Does Replacing Face-to-face Lectures with Pre-recorded
Video Lectures Affect Learning Outcomes?
Nestori Syynimaa
Faculty of Information Technology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
Gerenios Ltd, Tampere, Finland
Keywords: Video Lectures, Learning Outcomes, Student Satisfaction.
Abstract: Videoing lectures have been popular during the past decade. The literature on the effect of video lectures is
controversial. Some studies indicate that video lectures have a positive effect on learning outcomes and
student satisfaction, while some state that there is no effect at all. In this paper, we share the results of a
university undergraduate course, where half of the lectures were replaced by pre-recorded lectures. The results
indicate that using pre-recorded lectures had a statistically significant positive effect on grades. Also, the
students’ satisfaction levels were higher.
1 INTRODUCTION
Videoing lectures in the universities has gained
popularity during the past decade. Some earlier
studies indicate that videoed lectures may improve
students’ grades and course satisfaction, but some
indicate that there is no significant difference
(Bennett and Maniar, 2007). As such, the literature is
controversial. Value to students also depends on how
the videos are used (Williams et al., 2012); If videos
are complementary, they are valuable, if they are used
to substitute the lectures, they are not.
It seems to be unquestionable that students do like
video lectures (Secker et al., 2010; Settle et al., 2011).
One reason for this is that students may revisit the
videos as many time as needed (Bennett and Maniar,
2007). Teachers, however, do not like videos (Secker
et al., 2010). There are two main reasons for this: (i)
perception that videoed lectures reduce attendance,
and (ii) not all lecture styles are suitable for videos
(ibid.).
In this paper, experiences and insights from an
undergraduate course, where half of the lectures were
replaced with pre-recorded video lectures, are shared.
2 COURSE ARRANGEMENTS
The University of Jyväskylä in Finland has one of the
biggest faculty of Information Systems (IS) in
Europe. There are programs for both undergraduates
and graduates. There are some mandatory courses for
all undergraduate students. These courses have
typically around 200 students and therefore called a
mass-courses. One of these courses is Information
Management Basics, TJTA114.
The course consists of nine lectures, each focusing
to a certain theme. To pass the course, students need
to pass an exam and do an assignment in groups of
five. The grading scale is from 0 (failed) to 5
(excellent).
In 2017, when the course was first to run, all the
lectures were recorded and made available to
students. Basically, this allowed students to attend the
course without a need to sit personally in lectures.
The recording had both slides and the live footage of
the lecture (see Figure 2). The length of each lecture
was from 70 to 90 minutes.
In 2018, the first four lectures were pre-recorded
in front of a green-screen. This allowed the use of a
“talking head” (see Figure 1). The lecturer could also
edit the recording, which allowed the lecturer to
repeat if something was said wrong. The rest of the
lectures was recorded the same way than in 2017. The
study material and lectures were identical on both
courses, including the lecture lenghts. Also, the group
assignment was the same.
454
Syynimaa, N.
Does Replacing Face-to-face Lectures with Pre-recorded Video Lectures Affect Learning Outcomes?.
DOI: 10.5220/0007744804540457
In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2019), pages 454-457
ISBN: 978-989-758-367-4
Copyright
c
2019 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
Figure 1: Pre-recorded Lecture.
3 RESEARCH METHOD
Two data sources were used in this paper: the course
grades and a course feedback questionnaire data. The
questionnaire had questions related to teaching and
working methods and learning results. The questions
were presented as claims, such as “Now I understand
better the subjects of the course”. The used scale was
a Likert scale from 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally
agree). Throughout the course, students were
encouraged to give feedback, especially for pre-
recorded lectures.
4 RESULTS
In 2017 there were 240 students attending the course,
and in 2018 197 students (see Table 1). Roughly 12
per cent of students replied to the feedback
questionnaire in both years. The drop-out rate was a
bit higher in 2018 (22 per cent) than 2017 (18 per
cent). The average for similar courses is 20 per cent.
Table 1: Course statistics.
2017
2018
Enrolled
240
197
Drop-out rate
0.175
0.223
Questionnaire reply rate
0.121
0.118
The live-lecture attendance was not recorded, but
according to the lecturer, the number of students was
remarkable lower during 2018 (~20) than in 2017
(~40). During both years, attendance also dropped
after the first live lecture.
4.1 Grades
The statistics of the grades are presented in Table 2.
As can be seen, 198 students completed the course in
2017, and 153 in 2018.
Table 2: Grade statistics.
Statistics
2017
2018
Observations
198
153
Mean
3.899
4.222
Std. Deviation
0.893
0.794
Variance
0.802
0.635
T-Test results for the grades are presented in
Table 3. As the t-Test results indicate, there was a
small but significant difference in the grades for 2017
(M=3.899, SD=0.8993) and 2018 (M=4.222,
SD=0.794); t(342)=3.570, p=0.000. Grades in 2018
were 0.3 higher than in 2017.
Figure 2: Recorded Lecture.
Does Replacing Face-to-face Lectures with Pre-recorded Video Lectures Affect Learning Outcomes?
455
Table 3: Grades t-Test results.
df
342
t Stat
3.570
Sig. (2-tailed)
0.000
t Critical (2-tailed)
1.967
Mean difference
0.323
The grades indicate that replacing half of the live
lectures with pre-recorded lectures increased the
learning outcomes.
4.2 Course Feedback
Only summative statistics data, i.e. mean and
standard deviation, was available for course
feedback. Therefore, it was not possible to use t-Test.
