Assignment 5: Research on visual and media literacy (Course objectives 1, 4, and 5)
Shenica Bridges Mathieu
Visual and Media Literacy
Summer 2015
7/16/15
Article #1
Title: Lecture Capture: An Effective Tool for Universal Instructional Design?
Author(s_; Susan Watt, Susan Vajoczki, & Geraldine Voros McMaster University
Michelle Vine and Nancy FentonUniversity of Waterloo
Jacob Tarkowski York University
Brief description of the paper (1-2 paragraphs): This paper is mainly a case study of how
students interact with software called echo360 as a learning capture technology for students with
special needs. The reason for this case study is because the authors want to see how to
incorporate the nine principals of instructional design into a course with screen capture
technology, so they chose to use echo360 as their technology of choice to the do the experiment.
In this study, the authors are able to successfully experience the perspectives or opinions of the
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Assignment 5: Research on visual and media literacy (Course objectives 1, 4, and 5)
echo360 end users to know the student perspectives using screen recording software to make
class more accessible.
Summary of the review of literature:
Research has shown that providing access to lectures (i.e., recording audio and video materials
together) outside the classroom benefits most students (Brogan, 2009; Williams, 2006). It is a
form of electronic architecture to be able to effectively design education where the question
about being accessible does not have to be addressed. The review of literature in the paper,
emphasized studies that have concluded that Universally Designed classrooms helped to remove
barriers for students so that everyone regardless of need or disability would have access to
information and learning. The authors reviewed previous studies that used applications called
Lectopia and Photonote that were simililar to the echo360 software that they used in their study
to analyze the feasibility of doing their study, and they concluded that those recording
technologies had the majority of the students showing success with their technologies, so the
authors proceeded with their study of echo360.
Analysis of methodology (what kind of study they conducted? How they collected data?
Who were their participants? Where did they conduct the study?): The authors use a survey
for their methodology by using an evening level II block course called called Canadian Children.
They used a two-staged mixed method approach to research that included both an online Likert
scale survey and face to face interviews. They asked for 175 people to participate, but only 55
people responded to the survey that was sent via email. The research was cleared through
McMaster University Research Ethics board and the authors used the statistical package for the
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social sciences to code and clean the data along with quantitative data analysis software for the
interviews.
Summary of results (What did they encounter?): The results show that 40% of the
respondents actually seek for courses to have echo360 listed in their course line, and that
influences whether or not they take the course. It also shows the majority of the students actually
used the lecture capture software in one way or another in the course. For example, 61% of the
respondents say that the software is good for studying tests, and even 21% used the software
instead of actually physically attending class. Some students assessed the software on a home
computer, on their cell phones, mp3 players, and even on their game consoles. Overall, 79% of
the respondents felt that the software helped them to better understand the material, so these
technologies benefit students with learning disabilities, enabling them more
control over their learning experiences and greater accessibility to lectures online with
respect to both auditory and visual content (Williams & Fardon, 2005).
As far as the quantitative data for the interviews are concerned, a research assistant helped eight
of the respondents give their organic opinions of the software outside of the formatted survey.
The authors took the nine principles of Universal Designed Learning and formulated interview
questions accordingly. For example, statements that were associated with equitable use were
reformatted to make them open ended and sensible for the respondents. As a result 75% of the
students identified equitable use as one of the many benefits for using the software view the
organic interview data, but it was actually 91% when the interview data and survey data were
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Assignment 5: Research on visual and media literacy (Course objectives 1, 4, and 5)
aligned. Last, the most fundamental data to solidify the student data came from a respondent
who said that they would not have been able to complete the course without the screen capture
technology because they had taken ill during the class, and they would not have been able to
catch up without the recordings.
Your opinion about the research (what was done right, what can be improved): In this
author’s opinion, the research was done perfectly. I like how the authors mapped the interview
data to the survey data to align the questions with the Universal Design process. I also like how
they distributed the survey electronically. Understandably, the author’s mention that there is a
better response rate with paper surveys, but doing an electronic survey made more sense for this
study because the students have to evaluate something that is delivered electronically. For that
reason, I don’t see any flaws with the way the study was conducted.
