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ERIK DEMAINE: I
mean, there's this

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saying that the best way
to learn the material is

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to try to teach it.

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And that's definitely then
the case in this class.

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I was learning every week,
learning a ton of material,

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and then figuring out what
part of it I should actually

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teach in a lecture.

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And I think it's
valuable for the students

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to get that kind of
experience, as well.

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Where, just by trying to
write down the material that I

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covered, they can think about
how would they present it

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in written form, which
is a different style

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of communications.

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So it has different, sort of,
allowable structures and things

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like that.

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And just forcing them to
go through the exercise

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of, how would I write
down this material?

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We just saw it
presented one way,

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maybe I'll write it
slightly differently,

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or maybe I'll try to mimic
exactly how professor

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Demaine did it.

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Whatever their
approach, I think it's

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valuable to go
through that exercise

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and see what it's like to
write these things down.

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And they scribe just one
or two lectures, usually

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in a group of two
or three people.

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So that gives them just a
flavor of what it's like.

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Of course, another
useful product

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is that we get these
lecture notes at the end.

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So students can read
each other's notes

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and have this kind of
reference material.

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And good for OCW, as well.

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So that everyone can read-- have
a written form of the lecture

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if they don't like
the videos, or they

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want to go through it
more quickly, or as

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a supplement to
the videos, I think

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it's also valuable for that.

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One day this material
might turn into a textbook,

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so it could also be a
step in that direction.

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So there are lots of
reasons to do scribe notes

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but I think mostly it's
as a useful experience

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for the students to
actually do the writing,

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see what that's like.

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I guess it also helps
them learn the material

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a little bit deeper.

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Because by forcing them
to essentially teach it

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in this written form they really
have to understand everything

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that I said, and not just
kind of cursorily understand.

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Follow up on the references
and things like that.

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It's too much to ask everyone
to do that for all lecturers

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but just to get a flavor of
that I think is valuable.

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So writing is hard.

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And I think the
only way to learn

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to be really good at writing
is by lots of experience

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and then lots of feedback on it.

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So a lot of the
scribe notes that we

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get in are poorly written.

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And it's an area everyone
can always improve.

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So we always-- we give feedback
on how to improve the writing,

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mostly.

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Occasionally there's
some missing parts,

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like they forgot about one
section of the lecture.

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And so say, hey, you've
got to add in this.

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But mostly we're
aiming to improve.

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Say, oh, we need a
figure here, this is not

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clear just in written
form, or the grammar

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needs improvement here,
or that kind of thing.

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Or maybe you could
restructure it this way.

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So we try to help students
learn the good ways to organize

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their writing and
that kind of thing.

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So it's certainly not the
main part of the class,

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but it leads to much
better scribe notes,

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and I think a more
valuable learning

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experience for the writers.