’


David Marquand, Britain Since 1918 – a superb study of post 1918 British political history.


Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis – a graphic novel about an ordinary girl’s life in Tehran. Beautifully illustrated and an interesting insight into what life might be like under a religious dictatorship.


Sattareh Farman Farmaian and Dona Munker, Daughter of Persia: A Woman's Journey from Her Father's Harem Through the Islamic Revolution - an interesting personal account exploring life as a member of a dynasty important under the old Shah, but who was forced to flee during the Islamic Revolution as a result of her relations and connections.   


Humanities & Arts


Ryszard Kapuscinski, Imperium- Pulling together his journalism from three visits to disparate parts of the Soviet Empire, in the 1960s, mid 1980s and just after the collapse of the USSR, critically acclaimed author and journalist Kapuscinski’s account is easy to read, yet full of terrible but captivating stories.  


Nicholas Stargardt, Witnesses of War– an account of children’s experiences in Germany and the occupied territories of Eastern Europe, Stargardt uses a range of surprising sources such as children’s letters to their parents, diaries and pictures to explore how a whole generation of European children were shaped by the horrors of 1939 – 1945.


Richard Hillary, The Last Enemy – an evocative and highly readable account of Hillary’s own experiences as a fighter pilot in World War II, (he was studying at Trinity College Oxford when he joined up in 1939) in which he was shot down and spent months in hospital, undergoing plastic surgery (then in its infancy) to rebuild his face and hands. 


Henri Barbusse, Le Feu (‘Under Fire,’ in English) – one of the first accounts of the First World War from the perspective of the French trenches.


W.G. Sebald, The Emigrants– four meandering and beautifully written stories of displaced characters. The use of words, the subtlety of the expression and feeling, and the evocation of mood, is Sebald at his best and a classic of our generation.


Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle, An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory – broken down into easy to read chapters which make quite complex ideas manageable. They also have lots of suggestions for further reading. Definitely a saviour for lots of English students all the way through to finals.


Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women – one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy, responding to traditional eighteenth century political and educational theory that believed women should not have an education.‘




Philosopy & Theology


J.S Mill, Utilitarianism– essential reading for any budding philosopher.  One of the most important and contentious works of moral philosophy. Its articulation of a ‘hedonic calculus’ and its development of Mill’s mentor’s (Bentham) ideas on what makes mankind ‘happy’ make it a classic.


The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Rousseau argues for the preservation of individual freedom in political society. An individual can only be free under the law, he says, by freely embracing that law as his own.  


John Gray, Straw Dogs – This is a march through the history of philosophy.


Alain de Botton, Consolations of Philosophy– In this, Botton explores different philosophies to cope with the stresses of modern day living. A great introduction to the philosophers he uses, while at the same time being a useful way of feeling better about your life (and not getting in to your chosen university if that is the way it turns out).


Thomas Kempis, The Imitation of Christ– one of the best known books on Christian devotion. An insight into how Catholic devotion was changing in this period in Northern Europe and how far removed it was from common practices today.


Mohsin Hamad, The Reluctant Fundamentalist – A novel exploring how American culture might have fostered Islamic fundamentalism.


Micklethwait and Wooldridge, God is Back, How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World – A new book by Editor in Chief of the Economist and Washington Bureau Chief about the rise of fundamentalism in the West as well as the East.


Maths & Economics


James Gleick, Chaos, Making a New Science - Covering the physical side of maths, this is an accessible introduction to Chaos Theory, which has been quite popular over the last 50 years.


Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money – tells the history of banking, brilliantly written, giving great insights into how globalisation came about.


Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, Nudge – how you can get people to do things by making them opt out rather than opt in – a more psychological approach to economics.


Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Black Swan – Arguably the most pertinent book to read right now on flawed economics.


Science, Medicine & Engineering


Adrian Vaughan, Isambard Kingdom Brunel – the biography of one of the greatest engineers who ever lived.


Siddhartha Mukherjee, Emperor of all Maladies – a look at modern day views on cancer as a disease and its various treatments.


Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia – Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at Columbia University looks at the healing effect of music on the brain. An interesting interdisciplinary approach.


Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution- Everyone has read The Selfish Gene, but this is the latest offering from Dawkins.  With every book, he continues in his relentless crusade against creationist theories. Like his others, this is well written, but be careful not to adopt too many of his opinions without proper thought and deliberation. Even better…what DON’T you agree with?


