The fourth floor of MetaForum has been fitted with a film studio. Tape on the floor marks the position of the speaker, in this case assistant professor Marko Boon of the Department of Mathematics & Computer Science. He’s working on his fourth calculus lecture in a series of seven. Each lecture is ten minutes long. “But if a topic is particularly hard, I tend to shoot two videos.” The lecturer really has to focus before he appears in front of the camera, because the lectures aren’t edited afterwards. Everything must be shot in two sessions. Boon: “Which is fine. If you know things can be edited later, you may not be as concentrated.”

Approximately thirty lecturers attended a short class on presentation techniques in April. In the studio they’re assisted by two student-assistants who take care of the technical aspects. The video lectures are meant for first-year Master’s students. “But everyone is free to join, really. For calculus, we’ve asked new Master’s students to enroll in the course, so they can prepare for their program in September.

So far, about forty Dutch and eighty foreign students have registered for the lectures by Boon that take up seven weeks. In light of the interest from international students, Boon teaches his material in English. “Offering online video lectures may end up saving both students and teachers some time. But I think you can never do without actual lectures and personal attention. A video lecture is meant for additional material, as an extra.”

The lectures can be found at oncourse.tue.nl/calculus.