Publication type
Journal Article
Author
Publication date
October 4, 2024
Summary:
In this paper we use new experimental data to investigate students’ preferences regarding lecture mode and length, and assessment type across two unique dimensions: expected learning and enjoyment. Our main findings are as follows: first, students demonstrate a strong preference against online lectures. Students expect to learn more from, and enjoy, modules that have in-person lectures. Given that one-third of lectures in UK universities are now taught online—up from 4 percent before the pandemic—these results indicate a misalignment with students’ preferences. Second, students favour shorter lectures (1 h) over longer lectures (2 h). Students do not expect to learn more from longer lectures—suggesting diminishing expected marginal returns. Third, students prefer individual assignments to exams. Students expect to enjoy and learn more from modules that have individual assignments (as opposed to exams). These findings are robust across two samples of university students.
Published in
Discover Education
Volume
Volume: 3:167
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-024-00270-z
ISSN
27315525
Subjects
Notes
Open Access
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
#588441