Steve Jones, The Single Helix– ‘I read this when I was applying’ says one of Oxbridge Applications’ PPP graduates (Psychology, Philosophy and Physiology) – brilliantly written overview of where research currently stands on genetics. Obviously a few years old now, so not fully up-to-date but still fascinating. 


Also, worth noting, Jones has recently published a book called Darwin’s Island. He is a less well known Dawkins, but with similar values and an excellent scientist.  One Oxbridge Applications’ tutor suggests it may be interesting to put his writing in the context of ‘Everyone reads Dawkins, but does Jones give a much better argument?’


Richard Feynman, several different works - From Six Easy Pieces to Six Not-so-easy Pieces, right through to his imaginative Lecture series. A great read from a prestigious and witty physicist. Some would say legendary within the physics community.


Read School Gate:


Oxbridge - one student explodes the myths


Oxbridge interview questions and how to answer them 


Is Oxbridge now discriminating against private schools?

"

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Heil Heidegger! - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education

A great review of Emmanuel Faye's new biography on Heidegger.  Please, please, please somebody put this ponderous Nazi windbag out of circulation!!!!!!!

http://chronicle.com/article/Heil-Heidegger-/48806

Africa Past and Present: The Podcast about African History, Culture, and Politics

Great resource for African History:

Africa Past and Present: The Podcast about African History, Culture, and Politics: "

Podcasts continue to gain popularity in both social and academic realms, becoming a routine part of Internet lingo. Africa Past and Present offers podcasts that center on the history, culture, and politics of Africa and the African Diaspora.


Article By: Jessica Pritchard

"

Burned Out? Take a Creative Sabbatical

This makes so much sense, but who's willing to do it in our current environment?


Burned Out? Take a Creative Sabbatical: "

In an early episode of the excellent TV series Mad Men, agency partner Roger Sterling walks into creative director Don Draper's office to find Don gazing off into space.



'I'll never get used to the fact that most of the time it looks like you're doing nothing,' Sterling quips.



Sterling should take comfort in the fact that our best creative work is done in times of reflection and idleness. Studies have shown that the wandering mind is more likely to have a 'Eureka!' moment of clarity and creativity. Taking breaks and zoning out from everyday tasks gives our brains time to do a kind of long-term, big-picture thinking that immediate engagement with bosses and clients and email and meetings does not.



Designer Stefan Sagmeister takes these findings seriously. He works time off into his schedule in a way that will make you green with envy. Every seven years, Sagmeister closes his New York City–based design studio for an entire year of creative rejuvenation. During his sabbatical, Sagmeister "works," but not for clients. (He's serious about that, too. Last year, he turned down an opportunity to design a poster for the Obama campaign while he was on sabbatical.)



As he explains in his 18-minute TED talk below, Sagmeister's goal is to take five years off of his retirement and intersperse them throughout his working years. He's taken two such sabbaticals, and he uses the 'experiments' he conducts during them to inform what he produces during working years. His full talk is worth watching, but if you don't have 18 minutes, see this interview with Sagmeister about his sabbaticals in Print Magazine.





For many, taking an entire year off may not be practical. But there are less extreme ways to work big-think time off into any schedule. Sagmeister draws a parallel between his 'seven-year itch' sabbatical and Google's famous '20% time,' when engineers can work on whatever they want. Bill Gates took a twice-yearly 'Think Week' to read technical papers. His successor, Ray Ozzie, takes time off not to read but to 'dream' — and comes back to the office filled with new ideas.



While creative retreats aren't exactly idle time, Sagmeister's talk reminded me of one of my favorite essays of all time, published in a 2004 issue of Harper's. Entitled 'Quitting the Paint Factory,' its author Mark Slouka makes a case against constant busyness (and business). He writes:



Idleness is not just a psychological necessity, req­uisite to the construction of a complete human being; it constitutes as well a kind of political space, a space as necessary to the workings of an actual democracy as, say, a free press. How does it do this? By allowing us time to figure out who we are, and what we believe; by allowing us time to consider what is unjust, and what we might do about it. By giving the inner life (in whose precincts we are most ourselves) its due. Which is precisely what makes idle­ness dangerous. All manner of things can grow out of that fallow soil. Not for nothing did our mothers grow suspicious when we had 'too much time on our hands.' They knew we might be up to something. And not for nothing did we whisper to each other, when we were up to something, 'Quick, look busy.'


How do you use time off to refresh, rejuvenate, and yes, even make yourself more productive? Let us know in the comments.





