No apparent association between lecture attendance or accessing lecture recordings and academic outcomes in a medical laboratory science course

Abstract

Background The effect of availability of lecture recordings on academic outcomes is not clear and it is not known whether these recordings change the association between lecture attendance and academic outcomes. Few surveys of lecture attendance or lecture recordings use by students are linked to academic outcomes. The aims were (i) to determine any association between lecture attendance and academic outcomes for students who had access to lecture recordings, (ii) to determine any association between accessing lecture recordings and academic outcomes and (iii) to use a survey to determine why students attend lectures and/or access lecture recordings in a course in medical laboratory science. Methods Consenting students signed in when attending lectures and/or completed an online survey. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated to determine whether there was an association between attending lectures or accessing lecture recordings and academic outcomes. Results Consent rates were high for both the sign-in (90%) and survey (64%). The main findings were that in 2017 and 2018: (i) the average lecture attendance was 39 and 27%, respectively, (ii) there was no association between lecture attendance and academic outcomes, (iii) there was no association between accessing lecture recordings and academic outcomes. Survey respondents were almost equally divided between those attending lectures weekly, sometimes or not. Reasons for attending lectures included greater perceived learning and interaction with staff and other students, while reasons for not attending related to inconvenience or other commitments. Lecture recordings were accessed to clarify, revise or catch up on content, or as an alternative to attending lectures. One-third of students provided additional feedback on accessing lecture recordings, and the most common themes were ‘flexibility’ and ‘useful’. Lecture slides (PowerPoints), independently of lecture recordings, were used extensively by the students. Conclusions From this study, it does not seem that either lecture attendance or accessing lecture recordings are major determinants of academic outcomes for most students. As students vary in their lecture attendance and use of online resources including lecture recordings and lecture slides, academic staff should continue to provide a range of resources for students.

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

“…However, the increasing use of technology, especially the availability of lecture recordings, probably reduces lecture attendance [11,12]. This is supported by recent studies; (i) a 2018 study showing lecture attendance of 24% in two courses [13], (ii) a 2019 study showing that the attendance at hybrid lectures declined over three years from 79-22% [14], and (iii) at QUT, attendance at lectures by medical laboratory science students declined from 39% in 2017 to 27% in 2018 [15]. With the use of lecture recordings, students with low lecture attendance may have improved academic outcomes, compared to when lecture recordings were not available.…”

“…Attendance levels are a possible reason for the differences between this study showing no association between lecture attendance and academic outcomes and previous studies showing a positive association is that this study is considering the relationship of much lower levels of lecture attendance to academic outcomes than most previous studies. Other studies with low levels of lecture attendance, and the availability of lecture recordings (39% [27], 24% [13], 27% [15]), have also shown no association between lecture attendance and academic outcomes. This supports the study hypothesis that, when lecture recordings are available, and lecture attendance is low, there is no association between lecture attendance and academic outcomes.…”

“…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].…”

“…Regression line analysis of grades and marks versus lecture attendance showed no associations (Table 2). As a previous study had shown that a failing student can skew the regression line analysis and association between lecture attendance [25], the analysis was repeated without the failing student, and this analysis also showed no association between lecture attendance and academic outcomes (data not shown).…”

“…For students of biological sciences, who have access to face-to-face lectures, studies of any association between the use of lecture recordings and academic outcomes have given mixed results. 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.…”