A good lecturer doesn't "read the information out once". Firstly, just taking lecture technique, he should give you a quick overview of what he's going to cover. Then he should give the main body of the lecture. Finally, he should summarise the important points in conclusion. Every lecture should have an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. You should hear it 3 times. As my old RAF instructors used to say, when talking about lecture technique, "Tell 'em what your going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them that you've told them". It works, too.
Secondly, the instructor should be telling you more than just what is in the notes. He should have years of experience and he should be passing on that experience. He should make sure that every "exam point" in the notes is covered, but he should not follow the notes slavishly. A bit of practical experience, including a situation where he actually had to use that point, makes the lecture come alive. Sometimes the notes are wrong, or incomplete, or they are right but the JAA inteprets that particular point differently. The instructor can fill in these gaps. He should be treating each group of students as individuals, who bring different backgrounds to the learning experience, and different knowledge (including flying knowledge) which can be pooled. After the lecture, individuals can come up and see him for clarification of any points.
I work for an FTO which instructs both residential and distance learning students. I am full of admiration for the distance learning students who do well (and some of them do very well), because I think that it must be much harder for them.