CONTEXT: In many higher education institutions, it has become routine to digitally capture traditional classroom lectures and automatically make those recordings available to enrolled students after the classes to view at any time and in any place. Whilst the use of lecture recording (it is also referred to as lecture capture) has been studied extensively, much is still unknown, particularly in the Engineering discipline, about students’ perception and use of lecture recording and its impact on their academic attainment in different classroom sizes. Additionally, there is an emerging concern by the educators on how the lack of students’ in-class attendance, as a result of lecture recording, may affect their active and experiential learning experience. As a consequence, students who do not attend lectures would fully or partially miss out on the activities (such as in-classroom experiments, model displays, group discussions, etc.) which are designed to improve their learning experience.

PURPOSE OR GOAL: The goal of this study was to understand the correlation between Engineering students’ perception and use of lecture recording, and their academic performance in different classroom sizes with the view of improving lecture recording features and students’ success. In particular, the correlation between academic performance, attendance (in-person engagement) and remote engagement (using lecture recording) was investigated in small and large undergraduate Engineering Knowledge and skill based (analytical-based) courses, involving in-class active and/or experimental activities, where students had access to recorded lectures.

APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODS : This study was conducted across two Australian universities, Griffith University (Nathan campus) with small classroom size, Griffith University (Gold Coast campus) with large classroom size and Queensland University of technology with large classroom size. The focus was on undergraduate Engineering Knowledge and skill based (analytical-based) courses, involving use of active and/or experiential learning approaches, being taught as a part of Civil Engineering programs. All classrooms were equipped with lecture-capture technology using the Echo360 system and links to the lectures were made available immediately after each class. Students in-class attendance was taken by the instructors. Towards the end of the course, instructors announced in class and posted in their course website, a link to an online questionnaire to investigate students’ perception and use of the lecture recordings. This data was then compared with analytic data available in Echo360 and students’ overall course marks.

ACTUAL OR ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES: The paper reports the results of an investigation that was conducted to find the correlation between Engineering students’ perception and use of lecture recording, and their academic academic success. It presents the effects of different classroom sizes. Additionally, it presents some of the potential shortcomings of the lecture recording and suggest some appropriate strategies to improve the lecture recordings towards excelling students’ success.

CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SUMMARY: The paper presents the outcomes of the study that was undertaken to gain insight on the undergraduate students’ perception and use of lecture recording and its impact on their academic success with the view of identifying the improvements that need to be made on digitally capturing traditional classroom lectures.