In recent years, the educational environment has seen a shift towards digital-based learning resources. Here are my opinions on digital resources, and how they compare to their traditional counterparts.<\/p>\n
Online lecture videos<\/strong><\/p>\n Online lecture videos are available at any time, which I think is a blessing and a curse. This flexibility is a godsend for revision and for when you can\u2019t attend lectures. Since attendance isn\u2019t monitored on my course, I have found it really tempting to not turn up to lectures and promise myself that I\u2019ll watch the lectures online, and I did do that several times last term. With so many more lectures to study for and the reassurance that I can watch them at any time, however, I found that I didn\u2019t watch the lectures I missed until I came to revise. Therefore, I find it much easier to attend lectures because of their fixedness. Furthermore, attending lectures gives me a sense that I\u2019m in a community, and is a chance to bump into friends; a contrast to the bedroom-dwelling that I\u2019d do if I were watching lectures online. I conclude that lecture videos are a great addition to attending lectures, but not as a substitution.<\/p>\n eBooks<\/strong><\/p>\n eBooks are cheap (if not free) and as portable as my laptop (which is rather more portable than most of my textbooks). However, I usually prefer to use traditional textbooks. I often feel lost scrolling through an eBook, whereas I feel at home flicking through a real book. I dislike looking at screens for hours at a time. Furthermore, the computer offers so much opportunity for distraction that it makes reading even a complicated textbook seem a refreshingly simple affair. At first, I thought \u00a350 was extortionate for a textbook, but when put in perspective by the fees I\u2019m paying for uni and the aforementioned disadvantages, it seems worthwhile.<\/p>\n Assessments<\/strong><\/p>\n Of course, our exams are still handwritten, however essays are submitted online and quizzes, particularly multiple-choice ones, are increasingly prevalent. I thank God we don\u2019t have to handwrite essays because they\u2019d be a nightmare to edit or copy and paste Wikipedia articles into (only joking). I also approve of multiple-choice quizzes that count towards your module mark scattered throughout the term, because they force me to keep on top of the module\u2019s material, which makes revision easier. I realise that an unexpected preference for lack of discretion of when I cover the material has been a bit of a theme in this post, and that\u2019s because I find fixed events like attending lectures and temporarily available quizzes useful infrastructure in being the tortoise rather than the hare.<\/p>\n Check us out on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\nShare this:<\/h3>