Abstract:

The relationship between lecture attendance and students’ course performance has been grabbing attention. Previous studies have shown some positive correlation. What’s the situation in my class and has the situation changed with the going pandemic?

The present study aims to investigate students’ self-reported attendance, the reasons why they are attending or not attending lectures, their study habit, and their course performance in an Animal Physiology class over the past 5 years. This period covers the pre-pandemic period with face-to-face classes, the pandemic period with ZOOM classes and the pandemic period with the resumption of face-to-face classes. Lecture recordings have been in place throughout and students could have free access to these recordings via our eLearning platform on Blackboard. Data were collected on a voluntary basis via a final survey conducted on Blackboard every year after the final examination.

Over the years, there have been students who believe attending lectures are their responsibility, they would try their best to attend every time; some indicated that they treasured the interaction in class; while others would have all sorts of excuses and believe that watching lecture recordings afterwards would make no difference. Results showed that high-achievers usually have high lecture attendance, but high lecture attendance does not guarantee a good grade. There were students with high lecture attendance who scored pretty low. It could be that their performance would be even worse if they were not showing up in class.

Keywords:

Lecture attendance, study habit, lecture recording, course performance.