"

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Adios to Spanish 101 Classroom

Disruption on the way. R'uh r'oh. Are we the next newspaper industry?



Adios to Spanish 101 Classroom: "

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is moving introductory Spanish courses completely online. Some students are worried, but department officials are not.

"

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Is Tenure Conservative?

Is Tenure Conservative?: "

The ultimate in job security discourages the challenging, innovative scholarship it was designed to protect, writes Mark Kingwell.

"

Monday, October 19, 2009

The trucker pulp fiction of Germany

How does Boing Boing find this stuff?



The trucker pulp fiction of Germany: "img_1809.thumbnail.jpg

At Ectomo, John Brownlee has launched an investigation into those books from the former East Germany* that concern the heroic exploits of truck drivers.

Note the fleeing children. Each is rendered with the garish ineptitude of a palsied Mört Drücker, and each reacts to the crushing onslaught of Der Katastrophen Truck with bizarre discordance. Perhaps most understandable of all their reactions, the eyes of the first child seem drawn to the hovering ghostly head -- as massive as the sun -- of who I can only imagine to be Der Katastrophen Trucker-King himself, Michael Connors.


*Allegedly.



DDR Pulps [Ectomo]




"

Universities - recorded lectures better than live

Universities - recorded lectures better than live: "

Universities, in their current guise, have become closed, inward-looking, traditional, elitist institutions. Shut for much of the year, empty buildings, three lectures a week, poor teaching – the current financial squeeze will hopefully force us to re-examine the model.

Imagine a world in which some universities simply opened their doors to learners, even offering courses for free. There are signs that such a paradigm shift may be happening on the web. Suddenly a huge amount of good content is available on the web, for free, as some of the biggest brands on the web act as conduits for higher education content, with hefty foundation grants paying the bill.

YouTube EDU

Simple enough, video lectures with ratings and details of number of downloads, from over 320 Universities such as; Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford,, and so on. Cambridge, Coventry, Edinburgh, Leeds, Nottingham, OU, The top lecture has received 10.5 million views! But even physics lectures are beating the 350,000 mark. Compare this with the once a year, lecture from a typical living academic – let’s say 100 students once a year for 15 years (and that’s really pushing it). You’re effectively extending the life of a good physics lecturer by thousand of years!

YouTube lectures can be public or private, structured as playlists embed on your site or show on a mobile phone. YouTube Insight gives you loads of useful stats on; views, referrals, gender, age, geography.

iTunes U

Like YouTube EDU, iTunes U is all free content, currently at 200,00 audio and video items, from major Universities. You can download all the tracks on a specific topic or just one. You can also subscribe to receive new stuff automatically. Top downloads – Intensive English, Introduction to Mac OS, Building a Business, beginners’ French etc. One distinct advantage is that you can play audio or video on your iPod, iTouch, iPhone, MP3 player, Mac or PC. iTunes U Reports give you lots of stuff on downloads, unique users and so on.

Open Learn

Open Learn is the OUs Moodle based system is much more sophisticated on support for learners with its learning tools, knowledge maps, shared activities and activity reports. All you need do is register with a personal profile. The content and forums are then available for group discussions, you can do the self-assessment, where you answer questions, then compare your answers with model answers. You can rate and review units, create a learning journal and use Learning Space to organise your study. Pretty impressive.

MITOPENCOURSEWARE

That guy Walter Lewin, physics lecturer, is at the top of the downloaded courses with his Physics 1 Classical Mechanics lecture with its subtitles/transcript, lecture notes, assignments/solutions and exams/solutions. More of him later.

MITOpenCourseware has an annual running cost of $3.6 million (10% lower than last year) they’re constantly lowering their cost base. Over 1900 courses, some translated, at both undergraduate and graduate level, this is an astonishingly rich resource of free lecture notes, videos and exams from MITs actual courses. There’s translations in Chinese, Thai and Persian. Zipped downloads and lots of user controls coming

The stats are astounding 40 million visits by 31 million people from almost every country in the world. The majority view this stuff for personal learning 62%. Overall the breakdown is 49% self-learners, 32% students, 16% educators.

University of the People

The ‘free’University , yes ‘free’. Just started this year but puts forward a model that may be ideal for the developing world (see my previous post).

WikiBooks

A growing resource of ‘Open books for an open world’ are available with the usual wiki functionality of discussion, source and history for each book. There’s also print-ready and PDF books available.

