Recordings encourage students to stay home

Jenny Naoroji still prefers to be at lectures in person, when she can. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Students skipping lectures in favour of watching recordings online have been flagged as a concern in a review of the University of Auckland's Bachelor of Commerce degree.

The university's council has been updated on progress towards recommendations made after a review of its third-largest undergraduate degree, completed last September.

One issue was a drop in attendance at lectures since many were recorded and made available online.

Most business lecture theatres are equipped with recording technology and all Stage I lectures are recorded.

The review committee noted that while students appreciated the online recordings, they acknowledged the availability was an incentive to miss lectures. Staff had noticed a reduction in attendance.

"Lecture recordings should not become a substitute for lecture attendance ... and teaching styles should respond to this added opportunity for learning," the committee noted.

Large class sizes were another issue, with even Stage III class numbers reaching up to 420.

Students were concerned about class sizes and related tutorials, the review noted.

"We were told that the large enrolments in most courses have led to a reduction in the number of tutorials and seminar-type classes, an increase in their size and a decline in marking-intensive assessments."

Business student Jenny Naoroji, 21, yesterday said she occasionally relied on the recordings when she missed a lecture. "It tends to be quite helpful, depending on what courses you take. Some of them tend to be at quite annoying times."

However, she found doing so meant she missed out on extra detail and still preferred the real thing.