Higher Education
The Seminar Is the Last Defensible Teaching Format
Lectures have been thoroughly disrupted by recording and search. Small-group argument has not been, and will not be.
One-way transmission of content is now abundant and nearly free. Any lecture that consists of an expert reading structured material to a passive room has an inferior cost structure to a recording of the same lecture.
What survives is the format that requires other people to be present and responsive: the seminar, in which a claim is made, contested, revised and defended in real time under an expert's supervision.
Institutions that respond to technological pressure by producing more content are optimising the part that has already been commoditised. The defensible investment is in smaller rooms and better discussion leaders.