A new paper by myself and my e-learning colleague Ian Hutt has just been published by the Higher Education Research and Development Journal.  The article,  Enhancing large class teaching: a systematic comparison of rich media materials , reports on a pilot project at the University of Manchester to supplement face-to-face lectures with a set of rich media materials.  The context of the study is a very large, highly internationalised taught MSc programme in the UK with over 85% non-native English speakers. The rich media materials focused on the teaching of core concepts as well as capturing the full-lecture delivery, and comprised audio podcasts, audio narrated slides, and short video segments with supporting slides. We investigated how students used the various materials and which they preferred.  We found that students overwhelmingly found these rich media materials helpful, using them as revision guides and supplements to lecture notes rather than as a replacement for lecture attendance. Students rated most highly the full-lecture videos followed by audio narrated slides.

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