Undergraduate mathematics students’ reasons for attending live lectures when recordings are available

Abstract

With the proliferation of new affordable recording technologies, many universities have begun offering students recordings of live lectures as a part of the course resources. We conducted a survey to investigate why some students choose to attend lectures in person rather than simply watching the recordings online, and how students view the two types of lectures. Students attending live lectures in five large undergraduate mathematics lecture streams were invited to respond to the survey. A significant number of respondents viewed recorded lecture as superfluous to their needs which were met upon attending live lecture. Surprisingly, however, an equally large number of students described compelling reasons for watching both live and recorded lectures. A number of factors were identified as determining students' perceptions of live and recorded lectures as competing or complementary: personal learning styles, study habits, esteem for the lecturer, and the possibility of interaction in the lecture.

Effects on learning of time spent by university students attending lectures and/or watching online videos

“…We believe that our findings may differ from those in these studies for reasons relating to course design. The first reason why students who have attended a lecture may access a video is to review parts of the lecture they found difficult (Bassili & Joordens, ; Danielson et al, ; Le et al, ; Leadbeater et al, ; Owston et al, ; Traphagan et al, ; Yoon et al, ; Yoon & Sneddon, ). Using the list of LOs with associated videos presented at the start of each lecture, students should be able to readily identify and locate any video(s) they might need.…”

“…The relevant LOs with associated videos are listed at the start of the worksheet, and therefore, it should be easy for students to identify and locate a video that may be useful if they are struggling with a problem. Second, the literature reports that students also use online lectures to revise for tests and examinations (Danielson et al, ; Leadbeater et al, ; Traphagan et al, ; Yoon et al, ; Yoon & Sneddon, ). In particular, a study examining viewing patterns of online lectures by second‐year Chemistry student by Brooks, Erickson, Greer, and Gutwin () highlights the popularity of online lectures as a “just‐in‐time” revision resource.…”

“…Students express satisfaction with the availability of online lectures and perceive them to be beneficial to their learning (Bassili, ; Bassili & Joordens, ; Danielson, Preast, Bender, & Hassall, ; Traphagan, Kucsera, & Kishi, ). In terms of the utility of online lectures to students, they report using them to replace lectures missed (intentionally or otherwise), to revise for quizzes and examinations, and to review parts of the lecture they did not understand (Danielson et al, ; Leadbeater, Shuttleworth, Couperthwaite, & Nightingale, ; Traphagan et al, ; Yoon, Oates, & Sneddon, ; Yoon & Sneddon, ). While viewing the videos, students appreciate the ability to control their learning by using the pause and seek features of the video (Bassili & Joordens, ; Le, Joordens, Chrysostomou, & Grinnell, ).…”

Technology‐enhanced learning in higher education: How to enhance student engagement through blended learning

“…An obvious concern is the fact that video lectures may encourage students to not attend live lectures and only access the recordings (Maynor, Barrickman, Stamatakis, & Elliott, 2013). Surprisingly, some authors (Yoon, Oatesa, & Sneddona, 2014) have shown that a significant number of students prefers live class to recorded lectures, as the latter do not allow for interaction with the teacher and other fellow students who are perceived as a complementary resource. Viewing a recorded lecture also takes as much or more time as a live lecture.…”

Using screencasts to enhance coding skills: The case of logic programming?

“…Other factors, such as personal learning styles, study habits, options for interaction, etc. play an important role to whether students use videos in their studies [35]. Moreover, different video types seem to affect learning in various ways, most favourable being lecture captures and screencast type videos [3].…”