Uni computer lecturer makes YouTube his classroom
The Age
A computer science lecturer at the University of NSW, who has pioneered the use of YouTube at Australian universities, is offering high school students the chance to get started on their computing degrees early.
Senior lecturer Richard Buckland is frustrated that people with a passion for computing are not being challenged by courses offered at high school. Over the years he invited some of them to attend his university lectures but found they struggled to fit it in during the school day.
So last year he filmed all of his first-year computing lectures and published them on UNSW's YouTube channel and on Apple's iTunes.
UNSW is the first university in Australia and among the first in the world to make lectures publicly available online.
This year, Buckland is inviting high school students with a strong interest in computing and mathematics to study an advanced first-year university level computing course for free.
With the lectures now published online, the students will be able to do most of their work from home. They will only come to the university one evening a week for a two and a half hour lab and tutorial, where they can ask questions and socialise.
"I'm not aware of anywhere else in the world doing this," Buckland said.
The students will complete the same assessments and exams as university students and the course will be credited to their degrees once they enrol at the university.
Buckland is mainly looking for year 11 students but said he would also consider applications from students in years 10 and 12. There are limited places, so Buckland is asking students to submit a short statement on why they want to take the course and an academic reference from a teacher.
"If you have a love for computing or if you're an exceptionally smart or talented mathematical thinker you would find high school computing wouldn't be stretching you as much as you'd like," he said.
"I'm hoping this will really motivate and switch on a lot of students who are starting to feel bored."
By publishing his lectures on YouTube, Buckland has also made the courses accessible to people from around the world who may not have the same opportunities as Australian students. He said his clips had been viewed in places as far-flung as Africa, Saudi Arabia, India, Iran and China.
"It's allowed people who normally wouldn't have access to university to visit university for free, without leaving their lounge room," Buckland said.
Overseas universities such as Stanford, Berkeley and MIT publish hundreds of hours of lecture material online but Australian universities have so far used YouTube as little more than a marketing tool.
Buckland is now filming and uploading his second-year computing lectures to the video sharing site.
He hopes other educators will follow his example to give time-strapped students more flexibility and the ability to learn in their own time.
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