Optional student use of online lecture resources: resource preferences, performance and lecture attendance

Abstract

One of the most common uses of a course management system in the on-campus environment is to offer lecture resources to students. Few researchers have investigated how students use such resources. This study considers student use of lecture resources that offer a representation of the lecture presented (i.e. lecture outline, lecture summary, audio recording) and the relationship of the use of such resources to examination performance and attendance. The present research is argued to be an extension of research that investigated the benefits of providing students instructor notes conducted some 30 years ago. The Internet provides a practical way to apply some of these ideas and to collect data on the reaction of students to the opportunity to view lecture resources. Students made very little use of the audio recordings. We suggest audio recordings may be regarded by students as less efficient and less useful than text-based lecture summaries. The use of online lecture resources, lecture attendance, and examination performance were positively related. For one of three examinations, there was a significant negative interaction of note use and attendance in predicting examination performance providing some support for the hypothesis that students may be able to successfully compensate by viewing online lecture resources when unable to attend class. Because students in this study were not asked to explain their use of these resources, the present findings are regarded as speculative. However, given the interests of many practitioners in providing students lecture resources, the descriptive data and the relationships observed here encourage additional investigation.

Podcasting of health sciences lectures: Benefits for students from a non-English speaking background

“…NESB and non-NESB students intentionally missed fewer face to face classes as they progressed through their studies, notwithstanding the availability of audio reproductions of the lectures. This is in contrast to concerns raised by some (Lightbody et al, 2006;Malan, 2007;Grabe & Christopherson, 2008;von Konsky et al, 2009), but not all (Bongey et al, 2006;Shannon, 2006;Copley, 2007;Forbes & Hickey, 2008;Fietze, 2009). There is a number of possible reasons to explain this.…”

Engagement of students with lectures in biochemistry and pharmacology

“…This study also reported that web based learning technologies and lecture attendance are not necessarily mutually exclusive. In support of this, Grabe and Christopherson [25] reported that those who attended class more frequently made greater use of online lecture resources.…”

“…Student motivation is consistently discussed in the literature as a major factor in determining attendance at lectures with the assumption that more motivated students are less likely to miss lectures and also more likely to make use of other resources including online lecture notes and audio recordings [22,25]. A large Australian study [26] noted that the most common reasons for choosing to attend lectures include motivational aspects (older students) and meeting friends (younger students) while reasons for nonattendance include the inability to attend and the view that they are able to learn as well using web based lecture technologies.…”

Asynchronous Versus Synchronous Learning in Pharmacy Education

“…Researchers at the University of North Dakota investigated the use of online lecture resources and their effect on examination performance and class attendance in two introductory psychology courses (Grabe, 2007). Online lecture resources included outline notes, complete notes, and lecture audio.…”

“…The researchers in this study concluded that decreased attendance was not a direct result of providing online lecture resources, but that the availability of online lecture resources may have been of benefit to students who were absent from class. The low use of the audio content was hypothesized to be due to the availability of complete lecture notes online (Grabe, 2007).…”