Relationship between lecture capture usage and examination performance of undergraduate bioscience students

Lecture capture recordings of audio together with video images of slides are widely used in higher education institutions. Lecture capture is highly valued by students. However, the effect of lecture capture usage on student learning is not well understood and is the subject of some controversy. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between lecture capture usage and examination performance of undergraduate students in order to test the hypothesis that students who use lecture capture recordings more extensively perform better in their end of module examinations. The hypothesis was tested using data from students enrolled on a range of second-year (stage 2) and third-year (stage 3) bioscience modules and fitted to linear mixed models considering potential confounding from gender, nationality and disability status. The results showed that there was no relationship between lecture capture usage and examination performance in this cohort of students. However, a recorded disability and non-UK nationality were both moderately predictive of poorer performance. These findings suggest that lecture capture has neither a positive nor a negative effect on academic performance. This raises a question over the value of providing lecture capture at higher education institutions.