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Post 424: Which is better, a Live Lecture, or a Recorded Lecture?

 Which is better, a Live Lecture, or a Recorded Lecture for College Online Learners?

I have worked for two different kinds of online schools. I have worked for a school that is completely online where the students choose to go to an online school for their college education. I have also worked for an online school where students chose to go to that school for face to face learning, but due to the pandemic for safety reasons, these face to face students suddenly had to pivot to online learning.

When I taught at the online school where students chose to get an online education, you can have either a live lecture or a recorded lecture. Students who choose to have an online education do well with either kind of lecture. If I record a lecture, students can watch the recorded lecture any time, and still get a good grade. When a student chooses to go to an all online school, he/she knows that all his classes will be online, and are prepared for the challenge of online learning once they learn how to navigate the online classroom. Students at the all online school don't mind having either a Live Lecture or a Recorded Lecture. Both work well with this student population.

However, face to face students who suddenly have to pivot to online learners due to a pandemic hands down prefer a live lecture. After all, these face to face students chose to go to a face to face school because they want the direct interaction of the teacher; they want direct instruction; instant feedback from the teacher; and physical interaction with other students in order to learn.

The face to face students who have had to pivot to online education may lack the skills to learn online. They tend to be hands-on learners who learn by doing, feeling, and touching what they are learning directly which is why they chose face to face learning in the first place. When their school pivoted suddenly to online teaching, many saw their grades go down because they are not used to an online environment, and do not like learning in an online environment since they crave the one-on-one contact of the teacher rather than the impersonal feel of a distant online teacher.

When I teach these pivoted face to face students, they love it when I give them live Zoom Lectures because when I give my live Zoom Lectures, they get the direct instruction, physical contact, and social interaction with students that they need as hands on learners to learn the core concepts of the class. These pivoted face to face students do not learn well if just given a recorded lecture. They need to be able to interact directly with the lesson to learn the lesson. For these students, I give them more Zoom Live Lectures, and I have them interact directly with me as I teach the lesson for that is the only way many will learn the core concepts of the class.

Many students at UCLA were dismayed when UCLA went totally remote because they missed their live college lectures with their UCLA professors. They missed the direct interaction with their teachers, and with their classmates. Many parents demanded a refund since many parents felt students would not learn as much from an online classroom.

Therefore, if you are teaching at a university that suddenly went online due to the pandemic, you will need to do more Zoom Live Lectures to help your pivoted face to face online students get the direct instruction they may need to succeed. For these pivoted face to face online students, I give a lot more Live Lectures than recorded lectures. For these students, I only have recorded lectures so students who could not make the Live Lectures could watch the recording.

If you teach at a traditional all online school, then you can give either a live or a recorded lecture and students will love it either way. I used to give live lectures for office hours mainly when I taught at an all online school. And I tended to use and re-use my recorded lectures at the all online school, and students did not mind at all whether they interact or not, they learned just as well. The students at the all online school love interacting in the online classroom, and this population of students chose an all online school due to its convenience and the ability for students to learn across different time zones and different adult schedules, so these students value convenience over having a live lecture.