Exploring the Consequences on Memory of Students Who Know They Have Access to Recorded Lectures.

Objective. To elucidate how students' knowledge of future access to recorded lectures impacts their ability to immediately recall, to delay recall, and to restudy information. Methods. Seventy-eight participants were randomly divided into two groups: knowledge of future access to recorded lectures after class and knowledge of no future access to recorded lectures after class. Participants viewed two mini lectures (10-12 minutes each) in a simulated classroom. Participants were told whether they would or would not be able to restudy lectures through future access to the recorded lectures just prior to their test one week later. Participants were tested immediately following the lectures and after a one-week delay. Prior to the delayed test, participants restudied one of the two lectures. The primary outcome was the participants' performance on the lecture material following immediate testing. Secondary outcomes included performance on delayed tests, performance after restudying the lectures and note-taking behavior. Results. Having access to a recorded lecture did not influence immediate recall. One week after the simulated class, reviewing videos did improve performance (d∼.70). Participants with knowledge of no future access forgot less information (d=.42) over time compared to the group that knew they had future access (d=.53); even though this latter group wrote longer notes. Conclusion. These findings suggest that there is no mnemonic-benefit to having knowledge of access to recorded classes. Reviewing recorded lectures did improve scores on an immediate test. However, participants with knowledge they had access to the recorded lectures to restudy them had larger effect sizes for loss of material.

Recorded Lectures as a Source of Cognitive Off-loading.

Objective. To assess and elucidate the impact of student pharmacists' knowledge of future access to recorded lectures on their ability to remember information presented during lecture. Methods. Pharmacy students viewed 50 minutes of videotaped lecture in a simulated class period. For the early lecture material, participants were instructed as to whether or not they would have future access to the recorded lectures for restudy prior to their test one week later. For the late lecture material, participants were instructed they would not have future access to lecture material. Participants were tested immediately following the lectures and again one week later. The primary outcome was the participants' performance on the examination administered immediately following presentation of the late lecture material. If participants had preserved cognitive resources (eg, memory, attention) because of knowledge they would have future access to recorded lectures, performance was expected to be higher on the late lecture material. Results. Overall performance on the examinations did not differ between participants who knew they would have access to the lecture material for later restudy and those who did not. There was, however, loss of knowledge over time. Participants with knowledge of future access to recorded lectures wrote more notes, which correlated with better performance on the examination. Conclusion. These findings suggest knowledge of future access to recorded lectures did not enhance the ability of participants to remember other information and therefore, may not free-up cognitive resources that could be used for other tasks within the classroom.