The Influence of Attendance, Communication, and Distractions on the Student Learning Experience using Blended Synchronous Learning

Abstract

A second-year engineering course at the authors’ institution was offered via a blended synchronous learning (BSL) method of delivery whereby students could choose to attend lectures live (face-to-face) or remotely (via a synchronous, live stream over the internet) during a summer semester. Survey and grade data were collected across two years of this offering. Attendance, interaction, communication with the instructor, and general distractions were main themes affecting the student learning experience both positively and negatively. Specifically, students found the remote access, the ability to ask questions, the teaching style, and having more time during the summer semester as positive aspects to their learning experience. Negative influences on their learning experience related primarily to their busy work schedules, technological issues associated with BSL, and typical summer distractions. Critically, our results indicate that attendance is a key indicator of student grades (after correcting for GPA), regardless of whether students attended lectures remotely or face-to-face: students attending more than 75% of the lectures performed on average 12% better than students who did not (p=0.0093). The consensus in the student comments was that the remote attendance option allowed students to attend in situations where the alternative was no attendance at all, implying that the potential gain in grades due to higher attendance may outweigh any potential impact the mode of attendance may have. Overall, a synchronous, remote attendance option may provide a lifeline to students who would not otherwise be able to attend a course, and (assuming a mode of interaction, such as the synchronous chat, is available) students do not perceive remote attendance as having a negative influence on their learning.

On the Record: Student Motivations for Recording Lectures and Implications for Learning

“…A parallel model linear regression was performed correlating Grades to self-reported GPA, Attendance, and Recordings, yielding: Grades = 10.47+0.74*GPA+14.40*Attend-9.52*Record, with R 2 =0.377 (see Table 1 and Figure 1) 2 . Our previously reported R 2 for GPA vs attendance without considering the effect of recording is 0.285 [1]. Including the effect of recording provides an increase of 0.092, roughly a quarter of the total R 2 .…”

“…The overall course averages were 61.5% (S1) and 57.9% (S2), while the overall course average of participants was 63.6% (S1) and 63.7% (S2). 1 The instructor did not provide lecture recordings because accessing and disseminating these recordings was arduous given the institution's available software and Participants were recruited via an in-class announcement and an email inviting them to participate in the study. The email and associated on-line survey were sent to students in the last two weeks of class.…”

“…Previous research shows that both GPA and attendance are known predictors of grade outcomes [9,10]; in previous research using this dataset [1,11], we analyzed the effect of attendance and GPA on student performance. Following the same process, here we collected participants' self reported attendance into two bins: those who attended <75% in one category (Attend=0, n=17) and those who attended >75% bin into another (Attend=1, n=40).…”

“…Results in [1] indicate that students attending more than 75% of synchronous lectures (whether they attended faceto-face or remotely) performed on average 12% better than other students (p=0.001). Furthermore, students perceived the ability to ask questions as a main driver for attending lectures.…”

“…Prior to the pandemic, a second-year engineering course at the author's institution was delivered using a blended synchronous format, allowing students to synchronously attend lectures in person or remotely. Students in two offerings (taught by the same instructor) were surveyed on many aspects of their experience and their responses were linked to their final grades [1].…”