Turn up, tune in, don’t drop out: the relationship between lecture attendance, use of lecture recordings, and achievement at different levels of study

Lecture capture tends to polarise the views of academic staff. Some view it as encouraging non-attendance at lectures. Others view it as a valuable adjunct, allowing students to revisit the lecture experience and providing opportunities for clarification and repetition of key points. However, data supporting either of these stances remains scarce. Irrespective of these views, a more pertinent question pertains to the impact of lecture attendance and the use of recordings on student achievement. Findings remain unclear due to methodological issues, inconsistent findings, and a lack of differentiation of students by year of study. This paper investigated the impact of attendance, lecture recording, and student attainment across four years of an undergraduate programme. For first year students, attendance and recording use were positive predictors of performance. For weaker students, supplementary recording use was beneficial but only better students use of the recordings helped overcome the impact of low attendance. For second year students, attendance and recording use were positively correlated with, but no longer predictive of, achievement. There was no relationship for honours year students. We found no compelling evidence for a negative effect of recording use, or that attendance and recording use were related. We suggest focusing on improving lecture attendance through monitoring whilst also providing recordings for supplementary use, particularly in first year. Finally, our findings highlight the need to consider third variables such as year of study and first language when conducting and comparing lecture capture research.