Video Lecture Capture Technology Helps Students Study without Affecting Attendance in Large Microbiology Lecture Courses†

INTRODUCTION The use of video capture technology has gained popularity over the last decade as a common teaching tool in higher education for both brick-and-mortar students as well as distance learners (4). Many students find lecture capture a useful study tool (7), and recorded lectures allow traditional and nontraditional students alike to stay caught up with the lecture material in the face of various extracurricular commitments, such as work and family (1). Furthermore, students with disabilities and students from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) may also find this technology useful to their learning (3). However, the perception that recorded lectures negatively impact student attendance remains a stumbling block to using this technology for some academics. Indeed, the effect of lecture capture on attendance remains a controversial topic, with some studies reporting that the availability of recorded lectures has little to no effect on attendance (2), while others report that this technology decreases attendance (6). Here, to determine if these trends may be discipline-specific, we studied the use of video lecture capture and its effect on attendance in our large-enrollment general microbiology courses. We monitored daily attendance at lectures with and without video capture and surveyed students about their usage and opinions of this technology. Our data show that when video lecture captures were available, attendance did not decrease. In fact, the majority of students reported that having the videos available did not encourage them to skip class but that they used the videos as a study tool. When we surveyed NESB students and nontraditional students about their attitudes toward this technology, we learned that students found it helpful to their learning and to keeping up with the material. PROCEDURE The data shown in this study were collected over 10 semesters from two different sections of a general microbiology course taught by two instructors. Enrollment varied from 64 to 139 students, totaling 1,014 students analyzed in this study. For six semesters, every lecture from both sections was recorded using the university-provided lecture capture software, Echo 360. Personal lecture capture software is also available and relatively cheap. The preceding four semesters served as controls without lecture capture. Recorded lectures were uploaded to a university server and posted on the learning management system for students to view at their leisure simply by clicking on a link to the lecture video. Daily class attendance was monitored throughout all 10 semesters using the iClicker system. Attendance …