Abstract:

Despite a long tradition, lectures still play a significant role in teaching and learning, especially with large groups. With the proliferation of diverse educational technologies, more student-centered active learning approaches can be used at lectures. However, the use of digital devices at lectures may lead to multitasking and impede the learning process. Nowadays a fair amount of universities offers students video-recordings in addition to live lectures, which makes the learning process and learners more flexible.

In this paper, we describe the organization of lectures at the first-year university introductory programming course. During the lectures, clickers (the student response systems) were used as an active-learning component to increase classroom engagement and motivation. However, all other electronic devices (especially laptops) were prohibited to use. All live lectures were recorded. As a matter of choice, students could study the material on their own outside the classroom watching the recordings and answering some questions about the lecture. Students could use recordings as a supplementary material after attending the live lectures as well.

In this study, we conducted a survey on students’ preferences as to the lecture formats and possible reasons. A mixed-method approach was used; both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 227 students at the end of the course. A significant number of the respondents chose to attend the live lectures rather than watching the recordings or doing both. The perceived advantages of the live lectures include the clickers, the lecturer, and the forced attention to the material due to the prohibition of electronic devices. The recordings were preferable due to the flexibility in the schedule and pace. Further, the relationship between the preferred lecture format and the academic achievement was analyzed. It was not found any statistical difference in students’ marks from different groups.

Keywords:

Undergraduate programming education, live lectures, recorded lectures.