1. No. But they can be as effective.
Do Recorded Modules Work Better Than Live Lectures For Teaching Basic Legal Research To International Students?*
No.
But they can be as effective.
Jane Bahnson, J.D., M.S.L.S.
Lucie Olejnikova, J.D., M.L.S.
Goodson Law Library
Duke Law School
*Supported in part by a research grant from AALL

2. The Research Questions
Would a self-paced pre-recorded module produce better information retention by our International LLM students than a live lecture?
Can we identify groups of students who would benefit from using a self-paced recorded module in place of a live lecture?

3. From the literature review:
What material is best suited to a recorded module?
What module format works best?
Are there cultural differences in learning styles?
What is the best way to measure information retention?

4. Our study design Isolate one section of the legal research curriculum
Create a Powerpoint slideshow for the live lecture and to use as the “backbone” for the self-paced module
Divide the students into an experimental and a control group
Prepare an anonymous assessment, including questions that both test retention of the material and reveal demographic information

5. Sub-Groups: Age Range, Regional Area of Origin, Legal System in Home Country

6. Module Had One Central Slide, linked to four subsections.
Menu allowed skipping ahead or repeating; notes included narration

7. Powerpoint presentation of the same slides

8. What we found Live lecture Recorded Module Number of students 48 45
Live lecture
Recorded Module
Number of students 48 45
Average score
14.75
14.73

9. Both groups missed the same questions in roughly equivalent numbers.*
* Questions 4, 7, 13, 17, and 20 were unique to the test material.

11. The largest groups showed equivalent results.
Region
Number
The largest groups showed equivalent results.

12. Correct Questions by Home Country Legal System
No significant difference in scores based on home legal system.

13. Module Use 73% read along with the narration
22% watched it more than once
84% thought it was a useful way to learn the material
100% of those who responded watched it on a desktop or laptop computer (1 also watched on a tablet, no one watched on iPhone)

14. Our Conclusions From the results:
Module did not work better than live lecture when it came to information retention
No subgroup benefitted more from one method than the other
From the process:
Modules are well accepted by students
Modules can be effective
Creating modules is time-intensive- could that time be better spent?