Online videos of courses

My alma mater has videos of semester-long courses online. I haven't actually watched any of the videos (a single lecture is 40 minutes, and a semester-long course would be 30-40 hours of viewing).

But even without watching the videos, I think that this is a good idea, for everyone concerned. How does it help students? If a professor finds his students preferring web lectures by his compatriot in Delhi, that will prompt him/her to improve their teaching. And students all over India get the benefit of stimulating courses. The courses I had at IITM were much better put together, on average, than the ones at Ohio State or Oklahoma. And if a professor is good, there is nothing more encouraging than finding that your videos have been watched thousands of times. A 40-hour lecture series requires serious commitment and what teacher wouldn't like committed students?

UPDATE: A couple of weeks ago, I got voted in as an adjunct professor at Oklahoma , so I know I shouldn't say courses at OU are less stimulating than the ones at IITM ... but they were. I think this has something to do with the fact that IITM professors were very interactive. Everyone used a blackboard and built up the concepts as they went along. At Ohio State and Oklahoma, every one used projectors and nothing dampens down a class more than a rigid PowerPoint presentation.

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