What did you learn from the study?: The main thing that I learned from this survey is that a
major concern to many professors with using lecture capture technology is copyright
infringement. Many professors have to go to great lengths to protect their original work when
using screen recording software. At the same time, the students have to win in this scenario.
Basically, this article justified some things that I had already figured out on my own about five
years ago when I was looking for a way to provide extra support for my special needs students
who suffered short term memory loss. I did a Google search of free screen recording software,
and Screencast-O-matic.com came up. I quickly signed up for an account, and the rest was
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Assignment 5: Research on visual and media literacy (Course objectives 1, 4, and 5)
recorded and broadcast over my smart board and through my classroom management system. I
liked the fact that the students could go back and review the mini lessons that I taught b y just
hitting play like they did with YouTube. To this day, I still use screen recording software with
my students. Like this study, the majority loves it, and found it useful. The other 20% complain,
but that is the way of the world. You can’t please everybody.
Article #2
Title: Lecture Capture: Development and Use of an Adaptive Learning Environment to Research
Online Study Behavior
Author(s): Jonsdottir, A. H., Jakobsdottir, A., & Stefansson, G. (2015).
Brief description of the paper (1-2 paragraphs): The purpose of this paper is to research the
behavior of students taking online drills in a web based tutorial program called tutor web. This
program is used at a University in Iceland, and the researchers want to know how this computer
assisted education benefits students as well as the workers at the university such as the
professors. Currently, tutor web is being used in math, statistics, and fishery science courses, so
the researchers want to know when the students decide to stop using the drills. Therefore, they
conducted a case study to find the answer.
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Assignment 5: Research on visual and media literacy (Course objectives 1, 4, and 5)
Summary of the review of literature: The authors noted Khan Academy, MIT open source
courses, and Connexions as a baseline for inquiry. They used the information from similar
learning management software that is freely available on the web, to help formulate their
hypothesis for their case study. They found that interactive drills like some of those seen in
Khan Academy were the best approach to study instead of static hyperlinked pages of linear
questions because that does not give a good indication of student behavior.
Analysis of methodology (what kind of study they conducted? How they collected data?
Who were their participants? Where did they conduct the study?): The researchers used
quantitative data in this study because they already had access to the student data via the tutor
web program. The data was collected by accessing the program on the back end of the design.
A random sample of 316 students was taken from the reports of the tutor web use, and the study
was conducted in the research lab. The professors had the students answer at least 8 drill
questions per lecture in order to get an adequate flow of data.
Summary of results (What did they encounter?): The results from the research show that the
tutor web can replace written homework because the difference between the students grade is not
much affected by using the tutor web as opposed to doing written homework. Also, it shows that
many students give up, or the students will continuously work on tutor web until they receive a
high grade. The researchers came to the overall conclusion that the behavior of students taking
online drills is affected by the grading scheme. Basically, in the drill format, students can see
their grade immediately with each item, so if they answer a question with a high grade, they are
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Assignment 5: Research on visual and media literacy (Course objectives 1, 4, and 5)
more likely to continue, but if the students answer a question and get a lower grade, they will be
more apt to discontinue the drill. The researchers hypothesized if changing the grading scheme
to adapt students to more or less complicated questions with different weights would prove
different results.
Your opinion about the research (what was done right, what can be improved): In my
opinion, the research was conducted correctly. The research conducted in this study was
something that can be evaluated more often than traditional research because it is obvious that
the researchers have access to the user data of the tutor web program. When you have control of
a system that is freely available to everyone, you can usually analyze data at leisure because the
end user probably signed some electronic contract that they did not read to give up their rights
anyway.
What did you learn from the study?: Overall, I learned that the best way to collect data about
user behavior is to create a free drill based program. It seems to give more insight that
traditional paper and pencil drills. I am definitely going to use a free open source program to
learn how to program computers once I graduate. I would love to make applications like tutor
web.
