Kyle Anderson
Department of Biochemistry
University of Saskatchewan kyle.anderson@usask.ca
or @drkyle

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Lecture attendance is correlated to student performance
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Accessibility of course materials outside of lectures is viewed as a hindrance to attendance
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As technology leads us into more hybrid-format courses, lectures may become unnecessary for student learning
If the lecture experience is faithfully recreated online, will students still come to lecture?
Should instructors withhold information to ensure students attend and have better learning outcomes?

Positive Factors Negative Factors
Active Participation/Engaging Class Passive Lecturing
Small, intimate classes Large classes & classrooms
Provide current information or applications for course material
Lectures perceived as not valuable
(provide information available elsewhere)
Lecturer clarifies course material Low quality lectures
(unclear, inaudible, pitched to a level too high/low, etc.)
Conflicts from other courses
(assignments due, midterms)
Inconvenient lecture time (early morning, late afternoon, evenings)
Illness

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Several studies over recent decades have shown a moderate positive effect of attendance on student performance
– even studies which control for previous student performance
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Also reported are attendance rates of 60-80% for large classes (100+ students)
Should lecture-based classes enforce attendance, or otherwise reduce efforts that encourage absenteeism?

Moore et al. Showing up: the importance of class attendance for academic success in introductory science courses. 2003

http://www.neatoshop.com/product/Something-Somewhere-Went-Terribly-Wrong
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Oral lectures
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Typed/Handwritten notes on reserve
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Overhead transparencies on reserve
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Summary notes available online
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PowerPoint notes available online
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Audio podcasting
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Video podcasting

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About this course:
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A course on basic laboratory techniques with 3 hours lecture (theory) and 3 hours lab (practice) every week
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A large lecture class, with 110-180 students per term
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Offered at 8:30-9:50, Tuesday/Thursday
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First offered in Fall 2009, offered every Fall and
Winter term
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No textbook

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Lecture notes are posted at least a day in advance
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Annotated lecture notes (with digital inking) are posted a few hours after the lecture is completed
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An external microphone records audio and software records all projected video
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Files are synchronized and rendered into a highresolution video hours after lecture
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Lecture attendance is recorded through clicker usage, but students may opt-out of the 5% of their grade and transfer it to the final exam
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Student suggested after Y1T1

Student Grade vs Student Attendance in BMSC 240 F'10-W'13
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 10 y = 0.2742x + 53.687
R² = 0.327
20 30 40 50
Attendance
60
551 students
Average grade = 74.6%
Average attendance = 76.4%
70 80 90 100

Grade Distribution of Non-attenders
20%
18%
16%
14%
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Grade
55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100

Class Distributions (Attenders vs Non)
0.2
0.18
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
Attending
Non-attending
0.02
0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100
P=0.026
Number
Average Grade
Proportion <50%
Proportion >90%
Attending Classes Opting-out of
Attendance
551 127
74.6%
1.8%
5.1%
71.9%
7.9%
0%

Videos
Annotated pdf’s
Pre-lecture pdf’s

25
20
15
10
5
0
0
Winter 2013
20 40 60
# of views
80 100 120
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For students attending class:
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Mean number of lecture videos viewed = 14.6
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Median = 9
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For students who opted-out of attendance
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Mean = 23.9
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Median = 21
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Actual lectures = 23

80
60
40
20
120
100
R² = 0.0027
0
0 10 20 30 40 60 70 80 90 100 50
Grade
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Unlike attendance, viewing lectures online has no significant effect on final grade

“podcasts were nice to have available to help with studying”
“Excellent use of podcasts for lectures (very helpful!)”
“Really appreciated his use of podcasts and examples.”
“The Podcasts were awesome!”
“Video podcasts were invaluable.”
“Podcasts were greatly appreciated, mostly because, often important details were left out on the slides. So much material was discussed orally that it was impossible to write it all down during class. Without the podcasts, studying would have been very difficult.”

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There remains a correlation between attendance and performance, even when missed lectures may be watched online
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Overall, students report the hybrid-course material to be useful as a study-aid and to enable reviewing of materials
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Attendance with hybrid materials remains acceptably high (~75%) and within expected levels compared to traditional lecture courses

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Online materials can supplement, but not fully substitute for, in-person lecturing
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Students relying on online materials come from all grade levels
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Give students whatever tools/resources you can – some underachieving students may abuse them, but the overall effect will be better learning outcomes for your class

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I want to investigate attendance and video usage coupled with student surveys to try to make more meaningful connections
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Are there groups of students more or less likely to succeed when opting out of attendance?
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Is previous experience with an online course a predictor of success?
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What sections of videos are viewed most often, and how can this be used to improve the course in the future?
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Collaborations/Suggestions?
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IT backend analytics people?
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Research methods people?