Research on the student and staff experience of lectures

1. Research on the student and staff experience of lectures Margaret O’Quigley Undertaken Nov 2009-March 2010

2. Original Idea: Examine the student view of their lectures • Particular focus on PowerPoint • How effective is PP? • How effective are lectures themselves? • Do different student groups respond differently?

3. Background to lecture research • A host of national reports in the 1980’s challenged universities to change from their traditional approaches so that students would be transformed from passive listeners to active learners. • “Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much just by sitting in class listening to lecturers” (Chickering and Gamson, 1987) • Response from universities seems to have been to make a PP presentation the default position.

4. Importance of lectures to the student? • In a 3 year undergraduate course at ARU a typical student will take 288 hours of lectures • 384 hours of tutorials

5. Importance of lectures to the lecturer? • Lecturers at ARU do broadly 3 things: Teaching Research Admin-management • Are all three equally valued?

6. Why good teaching matters • Good teaching: • Increases motivation • Engenders positive attitudes to learning • Leads to a decrease in absenteeism • Will lead to students achieving more • May improve module evaluation

7. Original Approach • Observation of lectures • Statistical collection of data • Questionnaire to students Immediately after lecture/one week later • Questionnaire to staff • Focus groups

8. BUT • Sent email to all lecturers in Business School • Few lecturers were willing to participate • Quickly realised observation changed the experience

9. Questionnaire Design • Widened interest to view of lectures/seminars in general as well as PowerPoint in particular • Questionnaire given to both staff and students

10. Respondents: Students English 1stLang: 62% 137 replied • Under 21: 45% • 21-30 42% • Over 31 12% • UK: 62% • EU: 27% • Int: 10% Cambridge: 32% Chelmsford: 65% • Female: 59% • Male: 41%

11. Respondents: Staff 32 replied • Under 25 0% • 25-40 9% • 41-50 38% • Over 50 50% • F/T: 75% • P/T: 20% • Female: 38% • Male: 59% • Chelmsford: 60% • Cambridge: 25%

12. Respondents: Staff • Years at ARU <5 9% 6-10 31% 11-15 25% 15+ 33%

13. Ethical Issue • Staff Named: • To tell them or not to tell them?

14. Findings: Perceptions of Students v Lecturers. • Agree/Strongly agree: (%) Stud Staff • Look Forward to lectures 66 87 • Lectures are stimulating 58 80 • Lectures help me understand 76 100 • Behaviour of stud’s a prob’ 65 34 • Tut’s more effective than lect’s 66 58

15. Differences between views of staff and students Words to describe your lecturesStudents Staff “Inspiring” 18% 25% “Stimulating” 26% 60% “Death by PowerPoint” 25% 0%

16. Some other views of students • 41% viewed lectures as boring • 32% find it hard to concentrate for 1 hour • 26% do not look forward to lectures • 38% think lecturers speak too quickly • 46% believe that they have attended more than one memorable lecture • 62% found lectures helpful

17. Why Students find their lectures memorable • Enthusiasm of lecturer • Personality of lecturer • Real examples • Jokes • Subject itself • For negative reasons

18. Student experience of PowerPoint • PowerPoint could be a great tool 83% • Just reads the slides 20% • Too much info’ on each slide 20% • Too many slides 34% • Find slides hard to read 20%

19. 42 Free text comments on PP • Over use/over reliance • Poor/ineffective use • Poor lecturers hide behind PP

20. Staff views on PP • Usually use PP 78% • “Just a fancy overhead” 25% • PP overused 91% • Can be a powerful learning tool 85%

21. Staff: If you don’t use PP, why not? • Lack of internet connection 28% • Lack of expertise 16% • Technology unreliable 25% • Technological support unreliable 25% • Trad’ methods more effective 10%

22. Staff: Training on PP • Zero/Self taught 70% • Some but minimal 10% • Yes, ECDL 9% • Not answered 9%

23. Reasons given by lecturers on why PP is best way to lecture • You can cover more course content in the time available • Devising alternative active learning strategies takes too much time • Large class sizes means PP is the only practical method • There is a lack of materials/technology needed to support alternative approaches • Students are reluctant to participate in more active methods

24. Some conclusions • Both students and staff generally enjoy the experience of lectures • There are some clear differences between the perceptions of staff and those of students with staff being more positive • Staff lack training on use of PP. • Behaviour of some students is having a negative effect on the experience of other students. This is underestimated by staff

25. More conclusions • Technology is perceived as being unreliable • PP is useful but not the answer to producing an effective lecture. Alternatives should be considered. • We need to be aware of the research on students’ attention span • Implications if it is true that the most important factor in a memorable lecture is the enthusiasm and personality of lecturer?

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