The standard rule in class is that no photographs or general recordings of any kind are allowed. However, as always, I like to provide rational for my policies as opposed to simply saying it is because I said so!!!! (although … it is because I said so 😛 )

So first off, a standard fall back that I have heard, which is true, is that all information provided to you the student during lecture is considered the professors own intellectual property (as he constructed the notes which are by virtue of the laws governing IP, more specifically copyrighted works) and are protected without the necessity of obtaining an “official” copyright. This policy applies to written works, computer code, basically anything that is copyrightable. Even if we were to say that as an employee (which I have yet to hear about this ever happening) of ASU, all copyrighted works are owned by ASU. You transcribing the notes on the board is a different summarization, verbiage, etc… and thus those are yours. Pictures / audio recordings, etc… are an exact copy.

Now there are students that may see that as rather weak. So I extend the rationale to be in line with, “What is the best thing for the student themselves?”

Firstly, in most cases in which pictures are taken are rationalized by not being quick enough to take notes. Firstly, if I can talk while writing on the board, stopping, explaining, answering questions, and drawing diagrams with much larger font, you “should” be able to keep up.

If you cannot keep up, then you need to up your speed son! For many of you, the hardest class you have is your math class. Your ENG101, PHY101, PSY101, etc.. courses are slow and easy and they hug you and squeeze you and call you George. In 2 years you will most likely (hopefully) look back and say, wow, he was actually moderate with speed because your Tenure Track Faculty members who are specialists in their respective field have been teaching those same classes for decades and they can be VERY quick. So forcing yourself to get quicker / better / more focused with taking notes now, will ONLY aid you in your Junior / Senior and Graduate School years.

Secondly, I like to make an analogy between learning new material and driving to a new location for the first time. The first time you travel somewhere (prior to having Google Maps take you straight there… lol I’m old), you needed rather detailed directions. Head West, drive for 5 miles, make a right and head north here, etc… You literally relied on the directions. The second time, you probably knew the general area, e.g. Tempe, Glendale, Mesa, etc… so you could hop any freeway and head in the general direction, but you had to refer back to the directions when you got close for the major turns. Third/Fourth time, you know the cross sections, perhaps a bit of the neighborhood. Fifth / Sixth time, you probably know almost the entire path but maybe confuse yourself with whether or not it was a second or third left after the stop sign. Eventually (given this is your new appartment), you’ve driven there 100 times and you leave ASU from Lot 59 (Because your a broke college student) and are in a daze thinking about your exam you just took, the student in your class you have a crush one, why your parents are giving you a hard time for not calling them as much, etc… and you magically arrive home without realizing it. The general direction, the turns, the major cross roads, the navigation into the neighborhood, the proper turns and arriving at the house was done in robot mode without thinking. This is what learning is and it is no different in Engineering Mathematics. The first time you go through a specific problem type, you NEED directions and need to follow along with them, i.e. take notes! Taking pictures deprives you of your first trip which is the trip you learn the most. Then after doing those problem types 5-10 times, (or in my case 1000), you do the problem without even thinking about it.

Lastly, the concept of pictures is always based on the belief that you the student will go back and incorporate that into their notes at a later time when its more convenient. Can you guess how often that actually happens for students? Not that it doesn’t, because it does, however, in my opinion it is rather rare. For example, when COVID hit, we transitioned all our classes to online, however, they were still held at the same time and I obtained a camera setup and ensured all students had access to those videos. Given the access to recorded media, guess what happened to attendance? It tanked. What was the success rate (i.e. passage rate) ? One of the lowest I’ve ever seen. My class was not isolated in that to the point that all classes instituted a “resurrections final” (Final grades replace lowest midterm grade if higher) which has persisted for the past 3 – 4 years somehow.

I have rationalized this to be the fact that as humans we are procrastinators. We can have fantastic ideas, plans, etc… but if you want SH*T to hit the fan, tell God your plans and watch him laugh (albeit an invisible laugh from an entity that you cannot prove is there!). So there is this false sense of security of having the “pictures of notes”, or entire recordings of lectures where students think, it’s locked stocked and ready, I’ll get to it later. It usually doesn’t work out. We are basically providing the students enough slack in the rope such that they can hang themselves easily.

As a very paternal instructor, I lean into the side of more tough love. Because let’s be honest, the Calc series for Engineers, Linear Algebra, and Differential Equations were the easiest courses I have ever taken for my Aerospace Engineering degree here at ASU 20+ years ago and yes, some of my instructors are still here! Now I wont claim ALL Engineering programs are the same. I like to believe that Aerospace Engineering is one of the most challenging (if not the most, …. it’s Rocket Science!), however, for all Engineering majors it will only benefit you to have a rock solid foundation in these courses such that in your classes that utilize this material (Statics, Dynamics, Deformable Solids, Thermodynamics, Aerodynamics, Heat Transfer, etc…) you can actually focus on the physics and not even think twice about the mathematics behind it and hopefully get higher grades!