Do online instructor lessons complement on-campus teaching?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of online video mini-lectures, intended to complement in-class teaching by allowing students to review the more technical aspects of the course. Design/methodology/approach – Online video mini-lectures/tutorials, covering the technical components of the course, were introduced two-thirds of the way through a Principles of Microeconomics course. This methodology allows for the estimation of the impact of incorporating this technology on student performance. In addition, comparisons using results from previous terms, in which these videos were not available at any point during the course, allow for an examination of the overall impact of this technology on student performance in the last portion of the course. Findings – The results point to online lectures improving student achievement, but that this improvement is mostly achieved by the lower achieving students, and exhibits significant diminishing returns to the number of times the videos are watched. As such, the videos are shown to help students who were struggling with the material, but that there is little value to exclusively watching the videos multiple times. Originality/value – As technology impacts higher education, many wonder what role instructors will play. This study examines a unique implementation of technology within a traditional classroom, indicating that technology can serve as a complement to in-class teaching.