University Lecturer Teaches Computing on You Tube

Mr Buckman uses board games as well as you tube to tech computing.

In a recent article, Jon Gosier gave reasons why he believes micro-payments can no longer work for journalism. He argues that people can easily access news online without having to pay for it. The power of online social media has gone so high that it now seems to be cutting costs of academic research as well.

Renowned universities such as MIT, Stanford and Berkeley publish hundreds of lecture hours online and others are following suit.

High school students can now study computer programming online thanks to the You Tube videos uploaded by University of New South Wales (UNSW) Computer Science lecturer Richard Buckland. He believes that high school students interested in computing can start their degrees early, before graduating from high school.

He filmed all his first year computing lectures for last year and uploaded them on UNSW’s You Tube channel as well as on Apple’s iTunes.

Smh reports that:

“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.

The students will complete the same assessments and exams as university students and the course will be credited to their degrees once they enroll at the university.”

There are no charges for the program and the University is prepared to foot any bills (like transport to and from UNSW) incurred by the students. Successful students will be credited with the grades if they are to join UNSW for their degree in Computing or Engineering.

The material is publicly available online and Buckland claims that they have been viewed by people from far places like Africa, Saudi Arabia, India, Iran and China.

Photo by smh