Students’ Perceptions of Webcast Lectures and Online Video Materials: Results of a Survey at a Higher Education Institution in Singapore

Abstract

Background: More institutions are integrating technology within their curriculum with increasing frequency, premised upon the school’s idealised expectations of students’ needs. However, many studies have shown that despite the availability of online resources, these resources take a supplementary role to traditional modes of curriculum delivery. This study therefore aims to confirm whether the practice of using online resources as mere supplementary instead of primary material exists within the Singaporean context for online learning. We also aimed to find out the real needs and expectations of students with regards to online learning resource, specifically video materials.

Methods: A questionnaire was designed and administered at the beginning of the academic year to students enrolled in Life Science, Pharmacy, Nursing, and Medicine undergraduate degree programmes at the National University of Singapore (NUS). We then compared the data across years and disciplines.

Results: Majority of the students still preferred traditional modes of curriculum delivery such as live lectures and lectures notes as opposed to relatively newer modes such as webcast videos. Most students also report watching webcast videos in less than half of their lectures. They also tend to use webcasts as a supplement to their live lectures. With regards to webcast lectures, students preferred improvements in audio and visual quality of the videos, and indicated a need for subtitles and the provision of lecture summaries.

Conclusion: Our results confirm the common practice seen in many studies which investigated student preferences and usage for webcast videos. A factor to why this trend may exist is due to technological issues that may be a barrier to the webcast lectures’ accessibility and usability, as well as institutional norms.