Re: "We need to find more people that have a passion for teaching"
"Well, we're talking university here, so students are prone to paying attention and not clown around"
Depends entirely on the local culture (and also, as in the UK, the kind of university - real or ex-technical college). In many of the latter at least, here in the UK there's a growing sense of entitlement to a 'good degree' as it's the certificate that counts (primarily as a passport to employment). Consequently many students do as little as they can get away with and staff tend to accommodate them. I have attended 'lectures' consisting of the lecturer handing out detailed notes and reading them to the class. Assignments containing literal extracts from said notes gained acceptable marks.
In the UK at least, there's now a culture of 'providing what students want' as if the university were a retail business.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
