The Effective Delivery of a Streaming Video Course Lecture

Abstract

This study compares the effects of a faculty-read non-interactive streaming video lecture to the same lecture read by paid actors on student performance and perceptions. The scope of the study is limited to one learning objective of the first accounting course. No significant differences were found in student performance (n = 46), as measured by quiz grades, or student perceptions, as measured by a survey instrument, between the lectures read by faculty members and the lectures read by actors. These findings have implications for authors of online course content because the results suggest that the effectiveness of a non-interactive video presentation might not be dependent on the presenter. Faculty time might best be spent developing content with paid student actors going on-camera for recording the actual presentation.

Keywords:

• Streaming video lecture
• online course

Notes

1. Ordinarily, streaming video content is delivered asynchronously via the internet and a web browser. Another way to deliver this type of content is to make multiple copies on CD which were passed out in a lab with identical computers, CD-drives, etc. The subjects then simply placed the CD in the tray and the presentation was set up to start automatically.

2. Note that WebCT converts a, b, c, … choices into 1, 2, 3, … responses such that a = 1, b = 2, c = 3, etc.

3. The authors appreciate that the multiple pair-wise comparisons performed in this study have the potential to inflate alpha and, thereby, increase the likelihood of a Type II error. Given the exploratory nature of this study, however, determining the existence of any possible significant effect (i.e. reducing the likelihood of a Type I error) that could be examined in more depth in future research is considered more important than alpha inflation. Of course, given the lack of significance even at the 0.10 level for all but two of the pair-wise comparisons the issue is essentially moot anyway.