Using Video Podcasts in Large Introductory Biology Classes

The goal of this project is to determine, of two uses of online audio-visual technology, which best promotes student learning by addressing common student misconceptions in introductory Biology. Multimedia vodcasts, which integrate audio, animation, and video, represent one such use of audio-visual technology. Multimedia class captures, which contain audio recordings of live classes along with visual material projected during the class, are the other.

In fall 2007, a pilot study was conducted to investigate implementation issues and other preliminaries. All students in Biology 1001, section 001, were given access to six multimedia vodcasts, six audio-only coursecasts, and twelve audio-visual class captures (which consisted of lecture audio along with overhead screen captures).

The overall research questions for this pilot study were:

How do students use online educational multimedia?
When do students use such media, how often, in what contexts, and in what ways?
Are students engaged by the media?
Do students find them easy to use?
Do students find them educationally useful?
What difficulties (technical or otherwise) do students encounter?

The methods used to investigate these questions were mid-term and post-class surveys along with an end-of-term focus group.

Results

General reception

Overall, the multimedia resources made available to students in this class were extremely well received. The custom vodcasts were particularly popular, with several students in the focus group praising their combination of audio and video and all students reporting that they were interesting, funny, and motivating. 61.4% of survey respondents rated the vodcasts highly or extremely useful in helping them to learn course material. No students in the focus group were enthusiastic about the audio-only podcasts; students were somewhat more interested in the class captures.

Technical problems

Apart from a minor issue with iTunes, no students reported any technical problems accessing or using any of the media. File size did not appear to be a problem.

How often multimedia resources were used

Survey results indicated that 76% of students used the vodcasts to at least some degree. Audio-only podcasts and class captures seemed to receive much less use.

How multimedia resources were used

In the focus group, all but one student reported using the media resources primarily for pre-exam review. Students seemed confused about the difference between obtaining media files through podcast subscriptions and through a web browser. Half of the students in the focus group reported viewing the vodcasts on mobile devices.