Undergraduate mathematics students’ reasons for attending live lectures when recordings are available

With the proliferation of new affordable recording technologies, many universities have begun offering students recordings of live lectures as a part of the course resources. We conducted a survey to investigate why some students choose to attend lectures in person rather than simply watching the recordings online, and how students view the two types of lectures. Students attending live lectures in five large undergraduate mathematics lecture streams were invited to respond to the survey. A significant number of respondents viewed recorded lecture as superfluous to their needs which were met upon attending live lecture. Surprisingly, however, an equally large number of students described compelling reasons for watching both live and recorded lectures. A number of factors were identified as determining students’ perceptions of live and recorded lectures as competing or complementary: personal learning styles, study habits, esteem for the lecturer, and the possibility of interaction in the lecture.