Understanding student use of resources in "rich-media" courses

There is a current trend in course development to increase the number of “rich-media” items available to students; these include items like key-concept videos, interactive activities and quizzes, and even captures of the full lectures. It is therefore important to understand which of these resources students use and gain value from so that we can target the best resources for student learning.

This paper looks at several courses taught in the School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science at The University of Manchester to several year groups; including lecture based courses, distance learning courses, and non-lecture based activities; that contain “rich-media” resources. The use of these items by students is examined; including number of uses, time of use, and local retention. The student opinion on the items and how they felt has affected their learning is also analysed. This allows results to be presented on the most useful types of resource for students providing information for future development.