Let me begin by indicating this is a rhetorical question. I don’t know the answer.
So, supposedly there is a negative reaction to lecture courses. This format is boring and students want an alternative. Hence, proposals to flip the classroom and use large group meeting time in a different way, often for discussion, are becoming louder. I tend to try to understand issues by using my own experience. I think many people do this. There is a danger is only seeing the world from your perspective, but at least we can be aware of this problem and use our own insights as a starting point. I try to consider what I thought of similar learning situations and why.
The word “boring” annoys me. I do not think I would have described courses I took as a college student as boring. I did take courses that did not interest me. The difference is in who I thought was responsible – boring is blaming someone else, lack of interest is taking personal responsibility. I assumed I was required to take courses that were supposed to be good for me. This did not mean I would find these courses to be interesting, but I just assumed this is the way things were.
Here is what I did that very few students do now. Most departments have what are called “reading” courses. These courses might be implemented in different ways, but the idea is that these credits are more open to a focus assigned by the student and instructor. There are actually many credits available within a program of study that are not required. Once you meet college requirements and requirements for a major, there are usually lots of required credits that you get to select yourself. If you are bored or even disinterested in courses you select, this is your fault.
I used some of these credits to explore topics through readings. You do need someone to give you a grade for your work. The way it would work is that I would approach an instructor and ask if he/she would supervise a two credit readings on a topic. I would propose the topic and the list of material I wanted to read. If the instructor was doing her job, she would probably propose some additional things I should read. We would agree on what else would be required – most often this was a paper. I would read a bunch of stuff and make an appointment to talk about what I thought was interesting. I would write the paper and this is how I took responsibility for at least part of my own learning. The point is that these credits are still there and available, but very rarely used in this way. I don’t know why. Mature students should understand that sometimes you need to allow more experienced individuals to help you explore the basics and sometimes you need to demonstrate independence and make decisions about your learning for yourself.
There was a recent book, Academically Adrift, that criticized higher education in many ways targeting both profs and students. One of the things I found quite interesting about the book was the research on what predicted the development of higher order thinking skills. I remember a couple of factors; a) does the course require at least 40 pages a week in reading material, and b) does the course require a major paper (25 pages plus). The more courses with these characteristics, the greater the typical gains in higher order thinking. The independent reading course I describe fit these criteria perfectly.