Exploring dissonance in the use of (lecture) capture technologies: Institutional approaches and the realities of student engagement

Abstract

The published literature on (lecture) capture technologies is often conflicting and sometimes controversial. A common thread among many studies is the impact of recorded lectures on student satisfaction, attendance and performance. Whether your personal opinion is in favour, against or indifferent to this practice, you will undoubtedly be able to find a publication which supports your point of view. However, many of these studies fail to take into account the many and varied ways in which capture technologies are being used by educators in Higher Education to support teaching and learning, beyond the recorded lecture.

This presentation builds on findings of a pilot study at the University of Wolverhampton (Witton, 2016) which recommended a shift in focus away from traditional lecture capture, advocating for more purposeful use of capture technologies to support learning in discipline-specific contexts. It will include a brief overview of the findings to date of a quantitative analysis of capture technology analytics data. This goes beyond the volume of student viewing, taking into consideration the wider context in which capture technologies are used to create different types of content. It will also explore recording:viewing ratios as a measure of student engagement and share the outcomes of an investigation, identifying factors which may contribute to higher levels of student engagement with recorded content. Interim findings suggest that students are more likely to engage with shorter pieces of content, and with content that is directly linked to other learning tasks such as skills development and assessment.