Impact of Video Lectures on Students' Performance and Analysis of Viewer Demographics in Online Courses

The objectives of this study were to validate the effectiveness of using instructional videos in online introductory accounting courses and to examine how specific student characteristics relate to online video-viewing behavior. Data were collected from ten online course sections of introductory financial accounting taught by two different instructors in the fall 2021 and spring 2022 semesters (n = 240). Students were instructed, but not required, to watch faculty-recorded instructional videos before completing the homework assignments and assessments for each topic. Students' percentage of course videos viewed and final course grades were analyzed. The relationships between students' video-viewing behavior and the student characteristics of gender, program major, age, degree level, ethnicity, and GPA, were also analyzed. The findings clearly show that viewing faculty-recorded instructional videos significantly impacts actual student performance. Students' age and the percentage of videos viewed are weakly but positively correlated, whereas students' GPAs and the percentage of videos viewed are significantly correlated. The final contribution is a predictive multivariable model that can predict student outcomes based on the significant predictors of GPA and the percentage of videos viewed. This paper contributes empirical data about using faculty-recorded videos in asynchronous, online accounting courses.