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Assignment 5: Research on visual and media literacy (Course objectives 1, 4, and 5)
Article #3
Title: Bringing the Classroom to the Web: Effects of Using New Technologies to Capture and
Deliver Lectures
Author(s): Eric L. Dey, Helen E. Burn, David Gerdes
Brief description of the paper (1-2 paragraphs): The purpose of this study is to see how
students respond to a college physics course that is delivered using screen capture technology.
This technology is used to expand options for delivery for the professors and to give the students
a more differentiated way to learn. The researchers want to know the best way of delivering the
course electronically so that the students will learn the content.
Summary of the review of literature: The literature in review for this paper discusses
differently learning theories and the supports the need for understanding visual media as it relates
to delivering educational content. In addition, the authors address the fact that it takes some
professors who may be older longer to adapt to using new technology to deliver learning because
they may be set in their ways. Prior research supports the fact that many professors or students
may have a deeply entrenched set of beliefs about learning that can hinder their use or adaptation
of learning technology. Also, some professors may adapt but they need more guidance as to how
to be effective with implementing a learning environment that involves screen capture. The
main thing that the research says is that cognitive load and multi-media learning theory needs to
be taken into account when designing instruction that uses screen capture technology. Therefore,
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Assignment 5: Research on visual and media literacy (Course objectives 1, 4, and 5)
the design principles need to model Meyers 7 principles of multimedia, special contiguity,
temporal contiguity, coherence, modality, redundancy, and individual differences..
Analysis of methodology (what kind of study they conducted? How they collected data?
Who were their participants? Where did they conduct the study?): The authors invited 280
physics students who were enrolled in the first of a two-course sequence to take part in the study.
However, after a class session and follow up emails, only 195 students ended up participating.
Thus, the researchers put them in 3 different groups – personalized video, neutral video, and
control group. The study was conducted over a time period of nine days. For the personalized
video, the students had to take online surveys after watching the videos. The students who
completed the surveys online received a $25 incentive. The live lecture group did not receive an
incentive. The live group had more first generation students. The instructors helped with the
study by developing open ended questions to quiz the students in order to test their retention of
the topics covered. Some of the limitations cited in the study, were the fact that the live lecturer
deviated a little from what was previously recorded, so that skewed the data to a certain extent.
Also, the researchers added that it was difficult to measure the retention of the live students
because those students mainly took notes.
Summary of results (What did they encounter?): The students who rated the quality of the
videos, perceived a higher quality of the live lecture as opposed to the recorded videos.
However, students across all presentation modes felt the level of concepts was appropriate.
Also, there were no major differences between the two video groups. Finally, most students
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found that the image of the professor in the video to compliment the audio and the slides, so split
attention was not a negative factor in this study. Overall, the majority of the students felt that the
online components complemented the course to enhance it, but they did not fill like it should
substitute as the course itself.
Your opinion about the research (what was done right, what can be improved):
I think this research study was done extremely well. I like how they divided the participants in 3
different groups to show how the empirical research about split learning is not a factor in all
situations, and that learning with technology does work.
What did you learn from the study?:
I have already been using both lecture and screen capture video learning in my classroom, so I
knew what the results of this study would be. I liked the fact that the research emphasized that
the students see video training as more of enhancement than an actual substitute for a course, so
that means that I have job security. I think it is important to keep lectures and use video learning
to help with remediation, comprehension and drill.
Article #4
Title: Using Video Capture Technology to Enhance Student Performance
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Assignment 5: Research on visual and media literacy (Course objectives 1, 4, and 5)
Author(s): David Lewis, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA USA Thomas Sloan,
University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA USA
Brief description of the paper (1-2 paragraphs): This paper examines the use of lecture
caption technology (LCT) in two college business classes. It captures student perceptions of the
benefits of using the technology, and it also tracks student motivation as it relates to using LCT
in extra credit assignments. The results show a favorable, but questionable outcome.
Summary of the review of literature: The authors of this paper do an outstanding job of
review the previous literature on the subject of lecture caption technology (LCT). First, they
reviewed the negative data and found that some professors avoid using LCT because they either
don’t want to learn
Analysis of methodology (what kind of study they conducted? How they collected data?
