Yale Online lectures enter the classroom - SARAH SWONG, ANTONIA WOODFORD, Yale Daily News

Open Yale Courses has made professors’ lectures available to Internet users around the world, but it is also changing how those professors teach on campus. The website, which now features videos and transcripts for 35 Yale courses, launched in 2007 in an effort to broaden access to a Yale education. But in some cases, the program has led to revisions in a Yale education: many professors whose lectures are posted online have since altered their courses to avoid redundancy and give students a reason to attend class in person. While many professors have changed the topics they cover, others have completely redesigned the structure of their classes and incorporated the online material. Ecology and evolutionary biology professor Stephen Stearns and religious studies professor Christine Hayes both require their students to watch their online lectures before coming to class so that they can spend class time on discussion. Many students interviewed complained that this format makes the courses much more time-intensive, but some said they appreciated the chance to engage actively with the material during lecture.