Means and standard deviations for the teaching and
working methods are presented in Table 4 and Table
5, respectively. As can be seen, the feedback average
in 2018 is slightly (0.023) higher than feedback in
2017. Also, the standard deviation was slightly lower
in 2018 (1.000) than in 2017 (1.043).
Table 4: Teaching and working methods 2017 (n=24).
Question
Mean
1. The course had clear learning
outcomes
4.000
2. Teaching helped me to combine
the studied subjects and my
previous knowledge and experience
3.880
3. The course included studying or
concretising information in
practical applications
3.920
4. Teaching inspired in-depth
reflection on study subjects
3.670
5. The course had an open,
stimulating atmosphere for
discussion and questioning
3.920
6. The course supported my
learning well
3.960
Average
3.892
Means and standard deviations for the learning
results are presented in Table 6 and Table 7. The
feedback average in 2018 is slightly (0.332) higher
than in 2017. The standard deviation was practically
the same in both years.
The course feedback indicates that using pre-
recorded lectures has a positive effect on both
perceived teaching and working methods and
perceived learning results. The most interesting is the
question number 9 from the learning results: “I
achieved the learning objectives of the course”. In
2017, the mean was 3.870 with a standard deviation
of 0.947. In 2018, the mean was 4.235 with a
deviation of 0.730. Thus, the increase was 0.365 with
lower standard deviation.
Table 5: Teaching and working methods 2018 (n=18).
Question
Mean
Std.
dev
1. The course had clear learning
outcomes
4.170
0.833
2. Teaching helped me to combine
the studied subjects and my
previous knowledge and experience
3.830
1.014
3. The course included studying or
concretising information in
practical applications
4.060
0.911
4. Teaching inspired in-depth
reflection on study subjects
3.780
1.083
5. The course had an open,
stimulating atmosphere for
discussion and questioning
3.760
1.165
6. The course supported my
learning well
3.890
0.994
Average
3.915
1.000
Table 6: Learning results 2017 (n=21).
Question
Mean
Std.
dev
1. Now I understand better the
subjects of the course
4.174
0.962
2. I can apply in practice the things
I have learned in the course
3.391
0.920
3. I can develop new ideas on the
basis of what I learned on the
course
3.417
0.909
4. I was able to create a good
overall picture of the course
contents
3.708
1.098
5. My thinking develop during the
course
3.522
1.175
6. My ability to study things
critically evolved
3.304
0.997
7. My problem-solving skills
developed
3.045
0.878
8. My interpersonal skills
developed
2.952
0.898
9. I achieved the learning objectives
of the course
3.870
0.947
Average
3.487
0.976
CSEDU 2019 - 11th International Conference on Computer Supported Education
456
Table 7: Learning results 2018 (n=15).
Question
Mean
1. Now I understand better the
subjects of the course
4.188
2. I can apply in practice the things
I have learned in the course
3.625
3. I can develop new ideas on the
basis of what I learned on the
course
3.769
4. I was able to create a good
overall picture of the course
contents
4.000
5. My thinking develop during the
course
3.733
6. My ability to study things
critically evolved
3.462
7. My problem-solving skills
developed
3.571
8. My interpersonal skills
developed
3.786
9. I achieved the learning objectives
of the course
4.235
Average
3.819
5 CONCLUSION
The current literature was controversial whether
videoed lectures had an effect on learning outcomes
and student satisfaction. We used two instances of the
same TJTA114 course to see whether replacing half
of the lectures with pre-recorded has any effect. As
the results clearly indicate, using pre-recorded
lectures had a small, but significant, effect on grades.
Also, student satisfaction was slightly higher.
5.1 Limitations
Data for this research was collected from two sources:
grades and course feedback. For course feedback, we
only had access to summative data. Thus, a t-Test
could not be used to see how significant the difference
between the two courses was. Also, the number of
responses was too low to draw strong statistical
conclusions.
In 2018, only half of the courses were pre-
recorded. Thus, we cannot claim that pre-recorded
lectures are categorically better than recorded live
lectures.
5.2 Contributions to Practice
The results revealed that using pre-recorded lectures
does not have any negative effect on grades and
students’ feedback. This encourages teachers to use
pre-recorded lectures as one teaching tool among
others.
5.3 Contributions to Science
The study confirms findings of previous studies
which found that videoed lectures have a positive
effect on learning outcomes. The study also shows
that using video lectures to substitute live lectures has
value to students. Thus, the results contradict findings
of Williams et al. (2012).
5.4 Directions for Future Research
The study pointed out some directions for future
research. First, the statistical evidence of the feedback
data could be strengthened by gaining access to the
original questionnaire data. Second, to provide more
support for our findings, the whole course should be
carried out using pre-recorded lectures only.
REFERENCES
Bennett, E., & Maniar, N. (2007). Are videoed lectures an
effective teaching tool? Retrieved from
http://podcastingforpp.pbworks.com/f/Bennett%20ply
mouth.pdf
Secker, J., Bond, S., & Grussendorf, S. (2010). Lecture
capture: rich and strange, or a dark art? Paper
presented at the ALT-C 2010, University of
Nottingham, UK. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/29184
Settle, A., Dettori, L., & Davidson, M. J. (2011). Does
lecture capture make a difference for students in
traditional classrooms. Proceedings of the 16th annual
joint conference on Innovation and technology in
computer science education, 78-82.
doi:10.1145/1999747.1999772
Williams, A., Birch, E., & Hancock, P. (2012). The impact
of online lecture recordings on student performance.
Australasian Journal of Educational Technology,
28(2), 199-213.
Does Replacing Face-to-face Lectures with Pre-recorded Video Lectures Affect Learning Outcomes?
457