Return to Examples of technology-enhanced learning at AU

AU Case Studies - MP3 recordings of lectures

Description

Tools/Equipment MP3 recorder
Number of cohorts/years been used for 1 year
Whether e-learning is used in assessment No
Any feedback from students? not directly – the files would have been used during revision after the completion of the course. However, some students record lectures themselves. They tell me that they find recordings useful for portions of the lecture where their understanding is weak.

Summary

Advantages of using e-learning

It didn’t really cost any time and may have been useful to the students, so seems worth doing anyway.

What improves student results?

Exam results were better, but no evidence that the MP3 recordings helped.

What do you think worked well?

I gave a short lecture course with a number of graphs and diagrams that needed detailed explanations. I think that the opportunity to follow the explanations at a later date would be useful.

Disadvantages

I found that it interfered with lecturing style – I was always aware that any time spent in discussion with students in a lecture could result in ‘dead’ portions of the recording.

Would you have done anything differently?

No.

Future plans

I would use the method again. I would imagine that lectures that do not rely on visual aids would be more suitable for casual listening, but if students are willing to listen to recordings in conjunction with handouts the method should be beneficial.

Advice to staff planning to use the same tool/equipment:

Easy to use in comparison to a video recorder!