Effectiveness of Video Lecturing Technology in ICT Learning

This thesis studies large-scale initiatives that support the use of video lecturing in teaching and presents a system for using video lectures and for integrating them to courses in a Moodle learning management system. The main emphasis of the thesis is in the implementation of video lectures and the analysis of the learning results through video lectures. Also, the influence of using video lectures in teaching is evaluated by comparing the learning of student groups with and without the possibility of using video lectures. Effectiveness of video lecturing has been studied by comparing the average exam points acquired by different student groups. First an introduction to video lectures and typical ways of using them in large-scale initiatives is presented. Also the challenges and possible ways to optimize the use of video lecturing are examined. Then the thesis describes possible ways to produce screencast to be used as video lectures and presents the method used to create these video lectures for an experimental course dealing with information technology systems and devices. The distribution of the video lectures to the students and the implementation to the Moodle learning management system are also described. The last part of the thesis focuses on analysing the use of video lectures and the exam results with three different student groups that used video lecturing material and one group without such possibility. Each group of students that used video lectures used them in different way. The result was that the benefits of using video lectures alone were not found to result in better exams results in the experimental course between groups with or without video lectures. However, at the same time the student inquiry clearly showed that video lecturing made studying more convenient for the students. Also the influence of time and place independent learning enabled by video lectures for youth students shows positively in the exam results