Turn up, tune in, don’t drop out: the relationship between lecture attendance, use of lecture recordings, and achievement at different levels of study

Abstract

Lecture capture tends to polarise the views of academic staff. Some view it as encouraging non-attendance at lectures. Others view it as a valuable adjunct, allowing students to revisit the lecture experience and providing opportunities for clarification and repetition of key points. However, data supporting either of these stances remains scarce. Irrespective of these views, a more pertinent question pertains to the impact of lecture attendance and the use of recordings on student achievement. Findings remain unclear due to methodological issues, inconsistent findings, and a lack of differentiation of students by year of study. This paper investigated the impact of attendance, lecture recording, and student attainment across four years of an undergraduate programme. For first year students, attendance and recording use were positive predictors of performance. For weaker students, supplementary recording use was beneficial but only better students use of the recordings helped overcome the impact of low attendance. For second year students, attendance and recording use were positively correlated with, but no longer predictive of, achievement. There was no relationship for honours year students. We found no compelling evidence for a negative effect of recording use, or that attendance and recording use were related. We suggest focusing on improving lecture attendance through monitoring whilst also providing recordings for supplementary use, particularly in first year. Finally, our findings highlight the need to consider third variables such as year of study and first language when conducting and comparing lecture capture research.

Lecture Capture Technology (LCT): Following Some Rules and Breaking Others. The Advantages, Perks, and Pitfalls of LCT Implementation in Large Human Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathophysiology Classrooms

“…A meta-analysis by Danielson et al (2014) indicates that results in the literature are mixed. Some studies found that there was no clear relationship between learning outcomes and lecture capture use (Spickard et al 2002, Solomon et al 2004, Brotherton and Abowd 2004, Bacro et al 2010, Franklin et al 2011 However, non-attendees that watched LC did have better exam results than students who neither attended class nor watched the videos (Inglis et al 2011, Williams et al 2012, Nordmann et al 2018. As a footnote, it should be mentioned that a reported limitation of these studies was that the attendance and viewing data may be subject to inaccuracies.…”

“…Attendance data and LC viewing data gathered was either student self-reported or through the technologies' tracking systems, which reported the number of LC views but did not report number of minutes viewed. Therefore, it was impossible to know whether number of "views" logged, were by students watching the LC to completion, or for just for a few seconds (Nordmann et al 2018). Therefore it could be that low marks are not due to LC being a less effective substitute, but more due to low effort (poor attendance and ineffective lecture capture review).…”

“…In this way LC assists with ownership of learning and making time spent more efficient and productive. Lecture recordings specifically with pause and replay features were found to be helpful to ESL (English as a Second Language) students and students with physical or learning disabilities (Simpson 2006, William 2006, Pearce and Scutter 2010, Nordmann et al 2018). c. Revision: Lecture recordings can be used for revision (Winer and Cooperstock 2002, Brotherton and Abowd 2004).…”

“…This potential problem is one that may be difficult to predict and discern for both faculty and students until the term is over. Nordmann et al (2018) studied the effect of LC when offered across four years of an undergraduate degree programs. Firstly and perhaps not surprisingly, they found that the achievements of honours students did not seem affected by attendance or recording use.…”

What can we learn from learning analytics? A case study based on an analysis of student use of video recordings

“…However, reported studies can be very useful in suggesting factors that merit investigation in other contexts. For example, a recent learning analytics study concerning the impact of attendance and use of LC recordings on attainment (Nordmann et al 2018) highlights that prior attainment and year of study are also important factors to consider.…”