Lecture Capture Technology Helps Students Retain and Learn

Have you ever sat in a high school or college class furiously scribbling down the lecture your teacher is giving? For many students, the act of note-taking actually undermines the act of listening and they are often left dazed and confused by the end of class. "What was this lecture about again?" Trying to keep up with the words racing out of a teacher's mouth may actually be detrimental to the learning process. What information can a student possibly absorb when their primary focus is getting it all down on paper for later reference?

Jaqueline Moloney, executive vice-chancellor and head of online learning at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, decided to confront student's retainment issue by advocating for lecture capture technology in the classroom. Moloney wants students to do "less transcribing and more listening." In fact, she says, "you lose a lot of what the faculty is trying to teach you when you focus more on transcribing. With lecture capture, students don't feel nearly the pressure to take down every word."

A long-time staple of online education, lecture capture technology is the digitalized form of a teacher's lecture. Instead of physically sitting in a classroom to listen to the lecture students can watch a recorded version as many times as necessary. Many online colleges provide their students with a live-stream feature, a lecture that is occurring in real-time or podcasts, a series of pre-recorded lectures or lessons that can be downloaded for student use.

Moloney wants to make one of online education's greatest resources available in classrooms as well. Surprisingly, most ground schools don't utilize the lecture capture technology or offer any type of online lecture option. Because of this, Moloney is advocating for lecture technology implementation in UMass Lowell classrooms and classrooms nationwide.

Students in an introductory psychology class at the State University of New York (SUNY) who chose to watch a video lecture and take notes as opposed to sitting through the 30-minute lecture scored on average "15 points higher than their peers who did not."

Similarly, 9 out of 10 UMass Lowell students reported that video lectures available online helped them to better learn the class material. Notes Moloney, "with lecture capture, we find that students are able to focus and listen to what faculty members are explaining, versus having to scribble down every single word." Lecture capture technology- in the form of live-stream videos or podcasts is just one of the many benefits of online learning and one way that online learning technology is infiltrating ground-school classrooms.


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