Technological advancement has created a new way for students to learn. Teachers can now put audio of lectures online and make them available for downloading.

CourseCasts is a system by Pick-A-Prof (www.pickaprof.com) allowing teachers to record lectures and post them on the Pick-A-Prof Web site for download.

Although it seems a convenient way to keep up with lectures, some students are skeptical of the new system teachers have started to embrace.

“If people can get the entire lecture online, why go to class?” said junior business major Mike Whalen. “The only reason I would use it would be if I didn’t want to go to class.”

Pick-A-Prof experimented with CourseCasts at the University of Texas and Texas A&M University during fall 2005 and had positive results.

“We talked to professors who used it, and they did not see a decrease in attendance,” said Karen Bragg, representative of Pick-A-Prof. “We also talked to students, and they said they would listen to [the lecture] before an exam, and used it as a study aid.”

Students have recognized that there are positives to CourseCasts, as well as negatives.

“It really depends on the person who’s using it,” said junior criminology major Dan Ridenour. “If you use it negatively, it could really hurt you. If you use it to ditch class, you would miss out on feedback. Using it to brush up on a section of notes could help you study for a test, though.”

Although CourseCasts isn’t used by many professors at NIU at this time, don’t be surprised if you start hearing about it in the future.

“ITS sponsored a workshop [on CourseCasts] on Feb. 16, and the room was packed,” said Elizabeth Leake, associate director of ITS.