The Western Conference on Science Education

Use of Lecture Capture in Undergraduate Science Education

PAB 148

The continuous nature of the delivery of lecture content, particularly in content-heavy undergraduate science courses, makes it difficult for students to attend to all points of discussion when concurrently taking notes, and it is impossible for students to have full access to lecture content if they are absent from class. Lecture capture provides a way to circumvent these issues, providing students access to lecture content on a personal computing device at flexible times. Given this, it seems plausible that students would benefit from having access to lecture videos, either to supplement or to replace attendance, and that such access might also facilitate learning and improve course performance. However, research regarding the academic and attendance impact of lecture capture is equivocal. Moreover, the nature of catch-up behavior – which is defined as accessing a lecture video that corresponds to a missed class - following an absence has not been well characterized. In this presentation, I will provide data regarding the impact of lecture capture on academic performance and self-reported attendance in a large undergraduate science course, and will demonstrate the catch-up behavior of students in a smaller undergraduate science course in which physical attendance was measured. Outcomes were analyzed in relation to variables including student learning approach (as measured by the R-SPQ-2F) and gender. Additionally, I will present some practical tips and tools for using lecture capture, such as issues of copyright consideration. The goal of this presentation is to help clarify how lecture capture can be used in the context of undergraduate science education, and to show how lecture capture may be used in diverse ways by different students.