Do prerecorded lecture VODcasts affect lecture attendance of first-yearpre-clinical Graduate Entry to Medicine students?

Abstract

Background: There is increasing concern amongst educators that the provision of recorded lectures may reduce student attendance of live lectures. We therefore sought to determine if the provision of prerecorded lecture video podcasts (VODcasts) to first-year Graduate Entry to Medicine (GEM) students, affected attendance at 21 Physiology lectures within three separate pre-clinical modules.

Methods: Data on lecture attendance, utilization of VODcasts, and whether VODcasts should replace live lectures were drawn from three surveys conducted in academic years 2014–2015 and 2015–2016 on all first-year GEM students in two first-year pre-clinical modules where prerecorded Physiology VODcasts were available for viewing or downloading prior to scheduled live lectures.

Results: A total of 191/214 (89%) students responded to the three surveys, with 84.3% of students attending all 21 lectures in the study. Only 4% of students missed more than one lecture in each of the three lecture series, with 79% indicating that VODcasts should not replace lectures.

Conclusion: Therefore, we conclude that the attendance of pre-clinical GEM students at live lectures is not significantly impacted upon by the provision of lecture VODcasts, with most students viewing them as useful revision tools rather than as a replacement for live lectures.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Glossary

The VODcast (short for Video-On-Demand podcast) is essentially an “enhanced” audio podcast but with the addition of video. Vodcasts are usually created using some form of lecture capture software (e.g. Panopto) in conjunction with presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, allowing the capture of both narration and relevant cursor moves. Vodcasts, either viewed directly on a computer or downloaded for playback on a portable media player, are fully controllable such that the user can paus, fast forwarded and backwards students viewing Furthermore, the user can pause, move forward and backward through the content or skip to specific slides as and when desired.

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Notes on contributors

Mark G. Rae is a lecturer and principal investigator in the Department of Physiology at UCC and holds a Ph.D. in Physiology and Masters degree in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. He is one of the primary contributors to the pre-clinical Graduate Entry to Medicine degree program at UCC.

Dervla O’Malley is a lecturer and principal investigator in the Department of Physiology at UCC and holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and diploma in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. She is a contributor to the teaching of Physiology on the direct entry undergraduate medical degree program at UCC.