The Use of Pre-recorded Lectures on Student Performance in Physiology

Abstract

There has been an increase in reliance on pre-recorded lectures (PRL) as a source of learning in place of live-lectures(LL) in higher education today but whether PRL can effectively replace LL remains unknown. We tested how studentsperformed in the exam questions when PRL replaced LL. While PRL+ group included those students who watched thevideo lectures, PRL- group was composed of students who either did not utilize these videos or accessed only briefly.Additional analysis involved the separation of exam questions, from both LL and PRL, into memory questions (MQ;basic factual details) and comprehension questions (CQ; requiring processing of the given information) and theircomparisons. We did not find any significant difference in student performance between the LL and PRL groups aswell as between LLMQ and PRL+MQ groups. However, students in the LL group performed significantly better onCQ compared to the PRL+ group (P<0.05). Furthermore, analysis of student performance between MQ and CQ amongthe PRL+ and PRL- groups revealed that both groups performed significantly higher on MQ compared to CQ (p<0.01between PRL+MQ and PRL+CQ and p<0.05 between PRL-MQ and PRL-CQ). These results suggest that LL helpsstudents perform better on CQ, where it requires processing of given information compared to that of PRL. Theeffectiveness of PRL, at least from this study, is limited to mastering basic factual details but not suitable for complexconceptual processing and therefore may not fully be able to replace LL.