One of the most useful developments of the 21st century must be webcasts and their integration into the schooling system. In dire times, webcasts are there to save the day. Whether it be in sickness or in health, they’re there to ensure that important classes aren’t inevitably missed entirely when life throws a few curveballs.

Personally, I also really like using webcasts to review the material. When I go to class lectures and realize that I absorbed very little information, I always go back home and watch the webcasts, pausing and taking my own time to understand what was said by the professor. Webcasts have single-handedly carried me through some of the toughest classes I’ve ever taken.

When webcasts are not used by a professor, problems arise. For one, it becomes much riskier to skip or miss class. Once that lecture has happened, there is no way to get the information back. You could always ask your peers, but that’d be like asking UCLA students how it feels to be the most renowned public university in the world; sure, they might know something about it from reading articles from The Daily Californian, but you’d be much better off talking to the experts on the topic — us UC Berkeley students.

A lack of webcasts also makes studying for the class much harder. Suddenly, you don’t have the professor’s words with you at all times. Now, you have to go to office hours a lot more. You have to come up with questions and make sure you ask them. Given the fact that everyone else is also probably thinking the same way, it’ll be much harder to get your questions in, too.

In sum, a lack of webcasts is bad news for basically everyone involved. Unfortunately, it’s a reality that we must deal with, because none of us will be fortunate enough to have every class webcasted, at least not for the next few years. So how does one deal with a lack of webcasts?

Obviously, the first method has already been mentioned. Attending office hours is one of the best ways to cope with not having lectures with webcasts. Not only is it a more personal experience, but it also allows students to build stronger relationships with professors and GSIs. Most classes also have multiple office hours, so it’s not too inconvenient to take time out of your day and go once a week.

Alternatively, you could also create a study group with classmates, and on one shared document, take notes on the lectures. Everybody can chip in to clear up any confusion in certain parts of the lecture, leaving one very comprehensive document of notes from the class. This can also be useful for midterms and finals season, and this method also gets bonus points for ingenuity, convenience and potential to form more friendships.

Finally, there is the ultimate way to deal with classes that do not utilize webcasts: dropping the class. Dropping your current class, given that it isn’t a prerequisite for your major, would be the easiest way to deal with not having webcasted lectures. Along with that, there is hardly ever a shortage of classes to take at UC Berkeley, so there will probably always be a class that does have webcasted lectures that you can take.

In conclusion, webcasts are incredibly useful, but they aren’t always available. However, their absence is not a cause for panic. There are many ways to deal with it, and with these ways, there’s potential for even better things to happen.