Who were their participants? Where did they conduct the study?): In the research design,
the authors made sure that they were able to pinpoint how LCT was being used before posing
their hypothesis. It was noted that the students at the University of Massachussetts Lowell tend
to use LCT just after a lecture and just before a quiz. This evidence was found because the
Blackboard software is able to tell what time and date a specific technology was accessed by
whom and when. The next way data was collected to track student motivation was a result of the
professors developing short quizzes that could only be answered correctly if the students
watched the video. They were extra credit quizzes built with the purpose of collecting data. The
researchers made sure that they consistently promoted that the best way to access data for
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excelling in the courses was via Echo360. By doing this, they could get more people to use the
LCT and get better data to evaluate the impact of the technology. Thus, the hypothesis questions
centered on whether or not a student would use LCT for extra credit or if it was extremely
accessible. The author’s also wanted to know if the LCT enhanced learning in any way. The
students who participated in the study knew that data was being collected for the purposes of the
research. Therefore, they had to accept the data in order to be in compliance with the IRB
process. The extra credit was given as a non-monetary payment for completed quizzes. The
students were asked to complete 5 short quizzes after watching corresponding lecture videos.
About 70% of the students in the classes agreed to participate in the study and only 40% were
able to complete at least 4 quizzes while only 20% completed 5 quizzes due to fatigue and
possible cognitive overload coupled with the fact that the quizzes were offered the day before the
Thanksgiving holiday.
Summary of results (What did they encounter?): The author’s found that many students
dropped out of the study because the incentive to complete the quizzes was just too small since
the total points would only increase a student’s grades by 3%. Therefore only 27% of the 95
students even took the time to complete 2 out of 5 of the quizzes. This lead to a smaller sample
than anticipated by the authors. By looking at the data relating to how many times the quizzes
were viewed, the results showed more enthusiasm when the quizzes using the LCT were
announced during the first and second round than views at the end. In fact, the views at the end
went all the way down to one. Therefore, it is concluded that the use of the technology needs
more incentives or the students just don’t have time to view it. The authors also hypothesized
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that maybe the instructor may be ineffective in person therefore the students did not want to
review someone who is ineffective again. Another hypothesis is that the videos were too long
and probably needed to be broken down into smaller segments or only used to explain
complicated material. Last, there were not any significant gains in performance on the quizzes
when the students watched the quizzes as opposed to when they did not watch the quizzes in
order for the students to waste their time watching the quiz. All in all, the authors of the study
concluded that in the future the students needed more reminders to take the LCT quizzes. The
instructors needed to make sure that they reviewed the answers to the quiz questions before their
lecture so that students could readily answer the questions in the quiz. The quiz needs to be
lengthened from 3 questions to 5 questions. The first quiz should be the easiest, and there should
be a short survey at the end of study to get the perspectives of the students as to how they
enjoyed using the technology.
Your opinion about the research (what was done right, what can be improved): I feel like
the research was not done correctly in the beginning because many students are not going to be
motivated to do something if they are not going get the benefit of at least a ten point jump in
their final grade as a result. I know that from using incentives in the past. I think that if the
students are participating in research they definitely need at least a 10% grade adjustment
incentive in lieu of money because many students may find watching lectures online and doing
mini quizzes a bore.
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Assignment 5: Research on visual and media literacy (Course objectives 1, 4, and 5)
What did you learn from the study? As I was reading the study, I learned that I need to make
sure that the videos that I share with my students are broken down into tiny segments and are less
than 5 minutes long. As a thirty-eight year old woman, it is not difficult for me to listen to a
lecture video or audio book for an hour or more, but those with brains younger than 25 may find
it harder to focus because they are not as control of their emotions due to their prefrontal cortex
not being fully developed. Therefore, as an instructor, I have to make things quick, plain and
simple.
Article #5
Title: Lecture Capture in Engineering Classes: Bridging Gaps and Enhancing Learning
Author(s): Hasan Al Nashash and Cindy Gunn
Brief description of the paper (1-2 paragraphs): The purpose of this paper is to explore the
opinions of engineering students using screen capture technology. The authors want to know
what the perceived benefits and drawbacks of using the technology are.
