Does Lecture Attendance Matter? Some Observations From a First‐year Economics Course at the University of Cape Town

Walbeek, Corné van

doi:10.1111/j.1813-6982.2004.tb00137.x

Cited by 54 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…In our study, counts of students revealed that attendance frequently fell below 50% of the enrolled cohort, which concurs with the majority of students indicating that they regularly miss at least one lecture a week. It is interesting to note that in some studies [29] low attendance was at 75%, while in others [18], as in this study, attendance fell to much lower levels.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…Previous studies looking at attendance at lectures carried out at different institutions and for various degree programs, have reported varying levels of attendance [6,14,18,17]. However, it is important to differentiate selfreporting of attendance from actual counts of students present, particularly in light of reports that self-reporting of course-related behaviors do not accurately represent actual behaviors [27,28].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Interestingly, Van Walbeek [18] reported that the differential in test scores between poor lecture attendees and regular lecture attendees increases as the term progresses. However, it has been argued that student motivation rather than attendance may be a more important factor [16].…”

Section: Availability Of Online Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While some have suggested a positive relationship between lecture attendance and academic performance [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22], others have found no such correlation between attendance and performance [23,24]. Importantly, Millis et al [21] reported that a cohort of students performed satisfactorily regardless of their level of attendance.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Engagement of students with lectures in biochemistry and pharmacology

Davis

Hodgson

Macaulay

2012

Biochem Molecular Bio Educ

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Academic staff at universities have become concerned about the decrease in student attendance at lectures and the implication of this on student achievement and learning. Few studies have measured actual lecture attendance in a coherent or comprehensive way. The aim of this study was to measure actual lecture attendance of students over two year levels enrolled in two separate science disciplines, biochemistry and pharmacology. The study further sought to determine the factors that influence lecture attendance. Attendance at lectures in four units of study was monitored over a 12-week semester. Attendance at lectures decreased over the semester and was lower at early morning lectures (8 A.M.; 9 A.M.). A questionnaire surveying students about their preparation for lectures, their compensation for missed lectures and the factors influencing their nonattendance was administered at the end of the semester. Students reported that the major factors influencing their attendance at lectures related to timetable issues and the quality of lecturing. If students missed lectures, the majority read the lecture notes and listened to the online recordings. The availability of online recordings of lectures was not a major influence on attendance at lectures. In three of the four units studied there was no correlation between self-reported lecture attendance and exam performance. The results of the study indicate that universities should dedicate more resources to timetabling and to supporting staff to improve the quality of their lectures.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Availability Of Online Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Engagement of students with lectures in biochemistry and pharmacology

Davis

Hodgson

Macaulay

2012

Biochem Molecular Bio Educ

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“…While the extant research indicates a relationship between attendance and performance (Mallick & Varua, 2008;Romer, 1993;Stanca, 2006), Van Walbeek (2004) claims that this link is not as strong as many assume.…”

Section: Student Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Australian Universities Take Measures to Increase the Lecture Attendance of Marketing Students?

Dolničar

Kaiser

Matus

et al. 2009

Journal of Marketing Education

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Lectures are a central element of traditional university learning, but Australian lecturers increasingly face very low levels of lecture attendance. A significant amount of research exists that investigates the drivers of lecture attendance. However, those studies typically study single factors in an isolated manner, thus overestimating the importance of individual factors. This study contributes to the understanding of lecture attendance (and nonattendance) by including a range of factors that potentially affect lecture attendance simultaneously, thus accounting for possible interactions between factors and identifying the key drivers of lecture attendance. The study uses a survey among all students of an Australian university to compute a regression model with the probability of lecture attendance as the dependent variable. Results indicate that only four of the factors previously investigated are significant for marketing students (i.e., the difficulty of the subject, the quality of the lecture as perceived by the student, the quality of the student as indicated by his or her average mark, and the format of the lecture), which leaves little opportunity for Australian universities to improve attendance with simple measures. Instead, the data suggest that universities need to improve the quality of lectures to achieve better attendance levels. Lectures are a central element of traditional university learning, but Australian lecturers increasingly face very low levels of lecture attendance (Rodgers, 2001). A significant amount of research exists that investigates the drivers of lecture attendance. However, those studies typically study single factors in an isolated manner, thus overestimating the importance of individual factors. The present study contributes to our understanding of lecture attendance (and non-attendance) by including a range of factors that potentially affect lecture attendance simultaneously, thus accounting for possible interactions between factors and identifying the key drivers of lecture attendance. We used a survey among all students of an Australian university to compute a regression model with the probability of lecture attendance as the dependent variable.Our results indicate that only four of the factors previously investigated are significant for marketing students (that is, the difficulty of the subject, the quality of the lecture as perceived by the student, the quality of the student as indicated by their average mark, and the format of the lecture), which leaves little opportunity for Australian universities to improve attendance with simple measures. Instead, the data suggests that universities need to improve the quality of lectures to achieve better attendance levels. 2

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Should Attendance Be Required in Lecture Classrooms in Dental Education? Two Viewpoints

Cutler

Parise

Seminario

et al. 2016

Journal of Dental Education

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This Point/Counterpoint discusses the long-argued debate over whether lecture attendance in dental school at the predoctoral level should be required. Current educational practice relies heavily on the delivery of content in a traditional lecture style. Viewpoint 1 asserts that attendance should be required for many reasons, including the positive impact that direct contact of students with faculty members and with each other has on learning outcomes. In lectures, students can more easily focus on subject matter that is often difficult to understand. A counter viewpoint argues that required attendance is not necessary and that student engagement is more important than physical classroom attendance. This viewpoint notes that recent technologies support active learning strategies that better engage student participation, fostering independent learning that is not supported in the traditional large lecture classroom and argues that dental education requires assimilation of complex concepts and applying them to patient care, which passing a test does not ensure. The two positions agree that attendance does not guarantee learning and that, with the surge of information technologies, it is more important than ever to teach students how to learn. At this time, research does not show conclusively if attendance in any type of setting equals improved learning or ability to apply knowledge.

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Does Lecture Attendance Matter? Some Observations From a First‐year Economics Course at the University of Cape Town

Cited by 54 publications

References 27 publications

Engagement of students with lectures in biochemistry and pharmacology

Engagement of students with lectures in biochemistry and pharmacology

Can Australian Universities Take Measures to Increase the Lecture Attendance of Marketing Students?

Should Attendance Be Required in Lecture Classrooms in Dental Education? Two Viewpoints

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