Recorded Lectures as a Source of Cognitive Off-loading

Ascertaining and promoting effective study skills and learning habits of first-year pharmacy students

INTRODUCTION

Many pharmacy students struggle academically in their initial professional year. This research ascertained first-year pharmacy (P1) students' study skills and learning habits both before and after employing interventions about effective study strategies.

METHODS

In 2018-2019 and 2019-2020, P1 students completed a study skills inventory at baseline in August and at endpoint in April. Interventions included instruction about the science of learning and effective study techniques as well as the use of a cognitive wrapper regarding their first assessment.

RESULTS

Students' perceived habits that improved were those of organizing their ideas, studying at their peak time, and really wanting to learn the content. Perceived habits that declined included time spent doing their assigned readings, seeing the need to always attend class, and reviewing course material each day. Regarding the cognitive wrapper, 90% of students thought they were prepared for their assessment, yet 21% received a lower grade than expected and 10% did not work on practice problems at least 2 days before the quiz.

CONCLUSIONS

This endeavor elucidated several important areas about the study skills and learning habits of P1 students. Some students' perceptions of their study skills and learning habits strengthened and others decreased during their first year. The cognitive wrapper provided a targeted way for students to reflect on their preparation and performance as well as consider their future study plans. Faculty can use this information to help students employ effective learning practices to promote students' metacognition throughout the first year of their program.

Lecture capture in pharmacy education at UBC: Updating our understanding

INTRODUCTION

Lecture capture is a contemporary learning technology used to improve the quality of professional programs such as pharmacy. Building on our 2014 study, the objective of this study was to reexamine the value of lecture capture for student and faculty users and make decisions about its continuance and optimization.

METHODS

Survey methodology was used to gather student and faculty perspectives on the lecture recordings. Collected data focused on usage, learning impacts, and attendance. Lecture capture software provided analytics on student viewing patterns. The constant comparative method was used to analyze student and faculty comments for underlying themes and data discrepancies.

RESULTS

Following an evolutionary development path, lecture capture has become a mainstream learning resource for students and faculty. Student usage has increased dramatically and strategically. In addition to enhancing in-class experiences, study effectiveness, and overall learning, students continue to claim minimal impacts on attendance. Faculty perspectives remain modest. While faculty recognize the learning benefits for students and are prepared to continue using lecture recordings, issues related to absenteeism are increasingly troublesome. Faculty are also using lecture recordings for faculty development purposes.

CONCLUSIONS

Faculty have renewed their commitment to the lecture capture program going forward. Importantly, the study has helped refocus the evolution of the program away from binary questions such as whether or not to use lecture recordings and the impacts of lecture capture on attendance and towards specific guidance for students and faculty on the best use of the resource and deeper questions about student learning.

Exploring the Consequences on Memory of Students Who Know They Have Access to Recorded Lectures

Objective. To elucidate how students' knowledge of future access to recorded lectures impacts their ability to immediately recall, to delay recall, and to restudy information. Methods. Seventy-eight participants were randomly divided into two groups: knowledge of future access to recorded lectures after class and knowledge of no future access to recorded lectures after class. Participants viewed two mini lectures (10-12 minutes each) in a simulated classroom. Participants were told whether they would or would not be able to restudy lectures through future access to the recorded lectures just prior to their test one week later. Participants were tested immediately following the lectures and after a one-week delay. Prior to the delayed test, participants restudied one of the two lectures. The primary outcome was the participants' performance on the lecture material following immediate testing. Secondary outcomes included performance on delayed tests, performance after restudying the lectures and note-taking behavior. Results. Having access to a recorded lecture did not influence immediate recall. One week after the simulated class, reviewing videos did improve performance (d∼.70). Participants with knowledge of no future access forgot less information (d=.42) over time compared to the group that knew they had future access (d=.53); even though this latter group wrote longer notes. Conclusion. These findings suggest that there is no mnemonic-benefit to having knowledge of access to recorded classes. Reviewing recorded lectures did improve scores on an immediate test. However, participants with knowledge they had access to the recorded lectures to restudy them had larger effect sizes for loss of material.