What's the point of recording classroom lectures?

Recording lecture videos is a practice frequently requested by Northwestern students but can be a difficult one for instructors to adopt. Classroom and technology logistics can be challenging, but even more, there is the question of purpose. What does adding in lecture recordings do to your teaching environment? What’s the point of recording lectures? We’ve explored what lecture capture can look like at Northwestern in the Next Normal series and today, we’ll take a closer look at the research behind recording in person lectures.

Won’t having lecture videos available mean students won’t attend class?

Usually, no, it won’t have a significant impact on attendance. Anecdotally, instructors at Northwestern have shared with Teaching & Learning Technologies that they haven’t seen large changes in attendance in classes where they are recording lectures. Generally speaking, they’ve seen the standard amounts of no-shows at lectures regardless of access to lecture recordings.

Published research on the subject is still catching up to the return to classes in person, but pre-pandemic research supports this observation. Some research even found that students might report that access to recorded lectures can encourage skipping class, but that actual student attendance counts didn’t decrease. (Brotherton and Abowd 147) Another study found that, “Despite anecdotal fears, we find little evidence to substantiate the claim that providing recordings reduces attendance or negatively impacts achievement, instead, we find positive evidence that the recordings are seen as particularly helpful for non-native speakers in first year as they adjust to a new language environment.” (Nordmann et al 1082) Another study, which looked at social media posts by New Zealand university students, found that students didn’t generally use recordings as a full replacement for scheduled lectures. Students were more likely to use recordings to fill in gaps from missing one or two lectures or as supplemental study resources. (Nkomo et al. 228699)

When recordings do impact attendance, they don’t seem to negatively impact grade outcomes. An Australian study found that there was a relationship between lower attendance and access to lecture recordings, but that it didn’t have a “deleterious impact on outcomes.” (Chapin 9) This study looked closely at lecture attendance and access of lecture recordings. They found that there were no differences in final grades based on higher/lower lecture attendance or higher/lower access of lecture recordings. (Chapin 11) These and similar studies show that recording lectures can help students to find their balance of using recordings and attending lectures that best fits their learning and life commitments.

Opening the door to lecture recordings can feel scary. Will students really know what’s best for their learning? Won’t some just never show up and then fail the class? Instructor experience at Northwestern and research shows us that adding lecture recordings doesn’t generally tip students into lower performance in the course, even if it may mean some students do have lower attendance.

What’s the value in recording my lectures if I still want students to come to class?

The bottom line is that lecture recordings are a potential learning resource for students, supporting students for whom English is not their first language, those who struggle with auditory processing, have a chronic illness or many, many other cases. You can’t anticipate all the reasons why your students might utilize a lecture recording, but you don’t need to. Providing the recording is providing a potential support for a student. One study on lecture recordings for nursing students found that students saw the recordings as a general stress reliever. If they zoned out during a class or had to miss a class, they felt reassured that they could use the recording to review. (Nelson, Leslie Susan et al)

As noted in the studies above, lecture recordings are often used as supplemental and review resources by students. If you want students to use your recordings in this way, it’s a good idea to tell them why you are making lecture recordings available to them. Specifically, tell them that the recordings are study resources that you would like students to include in their study habits.

What specific things can an instructor recommend so that students use recordings more effectively?

1. Panopto will create chapters in the video based on the Powerpoint slides that were recorded. Tell students to use the chapters to navigate and find specific parts of the lecture they want to revisit.
2. Students can search for keywords in Panopto videos, quickly finding specific sections of recordings that have the concepts they need to review.
3. Students can add bookmarks and notes of their own to Panopto videos that only they can see. Encourage them to notate the video just as they might their textbook; fostering active engagement with the material rather than passive listening.
4. Remind students before exams that they can review the lecture videos.
5. If you notice a common question coming up in office hours and that concept was addressed in a previous lecture, email the students information about which video lecture it was that contained that information.
6. When you review your Panopto analytics, if you notice some super users of the videos, email them directly and ask if they have any advice for other students on getting the most out of the videos. Share that advice anonymously with your class.

Are my students even using the videos?

You can find out some basics of student access of videos via the Statistics area of the Panopto video. Either in the Panopto tab in your Canvas site or in the Panopto browser, hover over a video and click on the “Stats” button. (More details on Panopto statistics.)

Panopto statistics include:

• Views and Downloads: Number of views and downloads across all viewed content. If a student downloads the video, it will appear as the full minute amount of the video.
• Unique Sessions Viewed: Number of unique videos that have been viewed.
• Minutes Delivered: Number of minutes streamed and downloaded combined for the viewed content.
• Average Completion: When viewing videos, this is the average percent watched in a video by the user.

If you see that students aren’t viewing the recordings, take a few moments to ask them about it. Do they know where the videos are in Canvas? Do they know how to integrate them into their study practices? Without an understanding of why they are valuable, students may not initially use lecture recordings in the way you would like them to.

Can I get my classes automatically recorded so I don’t have to remember to start the recording?

If you are in a classroom that has lecture capture equipment, you can request that your class be automatically recorded. Whether you want to share recordings with the whole class or only with students after they’ve contacted you about an absence, you can work with Northwestern IT staff to set things up to suit your needs.

Contact Northwestern IT’s Media and Technology Innovation group to schedule the Panopto lecture capture system in the room to make a recording. Please note, at least three days advance notice is required for this service. You can also request an orientation for any lecture capture-enabled room to help familiarize you with the technology and build your confidence in advance of a recording.

Tell Us About It

Are you recording your in person lectures? Do you have any tips for other instructors or questions for us? Email Teaching & Learning Technologies.

Further Reading and Works Cited

Brotherton, J., & Abowd, G. “Lessons learned from eclass: Assessing automated capture and access in the classroom.” ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, vol. 11, no.2, 2004, pp. 121–155, doi:10.1145/1005361.1005362.)

Mather, Carey, et al. “Class Attendance and Use of Echo360 in Australia: A Comparison between Undergraduate Nursing and Maritime Disciplines.” Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 174, 2015,pp. 2839-2845, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.976.

Chapin, Laurie A. “Australian University Students’ Access to Web-Based Lecture Recordings and the Relationship with Lecture Attendance and Academic Performance.” Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 34, no. 5, 2018, https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.2989.

Nkomo, Larian M., et al. “Social Network and Sentiment Analysis: Investigation of Students’ Perspectives on Lecture Recording.” IEEE Access, vol. 8, 2020, pp. 228693-228701, https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3044064.

Nordmann, Emily, et al. “Turn up, Tune in, Don’t Drop Out: The Relationship Between Lecture Attendance, Use of Lecture Recordings, and Achievement at Different Levels of Study.” Higher Education, vol. 77, no. 6, 2018, pp. 1065–84, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-018-0320-8.

Nelson, Leslie Susan et al. “The Impact of Lecture Capture in the Undergraduate Classroom: Nursing Student Voices.” (2019). (Conference presentation.)

Traphagan, T., Kucsera, J.V. & Kishi, K. Impact of class lecture webcasting on attendance and learning. Education Tech Research Dev vol. 58, 2010, pp. 19–37. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-009-9128-7.