The Future of Education

The online lecture video has become a prevalent feature in the educational landscape with the rise of online learning environments. Therefore, it is important for educators to understand how specific features of online lecture videos affect student recall of content. A number of studies suggest that lecturer-generated summaries improve student recall. Other extant research indicates that the integration of a guest lecturer into traditional classroom settings is a beneficial educational practice. In the present study, we attempted to measure the effects of lecturer-generated summaries and the inclusion of a guest lecturer on students’ ability to recall online video lecture contents. To do so, a total of 113 subjects, recruited from seven sections of a graduate-level scientific writing course taught at a university in South Korea, were divided into three groups. The control group viewed 11 online lecture videos (groupings of 5 and 6 videos were respectively viewed in weeks 6 and 15 of the course), and these videos featured a lecturer speaking with PowerPoint slides in the background. Experimental group 1 viewed the same 11 videos as those of the control, with the addition of lecturer-generated summaries spliced into the middles and ends of the videos, respectively, and these were delivered by the same lecturer of the original video. Experimental group 2 viewed the same 11 videos as the control, but with the addition of lecturer-generated summaries respectively spliced into the middles and ends of the videos, and these were instead delivered by a guest lecturer. Student recall was measured through two online multiple-choice quizzes given during weeks 6 and 15 of the course, respectively.  The results of the study show that experimental group 1 significantly outperformed the other two groups, while no significant difference was found between the performances of the control and experimental group 2. The results suggest that lecturer-generated summaries help to improve student recall of online video lecture contents. However, the integration of a guest lecturer may interrupt viewer concentration and cause students to miss relevant information.

Keywords: Online lecture videos, Lecturer-generated summaries, Guest lecturer, Flipped classroom, Online learning