Lecture Capture and Attendance: Are students really less likely to attend class?

Cherish Weiler

As technology becomes more and more integrated in higher education, a new technology known as ‘lecture capture’ has emerged with its fair share of fans and critics. Lecture capture is a system that allows professors to record their lectures and post them online and has recently been the issue of some controversy as the software becomes more developed and studies analyzing its efficacy become available. While skeptics argue that the use of such technology would lead to decreased attendance in class, panelists at the 2009 Educause Conference cited research suggesting there is no correlation between a professor’s decision to post lectures online and a student’s likelihood to attend class.

According to Jennifer Stinger, director of educational technology at Stanford University School of medicine, students base their decision to attend lectures on the quality of the lecture and the professor’s engagement during lectures. In a study conducted in 2008, 78 percent of undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin at Madison reported that having lectures available online would help them better retain class material and 76 percent believed online lectures would help improve their test scores. While students appear to support lecture capture, professors are less receptive to incorporating such technology in their classrooms. At Purdue University, David Eisert, manager of emerging technologies, reported that faculty members would not be willing to initiate lecture capture at the start of class were it available. Regardless, Purdue University plans on implementing the software in over 280 classrooms and working towards a compromise that would entail minimal cooperation from reluctant professors.

While professors may be wary about incorporating lecture capture in their classroom, it is to the benefit of their students that they do so. With research denying the claim that lecture capture promotes absenteeism, what harm is there in using such technology, especially when student opinion suggest lecture capture has the potential to help many students and their grades? If schools are willing to purchase lecture capture technology, there is no reason why faculty cannot participate. Lecture capture technology is already popular among students and will only increase in popularity as universities begin implementing its use in the classroom.