Sometimes the lecture room is not conducive to learning; a boring, colourless room is not necessarily an inspiring place for stretching the mind. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology two lecture rooms have been refitted to allow students to sit around small tables with screens showing animated simulations to help them visualise concepts.

But new learning methods can come at a high financial cost compared to the relatively cheap way of being taught face-to-face by an academic. The real issue according to Professor Dan Butin, founding dean of the school of education and social policy at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, is that "Academics put thousands of hours of work into their books and much less time into thinking about the effectiveness of their teaching style."  But he says "the lecture has survived because research, not teaching, determines the success of a university and its academics."

So if research quality is a measure of a university's success and money is tight, then the lecture could be here for a little longer. How does that make you feel? How would you improve your lectures?

词汇表 nugget of knowledge 有价值的知识

method 方式，方法

at our fingertips 唾手可得的，近在咫尺的

textbook 教科书

absorb 理解，掌握（知识、想法等）

effective 有效的

peer-to-peer 同学间交流的，互相分享（知识）的

【Do we need to attend lectures? 大学生是否需要听讲座式课程？】相关文章：

★ Japan PM Abe sends ritual offering to Yasukuni shrine for war dead

★ World wildlife 'falls by 58% in 40 years' 全球野生动物总数“四十年内下降58%”

★ VOA资讯专有名词集合(1)

★ 印度计划减少碳排

★ Brryan Jackson: My father injected me with HIV

★ Will welfare checks improve conditions on fur farms?

★ 球员抑郁和焦虑

★ 适合英国留学的5个城市

★ 大学生活的小测验

★ 阿富汗军队反攻塔利班