1. Lecture Video Usage and Preferences in Principles of Biochemistry
Peggie Chien1,2, Gavin Piester1,2, Owen Clinger1,2, Maria Cecilia Barone1, Sina Ghaemmaghami2
1 Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
2 Department of Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Introduction
Results
Conclusion
In BIO 252, Principles of Biochemistry, the lectures are recorded by the course instructor, Professor Sina Ghaemmaghami, and posted onto BlackBoard for students to access. Similar lecture videos may be viewed as a detriment to the course as they could dissuade students from attending lecture amongst other reasons.
Our objectives were to determine how Biochemistry students used these lecture videos throughout the course and to demonstrate if lecture videos are an advantageous tool to the students’ learning.
Primary Use Secondary Use
Figure 1 Primary and secondary use for lecture videos..
Figure 2 Number of days per week students attend
lecture.
Figure 4 If students believe attending lecture is more
or less helpful than watching the lecture videos.
(1 = less helpful, 7 = more helpful)
Figure 6 If the recorded lecture videos affect the
students’ confidence to prepare for the exams.
(1 = decrease confidence, 7 = increase confidence)
Figure 8 If students believe they have a better
understanding of the material. (1 = worse understand,
7 = better understanding)
Figure 1 Students primarily and secondarily use the lecture videos for studying for exams and to understand the course material.
Figure 2 Even with the lecture videos available, a large majority of students come to lecture three times a week.
Figure 3 Students find the recorded lectures to be very helpful.
Figure 4 Although somewhat mixed, students find that attending in-class lectures are more helpful than watching the recorded lectures.
Figure 5 Students overwhelmingly find that the recorded lectures are a valuable resource.
Figure 6 Having the recorded lectures positively influences the students’ perceived ability to prepare for the exams.
Figure 7 Students believe that others use the videos more than they do.
Figure 8 Students believe that the recorded lectures allow for a better understanding of the material.
Figure 9 Students overall would take a class where one in-class lecture per week were replaced with a recorded lecture and the second and third in-class lectures emphasize group discussion.
Materials and Methods
Lecture Videos
Professor Ghaemmaghami uses the Camtasia Studio software to record videos during Biochemistry lectures.
These videos contain the PowerPoint Presentation for the lecture, the audio recorded during lecture (including Professor Ghaemmaghami’s voice as well as student questions and comments), pointer used during lecture, and comments added on by Professor Ghaemmaghami post-lecture correcting for mistakes.
The videos are posted after lecture for student use.
Data Collection
The Workshop Leaders created a Google Form containing questions for the students regarding their opinions and individual uses for the lecture videos.
The questions were formatted as multiple choice, scaled responses, and free responses.
Volunteer bias was minimized by requiring all questions to be answered, administering surveys in workshop, and anonymizing results.
We asked a total of fourteen questions detailing their use and impressions of the lecture videos. We obtained 67 responses.
Figure 3 How helpful students find the recorded lecture videos. (1 = not helpful, 7 = very helpful)
Figure 5 If students believe that the lecture videos are a valuable resource (despite whether or not they made use of them). (1 = not valuable, 7 = very valuable)
Figure 7 If students believe they use the recorded lecture videos more or less than other students.
(1 = less useful, 7 = more useful)
Figure 9 If students would consider taking a class where one lecture per week is recorded, and the second and third lectures per week are discussion-based.
Discussion
Overall, we find that lecture videos have proven to be a valuable resource as per student reports despite the belief by some that they may impede the learning process. These preliminary results seem to indicate that the recorded lecture videos are used more as a supplementary resource rather than as a substitute for lecture itself. The observational data warrant a deeper look at the actual benefits of recorded lectures, which would require a rigorously controlled study.