During remote learning, students conducted all their learning activities via a computer and instructors often provided notes, slides, and lecture recordings. As we return to a new academic year, what should stay? In this series we address major questions educators face and provide evidence-informed answers.
Should you make slides/notes available?
What some faculty may think:
Students will pay less attention.
What some students may think:
I can pay more attention.
Pros: What the evidence suggests:
- Provides more time to think about the material, highlights what is important, provides a template to take better notes, and listen more to the instructor.
- Does not negatively affect attendance.
- Increased inclusivity for students with ADHD/learning disabilities, student-athletes, and those who cannot attend.
Cons: What the evidence suggests:
- Can be distracting, confusing, leads to less attention, and hurts coding of new information.
- Students given slides may do worse on exams.
- Slides may lead to less and lower quality note taking.
Bottom Line
Slides and notes can vary in clarity, complexity, and length so a blanket prescription is difficult to test. Limiting access to notes has no deleterious effects on learning and may prompt more attention and better note taking (Grant,et al.,2021).
In General:
The effectiveness of your pedagogical choices on learning depend on a number of factors (e.g., the educator and student characteristics, discipline, course level, lecture, & slide quality). Be intentional, transparent, and compassionate in pedagogical decision making. It always pays to be CCOMFE (Compassionate, Clear, Organized, Multi-faceted, Flexible, and Engaging).
Full References
Onward to Better: Considerations for Fall 2021 Teaching
Resources:
Gurung, R. A. R. (2020, June 10). Pandemic Teaching: Getting CCOMFE for the long ride ahead [web blog].
Technology:
Morehead, K., Dunlosky, J., & Rawson, K. A. (2019). How much Mightier is the pen than the keyboard FOR Note-Taking? A replication and extension of Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014). Educational Psychology Review, 31(3), 753–780.
Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159–1168.
Urry, H. L., Crittle, C. S., Floerke, V. A., Leonard, M. Z., Perry, C. S. III, Akdilek, N., Albert, E. R., Block, A. J., Bollinger, C. A., Bowers, E. M., Brody, R. S., Burk, K. C., Burnstein, A., Chan, A. K., Chan, P. C., Chang, L. J., Chen, E., Chiarawongse, C. P., Chin, G., . . . Zarrow, J. E. (2021). Don't ditch the laptop just yet: A direct replication of Mueller and Oppenheimer’s (2014) study 1 plus mini meta-analyses across similar studies. Psychological Science, 32(3), 326–339.
Lecture Recordings
Banerjee, S. (2021). To capture the research landscape of lecture capture in university education. Computers & Education, 160, Article 104032.
Drouin, M. A. (2014). If you record it, some won’t come: Using capture in introductory psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 41(1), 11–19.
Ishak, T., Kurniawan, R., & Zainuddin, Z. (2020). The role of pre-class asynchronous online video lectures in flipped-class instruction: Identifying students perceived need satisfaction. Journal of Pedagogical Research, 4(1), 1–11.
Noetel, M., Griffith, S., Delaney, O., Sanders, T., Parker, P. D., del Pozo Cruz, B., & Lonsdale, C. (2020). Video improves learning in higher education: A systematic review. Review of Educational Research.
Nordmann, E., Küepper-Tetzel, C. E., Robson, L., Phillipson, S., Lipan, G. I., & McGeorge, P. (2020). Lecture capture: Practical recommendations for students and instructors. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology. Advance online publication.
Slides/Notes
Grant, N. K., & McGrath, A. L. (2021). Effects of powerpoint slides on attendance and learning: If you share it, they will (still) come. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology.
Kiewra, K. A. (1989). A review of note-taking: The encoding-storage paradigm and beyond. Educational Psychology Review, 1, 147–172.
Marsh, E. J., & Sink, H. E. (2009). Access to handouts of presentation slides during lecture: Consequences for learning. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24(5), 691–706.
Noppe, I. (2007). PowerPoint presentation handouts and college student learning outcomes. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 1(1), 1–3.
Worthington, D. L., & Levasseur, D. G. (2015). To provide or not to provide course powerpoint SLIDES? The impact of instructor-provided Slides upon student attendance and performance. Computers & Education, 85, 14–22.
Untimed/Open Book Tests
Agarwal, P. K., & Roediger, H. L. (2011). Expectancy of an open-book test decreases performance on a delayed closed-book test. Memory, 19(8), 836–852.
Durning, S. J., Dong, T., Ratcliffe, T., Schuwirth, L., Artino, A. R., Jr., Boulet, J. R., & Eva, K. (2016). Comparing open-book and closed-book examinations: A systematic review. Academic Medicine, 91(4), 583–599.
Gernsbacher, M. A., Soicher, R. N., & Becker-Blease, K. A. (2020). Four empirically based reasons not to administer time-limited tests. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 6(2), 175–190.
Rummer, R., Schweppe, J., & Schwede, A. (2019). Open-book versus closed-book tests in university classes: A field experiment. Frontiers in Psychology, 10.
Stowell, J. R., & Bennett, D. (2010). Effects of online testing on student exam performance and test anxiety. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 42(2), 161–171.