Project Gutenberg

At 2.5 million downloads per month, Project Gutenberg is starting to motor. What’s interesting is the eclectic nature of the downloads. The top ten contains fiction such as Alice in Wonderland, Pride and Prejudice, but also a science book, the Kama Sutra and a book on the history of Furniture. They also have their famous ‘Distributed Proofreading’ system, where volunteers proofread e-books, a page a day.

Wikipedia

The greatest single, searchable store of knowledge on the planet and growing still. It’s a miracle fo the web, and I’d persona;lly give Jimmy Wales the Nobel Prize for knowledge dissemination. Who doesn’t use this thing? It’s wonderful beyond belief. Who cares if a few errors are noted, they’re soon fixed. It quite simply the greatest knowledge sharing show on earth.

Open Education

OER (Open Education Resources) is a rapidly growing movement with the not-for-profit OER Foundation launched last month on the back of a $200,000 grant from the Hewlett Foundation and support from the Learning4Content project.

The Cape Town Open Education Declaration is up and running, a sort of manifesto fo future development. The Opencast Community site has a wealth of information on podcasting in Higher Education. The Matterhorn project is of real interest with $1.3 million from Melloin and Hewlitt Foundations to develop software that will schedule, capture, encode and deliver audion and video content to the likes of YouTube EDU and iTunes U. Should be ready by summer 2010. WkiEducator is one of many communities operating in the field, where you can join, and create free content. They promise to ‘turn the digital divide into digital dividends’.

Funding

So how is all of this funded? Well, there’s a number of sources; foundations, most notably, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, institutions themselves, free contributions, donations and payment. The foundation money (mostly from private sector benefactors) tends to seed the initiative, which then gains momentum either in a University or community. The real progress comes when you get a slingshot effect from altruistic contributors (as in Wikipedia).

Recorded lectures – better learning?

Are Youtube video lectures better than the real thing? I think the evidence is in the video themselves. In the cutaways to the audience you see some students attention wander and always towards another student. You don’t have that distraction in your own company. Lewin understands and explains at the start of his lecture series, that lectures complement other forms of study. He is NOT lecturing the book. It’s about demonstrating physics, selling physics, exciting people about physics. It’s about motivation, as well as understanding.

What I love about Walter Lewin is his style – he walks around, he shouts, he gesticulates, he demonstrates, he stands up on his desk, gets students up, he quips – he’s a livewire. He does the very opposite of playing that ‘I’m an academic and have to be serious, grave and dull’ routine.

Case study 1: University of Texas - Austin


Major findings included:

  • Attendance was not significantly affected by webcasts, even given the limited degree to which some students repeatedly substituted webcasts for attending class.
  • Students perceived webasts to be a helpful tool for learning, but the impact of webcasts on their performance in terms of grades and test scores is not clear.
  • Students used webcasts for learning benefits (e.g., reviewing course content) and psychological benefits (e.g., anxiety reduction, course satisfaction).
  • A majority of students watched webcasts at least once, typically 1-7 times, before exams or 1-3 times a month, at night from home through high-speed connections.
  • Most students watched the entire lecture and typically they both listened to the lecture and watched videos and slides.
  • Female students and students who cared about their course grades perceived webcasts as more beneficial than did male students or those who did not care about their grades respectively. Also, those with certain difficulties non-native speakers of English, students with a learning disability, and students with difficulty in understanding the professor’s speech) did not report benefits from webcasts, contrary to our expectations.
  • Students rated most current and future webcast interface features as important, in particular stop/rewind (current feature), scan (current feature), manipulating the slides or video window (current feature), and better quality or full screen animation/video (future feature).
  • Students and instructors were generally satisfied with webcasts’ quality and did not experience many technical problems. Many problems they did report can be resolved through training of instructors, students, and camera operators.
  • Both students and instructors in general indicated that webcasts were good supplemental learning resources but not a substitute for attending class.


Case Study 2: University of Michigan - Flint http://tiny.cc/9q0fI

The results presented here now further extend the benefits of the cyber classroom by demonstrating a significant improvement in student outcomes as assessed by final grades with a nearly half grade improvement in mean grades, a 56% drop in failing grades, and a 36% increase in grades B+ and above.

Case study 3: ICTP Trieste

Another comes from ICTP in Trieste, who have been using recorded lectures for some time. Assessed learning improves, students watch 2 hours per night after live daytime lectures and even watch lectures from other courses they’re not taking.

"