“A More Personal Way to Learn During Such an Isolating Time”: The Value of Live Lectures in Online Teaching

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a shift to online teaching, which has dramatically affected all facets of the student experience. In this practice report, we reflect on the synchronous delivery of a popular final-year module “Face Perception” in a United Kingdom (UK) psychology undergraduate degree. In the module, students learned via live lectures hosted on the virtual learning environment and content was consolidated interactively using online polls and small group discussions. We collected students’ qualitative feedback on the live lecture delivery (n=28), from which we observed three core themes: technology-enhanced engagement, logistical barriers, and togetherness in live lectures. Taken together, this feedback suggests that whilst there are additional technological and logistical challenges that must be navigated in the delivery of “live” online lectures, they can be useful in instilling a sense of togetherness online. This is particularly important, given the threats to student success and engagement that COVID-19 poses.

A WIN-WIN SOLUTION FOR MUTUAL BENEFIT AND PROSPERITY

Dear Reader, Nobel Laureate Prof. Amartya Sen cites a story of three children, Anne, Bob and Carla. Prof. Sen quotes Aristotle and Bentham too while narrating the story, I heard from Prof (Dr.) James Nedumpara at his recent live lecture at Jindal Global Law School. This story fascinated me and it goes like this. Clara worked hard to successfully build a flute. Anne knows to play the flute, but Clara does not know to play the flute. Bob, the third child, does NOT have any toys to play with, so he wants the flute. All the children are claimants to the flute. Prof. Sen and many legal luminaries quote many legal theories such as Libertarianism, Utilitarianism, Egalitarian and also try to distinguish between “Niti and Nyaya” to resolve this problem, as to who merits (deserts and deserve) to keep the flute.

ON THE RECORD: STUDENT MOTIVATIONS FOR RECORDING LECTURES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING

Prior to the pandemic, a second-year engineering course was delivered using a blended synchronous format. Students were surveyed on many aspects of their experience with this format including their use of recorded lectures. Participants reported both recording and watching behaviour: 30% of students watched recorded lectures with students watching or recording at least half of the lectures throughout the semester. From the results, recording of the lectures offers an increase in the final grade of, on average, 9.5% (p=0.0071) for both lowattending and high attending students. While attending most synchronous lectures tends to yield overall better performance (on average, 14.4%, p=0.0001), low attending students can overcome part of that gap by reviewing recorded lectures. Motivations for recording were associated with scheduling conflicts that prevented participants from attending the live lecture and participants wanting to review the material afterwards. Generally, students chose not to record the lectures because of a perceived barrier to doing so or a perception that their existing lecture notes were sufficient. Post pandemic, it may be beneficial to incorporatelecture recording with face-to-face lectures to allow students the additional benefit of reviewing lecture material and increasing student access to lecture content.

MA STUDENTS’ VIEWS ON THE LECTURERS’ USE OF POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS IN ONLINE LIVE LECTURES DURING THE COVID-19 LOCKDOWN

PowerPoint Presentations have been one of the content delivery tools used heavily by the lecturers in online live lectures during the Covid-19 lockdown. They were chosen by the lecturers for the delivery of the lessons with the belief that they provide an effective visual support and organization of the content. However, do students have the same views on the use of PowerPoint presentations? The study aimed to present the views of MA students’ on the lecturers’use of PowerPoint presentations during online live lectures.To meet the aim of this research, qualitative research method was used. Data obtained fromstructured interviews which consisted of 4 open-ended questions. Participants presented their views on the use of Power Point presentations during live lectures in terms of positive and negative sides mentioning the problems, if any, and their suggestions to those problems.The study group was comprised of 16 MA students who were studying at Near East University during the Spring term of the academic year 2019-2020.Results of the research indicated that in MA students’ views, the use of materials presented through PowerPoint proves to be practical in the lesson, offers visual richness while at the same time providing efficient monitoring and evaluation. Key words: PowerPoint presentations, online live lecture, Covid-19