Summary of the review of literature: In the review of the literature, the authors note that some
people may be concerned about allowing screen capture technology because it may affect
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Assignment 5: Research on visual and media literacy (Course objectives 1, 4, and 5)
attendance. Others may have a concern with copyright infringement, but it is shown through the
research that attendance in class does not suffer and there is not enough data to support the
argument of copyright infringement being that it is a more complicated issue to track. The
authors of this paper are able to break the prior research down and group students into four
categories – those who attempt to use the technology and end of not using it, those who use the
technology at least once per week, those who defer watching everything at the end of the
semester, and those who watch all videos right before a midterm or final exam.
Analysis of methodology (what kind of study they conducted? How they collected data?
Who were their participants? Where did they conduct the study?): The research was
conducted at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) in The United Arab Emirates. This
college has 5,500 students and 40% of them are in the Engineering program. The main
engineering students who participated were the ones enrolled in the electronics courses for
electrical computer engineering. Overall, there were 40 students involved in this study – 27 male
and 13 female. Each lecture was captured using e-beam technology and broadcast via
Blackboard. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected to answer three research question
via survey, a group interview and data analysis of Blackboard statistics, and a focus group.
Summary of results (What did they encounter?): The results show that 73% of the students
strongly agree that they had a significant advantage in mastering the course content by watching
the course videos. The students in the focus group emphasized that using the technology
eliminated redundancy and the need to ask the professor minute questions that were answered in
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Assignment 5: Research on visual and media literacy (Course objectives 1, 4, and 5)
the recorded lecture. Also, it helped people with short attention spans be able to go back and relisten or review things that may have been missed in class. The participants also disagreed that
they were tempted to miss class due to the recordings. They did however relay the benefit of
using the technology if missing class was unavoidable due to appointments or unforeseen
circumstances. 100% of the students strongly agreed that this technology should be used in all of
their other courses as well.
Your opinion about the research (what was done right, what can be improved):
In my opinion, I think the research was done right. I have done similar mixed method research
with my students in the past informally, and I have found that the students eventually end up
seeing the value of using screen capture technology in the fast paced higher school environment
that I currently teach in. Therefore, I don’t see any reason to negate this study in any way
because I don’t see flaws.
What did you learn from the study?
From this study I learned that students who are enrolled in college engineering programs in other
countries may see more value in screen capture technology than students in America. It was not
said in the study, but I inferred it when I read that almost have of the students in the school were
engineering majors. That is almost unheard of in the states because there are more liberal arts
majors who are native to our country. Additionally, I learned that what I am already doing in my
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Assignment 5: Research on visual and media literacy (Course objectives 1, 4, and 5)
classroom with my blended learning environment that incorporates screen cast technology is a
good thing.
References:
Dey, E., Burn, H., & Gerdes, D. (2009). Bringing the Classroom to the Web: Effects of Using
New Technologies to Capture and Deliver Lectures. Research in Higher Education, 50(4), 377393
Jonsdottir, Anna Helga, Audbjorg, Jakobsdottier, and Gunnar Stefanson. 2015. “Development of
Use of an Adaptive Learning Environment to Research Online Study Behavior.” Journal of
Educational Technology & Society 18, no. 1: 132-144. (accessed July 16, 2015)
Nashash, H, h., & Gunn, C., c. (2013) . Lecture Capture in Engineering Classes: Bridging Gaps
and Enhancing Learning. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 16(1), 69-78
O’Connor, E.M. (2014). Scaffolding Complex Learning: Integrating 21st Century Thinking,
Emerging Technologies, and Dynamic Design and and Assessment to Expand Learning and
Communication Opportunities.” Journal of Educational Technology Systems 43(2), 199-226.
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Watt, S., Vajoczki, S. Voros, G., Vine, M., Fenton, N., & Tarkowski, J (2014). Lecture Capture:
An Effective Tool for Universal Instructional Design?. Canadian Journal of Higher Education.
44(2). 1-29
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