Diverse students and lecture recording technology: can lecture recording replace lectures?

CONTEXT

Higher education students are increasingly coming from diverse backgrounds – e.g. mature aged professionals studying to further develop their career and/or students who live farther away from the campus. As a result, universities are moving away from the traditional teaching methods and introducing different technology and teaching approaches to accommodate the needs of diverse students. Lecture recording (LR) technology is one such technology that has been widely accepted by universities in Australia in the recent years. While LR serves various purpose, one of the main reasons universities have been using this technology is to accommodate students who can’t attend the lectures. However, whether lecture recording technology is actually beneficial for students is a widely debated topic.

PURPOSE

This paper is part of a wider research which investigates the enablers and barriers to the acceptance of educational technology by academics in Australian Higher Education Context. This paper summarises the findings from this research on lecture recording and its impact on various aspects of students.

APPROACH

A qualitative approach was taken to undertake this research. The research was conducted using focus groups with academics at Swinburne University of Technology in April to June 2014 – during the first semester of automated LR at the university. Academics were invited to participate in the focus groups and four focus groups were conducted with eleven participants in total. The focus groups were then transcribed, and the transcriptions were analysed using a thematic analysis approach with the help of NVivo.

RESULTS

Although literature suggest that lecture recording impacts student attendance negatively, findings from this research show that there is little evidence behind it. The majority opinion is that student attendance can be low for a number of reasons and it can not be linked directly to one factor like the LR.

CONCLUSIONS

Students with diverse needs often are faced with limited options regarding lecture attendance and LR is an important tool that allows them to review lecture materials without attending the lectures. Although LR is here to stay, and students from diverse backgrounds continue to benefit from LR technology, not all lecturers are convinced that it provides sufficient benefit to the student and/or lecturers.