Harry Elam

Is the Lecture Dead? The Large Lecture Course in the Humanities Today

This 100th AWTT will consider the lecture form as it operates or can operate within today’s academic environment. If, in fact, our students have changed substantially in terms of their preparation for and expectations for the educational process, how then do we best communicate with them? What does this then mean for the lecture most specifically in the humanities? For many years—even before the new millennium—the lecture form has been criticized for its role in perpetuating passive student learning. And yet the genre of the lecture has persisted as a primary pedagogical mode for the oral...