I truly enjoy hearing people present interesting ideas, but I can’t say I’ve loved every 60-minute lecture I’ve ever sat through.

Apparently, course designers from San Juan College, a community college in Farmington, N.M., agree with me. They’ve been experimenting with “microlectures” for certain online classes. These audio or video lectures last just 1-3 minutes and focus on introducing key terms and concepts. The details are left for the students to discover on their own through assignments and discussion.

This short-form pedagogical tool is designed to remove the instructor as the center of attention, increase active learning and speed up course development time. San Juan administrators say the program is a success, citing increased enrollment in courses using microlectures.

While the idea is intriguing and certainly time-efficient, I wonder if microlectures are simply pandering to students with short attention spans at the expense of a rich learning experience. Increased enrollment may indicate that students enjoy these brief lectures, but are they learning more?

In a recent interview, author Nicholas Carr suggests that offering less information may actually increase critical thinking.

Do you believe that intelligence is a matter of tapping into huge amounts of information as fast as possible — being “more productive”… — or do you think intelligence means stepping back from that information, thinking about it, and drawing your own conclusions in a calm, thoughtful way? My own feeling is that I’d rather have less information and more thoughtfulness.

On the other hand, I wonder if microlectures are shortchanging students, distancing them from their expert instructors who have a wealth of information to share. Learners undoubtedly benefit from discussing, researching, experiencing and contemplating information. But we can’t discount the role of a knowledgeable mentor, who is trained and motivated to empower her students with information and passion.

What do you think? Is this an innovative teaching format, or an excuse for expecting less out of students and teachers?