Investigating students’ use of lecture videos: Learning analytics vs. self-evaluation surveys

This presentation examines students’ use of lecture videos through two approaches -- (1) students’ real usages of lecture videos as collected from Blackboard, a learning management system which can track students’ activities and store every click in its backend database or in the web server log file, and (2) a self-evaluation of students’ study strategies in the course survey at the end of the semester.   This study was conducted in a fully online psychology course taught in Fall 2014, Summer 2015, and Fall 2015. The course included 76 streaming lecture videos ranging from 3.5 to 30 minutes. A comparison between these two sets of data was examined and discussed in this presentation.The preliminary analysis revealed that most students’ study strategies reported on the survey were consistent with their real usages on the Blackboard course site.  However, survey data could not explain which lecture videos students had watched and how frequently students watched videos. Learning analytics can support instructors in understanding how students used videos, when they watched, and which videos were watched most.  The data also implied that students’ final grades and learning satisfaction associated with their usage of lecture videos.  As compared to survey data, the evidence indicated that learning analytics can give more detailed and accurate descriptions about students’ learning behaviors. This presentation will share the limitations of either method. This presentation will benefit both undergraduate and graduate courses whose instructors plan to use surveys or learning analytics to understand their students’ learning behaviors and study strategies.