A survey of first-year biology student opinions regarding live lectures and recorded lectures as learning tools

Abstract

A cohort of first-year biology students was surveyed regarding their opinions and viewing habits for live and recorded lectures. Most respondents (87%) attended live lectures as a rule (attenders), with 66% attending more than two-thirds of the lectures. In contrast, only 52% accessed recordings and only 13% viewed more than two-thirds of the available recordings. Respondents regarded lectures as efficient for information delivery (75%), and 89% enjoyed live lectures because they were useful for learning (89%), understanding coursework (94%), and keeping up with the subject (93%). Lecture enjoyment was driven less by entertainment (34%) or interaction with the lecturers (47%), although most students preferred an entertaining lecturer to a factual expert (72%). Exam marks were positively correlated with the number of lectures attended (P < 0.001) and negatively correlated with the number of recordings viewed (P < 0.05), although marks were similar for lecture attenders and nonattenders (P > 0.05). Lecture attenders mostly missed lectures to complete assessments during the same week (68%), whereas nonattenders were more likely to miss lectures due to outside commitments or preference for study from books or recorded lectures (P < 0.001). Recordings were used to replace missed lectures (64%), rather than for revision, and were viewed mostly alone (96%) in one sitting (65%). Only 22% of respondents agreed that some lectures could be replaced by recordings, but 59% agreed with having some videoconference lectures from experts on another campus. Overall, this cohort showed a clear preference for live lectures over recordings, with limited support for synchronous videoconference lectures.

An association between accessing lecture recordings, but not lecture attendance, and overall marks for optometry students in a pharmacology course

“…The nding of an association between accessing lecture recording and academic outcomes involving lecture content is not in line with most previous studies. Thus, most previous studies of students of the biological sciences have shown no association between accessing lecture recordings and academic performance [6,11,15,16,19,21,22], or a negative association [17,23,24].…”

“…Most studies have shown no association between accessing lecture recordings and academic performance [11,15,16,[19][20][21][22]. Other studies have shown that the use of lecture recordings to be negatively [17,[23][24][25] or positively [19] associated with academic outcomes.…”

“…Most of the quantitative data available about how students access lecture recordings is from questionnaires/surveys and much of it is for students studying the biological sciences. In general, students only accessed about 50-75% of available lecture recordings, and most accesses were only to parts of the recording [16][17][18]. Although student surveys give useful information on lecture recording access, student recall of how they access lecture recording may not be accurate, and direct access data will give more accurate ndings.…”

18. Forelesningen minutt for minutt – et essayom filmede forelesninger

“…I mange av de tidligere publiserte studiene er en opptatt av hvilke holdninger studenter og forelesere har til bruken av filmede forelesninger. Disse studiene viser at studentene generelt er positive til å få tilgang til slike opptak og ønsker mer av det (Bassili & Joordens, 2008;Copley, 2007;Danielson, Preast, Bender, & Hassall, 2014;Heilesen, 2010;Morris, Swinnerton & Coop, 2019;Simcock, Chua, Hekman, Levin & Brown, 2017). Et viktig argument fra studentenes side er at de får mulighet til å se forelesningene på nytt, som støtteverktøy til egenstudier.…”

“…De fant at studenter med lave karakterer brukte filmopptak i større grad enn studenter med høye karakterer. Tilsvarende fant Simcock et al (2017) at karakterene til studentene var positivt korrelert med antall forelesninger de deltok i, og negativt korrelert med antall filmopptak studentene hadde sett. Lignende funn kan vi finne hos Owston, Lupshenyuk og Wideman (2011) og Johnston, Massa, og Burne (2013), hvor en finner negativ sammenheng mellom bruk av filmede forelesninger og prestasjon.…”